NIDA veteran Elizabeth Butcher ready to draw curtain on home of half a century

The varied performances from the stages of NIDA are celebrated at the Sydney home of its former general manager, Elizabeth Butcher.

Elizabeth Butcher at home with her dog, Paisley. Picture: John Feder

Shakespearean tragedies, Chekhov­ian worlds and Australian classics — the stages of NIDA have seen it all. The varied performances of the school are celebrated at the Sydney home of its former general manager, Elizabeth Butcher.

The walls of her staircase are covered in costume designs from the performing art school’s productions. One features a late colonial costume worn by alumni Mel Gibson, worn in a 1970s NIDA production of the Australian play, On Our Selection.

“They are all costumes designed by former students and I admired all their work,” she says.

The two-storey Paddington terrace that Ms Butcher shares with her labradoodle, Paisley, has been home for 50 years. Spacious and retaining the original Victorian styling, Ms Butcher added the second level in the 1980s — expanding the house to four bedrooms.

“I wanted to put a room in the attic, but Woollahra Council wouldn’t let me. So they said we’ll let you put on a second storey so you can be the same as your neighbours and it becomes a row of terraces,” she says.

Elizabeth Butcher’s appointment to the board of NAISDA followed her history as an avid collector of Indigenous artwork for more than 20 years. Picture: John Feder

Its central position allows for easy access to Sydney’s cultural institutions, where Ms Butcher spent her work life in arts administration — including serving as the Sydney Opera House chairman in the 1980s and working as a cultural adviser to the NSW government.

NIDA, where she worked as the general manager for 39 years, was the centre point of her career — the stream of “vicarious and talented students” being her greatest love in the role. When she was first appointed to the position in 1969, she moved from Greenwich in North Sydney to Paddington as a young woman.

“I had an old car, an Austin that my mother had given me and it used to boil on the bridge and I’d have to pull up,” she says.

“So I thought, this is hopeless and my father then agreed to support me once I found somewhere else to live and I found this.”

“When I was chairman of the Opera House it was so easy for me to go that way into NIDA or that way into the city to the Opera House. I never felt the need to move to anywhere else.”

In her retirement, Ms Butcher is on the boards of NAISDA, an Indigenous dance college on the NSW Central Coast and independent SCEGGS Darlinghurst, where she attended as a young girl.

“I spend most of my time in my office upstairs. Because I’m on a lot of boards I spend my time up there working or in the garden,” she says.

“I also love sitting out at the table in the garden and spreading out the newspaper ... it’s very peaceful and quiet, which I enjoy.”

Ms Butcher’s appointment to the board of NAISDA followed her history as an avid collector of Indigenous artwork for more than 20 years. The terrace’s hallway is adorned with the painting’s rich colour palettes.

“I just enjoy and love the work they do. For so many years and whenever I could, I bought a painting, I’ve been to Alice Springs many times and seen the artists at work,” she says.

Elizabeth Butcher at her home in Paddington. Picture: John Feder

Her most recent purchase, a painting by Evelyn Pultara (winner of the 2005 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award) hangs as the centrepiece of the living space — its swirling bold colours mirrored in the room’s rose-coloured couches and curtains.

The open-plan living space has been the centre of Ms Butcher’s social gatherings over the years.

“I would always have groups of parties outside and open up the doors. You can actually climb up on to the top of my garage and it was always a good space to watch the fireworks on New Year’s Eve so we’d always have a party up there,” she says.

The alfresco terrace is framed by a climbing and fragrant jasmine plant. On the other side stands a crepe myrtle, one of the original two trees in the garden when Ms Butcher purchased the home.

But Ms Butcher has decided to move on to a smaller apartment with lower maintenance and is auctioning her Goodhope Street, Paddington, house with price expectations of $3m. The marketing agent is Sam Hosking of The Agency.