Linda Jackson AO is a leading Australian fashion designer. Forty years ago, she shaped and redefined contemporary Australian fashion based on an eclectic mix of influences from India, Africa, and Asia.

In 2019 Cairns Art Gallery mounted an important exhibition entitled Linda Jackson: Tropical Design, which brought together exquisite and rarely seen textile designs from Jackson’s private collection and others inspired by her experiences of the tropics in Far North Queensland.

Jackson grew up in the beachside suburb of Beaumaris, Melbourne, and studied fashion at Emily McPherson College (now RMIT University) and photography at Prahran Technical College. In 1970 she embarked on an open-ended trip through Asia (which included Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines) and on to Turkey and Paris.

Soon after her return to Australia in 1972, Jackson established her fashion label, Linda Jackson. It was this first range of vintage and beach-inspired garments made from 1950s Hawaiian prints that caught the eye of Jenny Kee who was about to open her boutique, Flamingo Park, in the Stand Arcade, Sydney, in 1973. Over the next eight years the two gained international recognition as an innovative force in Australian fashion design.

In 1992, Jackson went to live in various remote communities in northern Australia, including Cairns and Port Douglas, to concentrate on her own painting and conducting textile workshops with indigenous communities.

Tropical Design traced Jackson’s unique creative processes including her use of stencils, and textile designs inspired by her many years visiting and living in Far North Queensland.

The Gallery purchased a range of Jackson’s textiles from the exhibition, and Jackson generously donated additional works to the Collection. Together these works complement the Gallery’s Collection of printed textiles relating to the region and the Gallery’s place within the world’s tropic zone.