Deborah Niland is the daughter of Australian writers, Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland. From an early age she developed an interest in art, and particularly illustration. A strong influence being the illustrations of Noela Young seen in the series of Muddleheaded Wombat books written by Ruth Park.
Deborah studied art at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney. While in London, Deborah and her sister Kilmeny began their art careers by illustrating a book for Transworld Publishers. Other books for this publisher followed over the years.
Mulga Bill's Bicycle was the illustrated book that became a classic. Published in 1973 in Sydney, it is still in print. In 2007, a new edition of this title was issued by HarperCollins Australia.
Deborah has illustrated many popular books including When the Wind Changed by Ruth Park and There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof eating Cake by Hazel Edwards. In 2005 Deborah wrote and illustrated Annie's Chair, This book, won the CBCA Book of the Year: Early Childhood in 2006.
She is presently working on more of her own author-artist productions.
