Daughter of Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland, Kilmeny was born in New
Zealand but educated in Sydney and studied art at the Julian Ashton Art
School there before taking off to London with sister Deborah, both working as
freelance artists. This led to a collaboration that produced The Little Goat
in 1971 when the twins were in their very early twenties. Then followed
publications that included two picture stories written by their mother;
illustrated novels such as Elizabeth Wilton's Riverview Kids; two of Jean
Chapman's collection of tales, songs, verses and things for young children
to make and do as well as Birds on a Bough (1975) which exemplifies the
Niland sense of humour - frivolous-looking birds crowding the bough
until it breaks. It exemplified the sisters' sense of the ridiculous, their
keen eye for caricature and clever but never hurtful burlesque.
