Vale Camilla Laura Gregory Blunden, born Falmouth, Cornwall, 1944, died Cairns, August 17, 2025.

Members of Canberra’s theatre community have been saddened to learn of the death in Cairns on August 17 of theatre identity Camilla Blunden after complications from a lung infection. She was 81.

Camilla Laura Gregory was born in Falmouth, Cornwall in 1944 and moved to London, where she met Geoffrey Blunden, from Melbourne, at a dance, marrying him in Falmouth.

She emigrated to Australia with Geoffrey, first living in Melbourne where they had two children, then they all moved to Canberra, where she would spend most of her life.

Blunden was an actor-educator and unionist, praised by director of The Street Theatre, Caroline Stacey for her “huge commitment to Canberra and theatre-making here,” and by director-writer Peter Wilkins as “passionate about theatre and its role in changing lives and making the world a better, fairer, more just place for all.”

She became well known for her work with Jigsaw Theatre Company and as a director with Canberra Youth Theatre and later The Street Theatre, although she also acted and directed with numerous other companies and solo productions, notably with Women on A Shoestring, which she had co-founded with Robyn Alewood in 1979. Her last production was All this Living at The Street in 2016, about the experiences of older women in Canberra.

Her acting roles were legion and in her long career, she played everything from Ratty in The Wind in the Willows to a member of the French aristocracy in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

In day jobs at both at Parliament House and the National Film and Sound Archives, she helped bring history to life for students in a palatable, theatrical way.

Actor Tony Falla recalls that in 1996 Blunden approached him to play the Minister for Customs in an education video called Save the Scarlet Shouldered Parrot.

Blunden started to show signs of Alzheimer’s about five years ago and, after receiving home care and family support, eventually moving into aged care in Cairns for the last two years of her life.

She still retained her characteristic good humour and able to go out on drives to the beach and the botanic gardens, always telling those who asked, “I’m fine”.

After a lung infection in April, she suffered a decline in her quality of life before her peaceful death on the morning of August 17.

She is survived by her son and daughter, Damian and Hazel, younger brother, Gavin in Plymouth, Devon, UK, and her older brother Nigel in Brisbane, Australia. She was grandmother to Brodie and Jasmine, and aunt to Tamzin, Demelza, Hanno and Bethany, Nigel Jnr, Patrick Jnr, Ryan and Patricia.

There will be a memorial gathering for Camilla Blunden in Canberra on September 21, details to be confirmed.