The Dayboro Grapevine – Dayboro Art Gallery – October Edition

Enjoying our rich history, the Dayboro Art Gallery is pleased to highlight the work of one of Dayboro’s most interesting artists and former member of the gallery, Mac Vines. The gallery is delighted to show case Mac Vines Retrospective at our Open Night on Friday, 24th October 2025 from 4pm until 8pm. Max’s work will be on show until Sunday 26th October to give you the best opportunity to view his works. We thank his wife Helen for helping us bring this event into fruition.

Mac Vines moved into Lacey’s Creek with his family in the early 1990s and lived here until his passing in 2009. Born on the famous island of Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, in 1942, Mac came to Australia with his mum to meet up with his father in Singleton NSW. He completed his education there before heading to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea to be trained as an E Course teacher. After many adventures he returned to Singleton where he met Helen. Returning to PNG, they were married in Kaiapit. Over the coming years they lived in the Lae and Port Moresby area welcoming two children. Mac lived and taught in PNG over an adventurous 11 years.

Mac’s reputation as a cartoonist led him to begin his artistic career by illustrating schoolbooks for the government when he was working in the remote Morobe province. When Independence came, Mac and his family moved back to Brisbane with the idea of upgrading his credentials as a teacher at Kelvin Grove TAFE College. But by then Mac had got the cartooning bug and after he had finished his studies he walked into the Telegraph newspaper’s office with a portfolio of his work. Happily there was an illustrator’s job which had recently become vacant and liking his work the Telegraph offered him a job as their new cartoonist!

This was great timing for Mac, who landed the job as the Bjelke-Petersen era was coming to the fore. His daily job was lampooning the government, which appealed to his sense of humour. He also drew the popular ‘On the Selection’, the weekly cartoon strip. He loved his work as a newspaper cartoonist

particularly at the Telegraph.
At the time, he met and made friends with Alan Moir from the Courier-Mail, and they worked on a publication called “Joh’s Family Album” and published a book on Flo Bjelke-Petersen. Alan Moir said, “Mac loved to laugh and had an absurd sense of humour. His style, which was almost book-like suited the Telegraph very well”.

Following the closure of the Telegraph, Mac worked for the Sunday Mail and continued to illustrate various books and educational pamphlets over the years.
In the early 1990’s Mac and his family moved to Lacey’s Creek where he joined the Dayboro Art Gallery in its earlier version on the bank of Terrors Creek. Mac was also a keen painter and the Gallery is pleased to show a limited selection of his cartoons and paintings at our annual Open Night.

References: Courier Mail Obituaries December 17, 2009 and memories from his family. Collated with the assistance of Sharon Harper-Greentree.