Celebrating the launch of Beyond Borders: The Life and Times of Kevin G. Hein, His Family and Their Ancestors, the Mount Gambier local spoke candidly to The Border Watch about his career, a lifetime of adventures at home and abroad and his outstanding contribution to the local arts community. This is the first instalment in a two part series.
KEVIN Hein’s Mount Gambier home reflects the colourful life of its occupant – an avid traveller with a passion for the arts.
Eclectic artefacts from across the globe are displayed in his living room, everything carefully curated and every item complemented by elegant furnishings that allude to Kevin’s decade-spanning career in decorating.
“His house is a work of art,” close friend Joe Schober told The Border Watch as he admired Kevin’s equally impressive garden.
“He has always had an eye for colour and interior design and he landscaped the garden himself.”
Kevin explained that a gold plated statue of a goddess, mounted on the wall above his balcony and overlooking his garden, was a relic from “old Mount Gambier”.
“She was the goddess above the stage at the Odeon when it was a cinema,” Kevin said.
“When they turned it into the bowling alley they had me in to do some of the colour schemes for the shops in the arcade below – I wanted to put the goddess on the polished wood wall as you go up the circular stairs, but they never put it back up.”
The statue was dumped in a shed at a property out of town and the owner promptly contacted Kevin.
“His wife rang me and said ‘we’re moving to Darwin, if you want it come and get it’, so I pieced it all together and put it up for my 60th birthday,” Kevin said.
“My home is a collection of my memories and there is a story to every piece.”
Born in Waikerie, Kevin often visited family in Mount Gambier during his formative years and eventually settled in the Blue Lake city after living and working in Adelaide and abroad.
He began his career in art and design as a trainee at the Myer Emporium in Adelaide and soon discovered he had a flair for creating window displays.
Working at a large department store, the access to home movie technology inspired him to establish an amateur film club.
His love for fashion and film would inform many of his future endeavours.
As the Mount Gambier director of the PANARC Film Charity Group, Kevin coordinated a number of fashion parades and scripted and directed his own movies.
The parades, glittering spectacles held in the Mount Gambier Show Hall in the late ‘50s, were glamorous community events showcasing local and imported gowns and day wear.
Ticket sales raised funds for charity in Mount Gambier and for local candidates in the Miss Australia quest.
“I was always interested in fashion and once you’ve done some form of art it applies to everything,” Kevin said.
“I applied the same creativity I used to create window displays at the Myer Emporium in garden design, interiors, fashion and film making.”
Kevin opened Premiere Decoration Studio, a freelance decorating business, on Penola Road in 1958 and enjoyed steady work.
He had always dreamed of travel and was soon enticed by a friend to join him on an adventure across Europe – a spontaneous jaunt that would evolve into nearly a decade overseas.
“My mate came to me one day and said ‘let’s go to London’,” Kevin said.
“We were going to buy a scooter and do Europe and he went six months ahead of me as I had to wind up the business.
“When I arrived he was courting, so I just forged my way by myself.”
Kevin worked as a display artist in Oxford for two years before continuing on his passage and landing a job in colour consulting in Edinburgh.
“After some time I was offered a job in the furnishing department of a new department store,” Kevin said.
“This store boasted the first escalators in Edinburgh and it was fully carpeted.
“My job afforded me the opportunity to go out into homes and learn about the architecture of authentic Georgian and Regency homes – it was wonderful.”
After impressing the owner and directors, Kevin was appointed as the inaugural display manager and was responsible for merchandising, the design and colour scheme on each level of the store and the supervision of six display staff.
Despite his passion for his work, Kevin always imagined he would eventually return to Australia.
“The lifestyle in Scotland just wasn’t the same,” Kevin explained.
“The store offered me a contract you couldn’t refuse, but I didn’t feel right about it.
“I said ‘I’ve decided this isn’t for me, it’s time to go home’.”
Part two of Kevin’s story continues here: (add link?) ‘Homecoming shapes city arts scene.’
