Keera Le Lievre was a pioneering interior designer in Melbourne, with a very long career that commenced with a position as a consultant designer at Georges Ltd on Collins Street, where she worked for more than six years. She was born Keera Cameron in Melbourne, Victoria in 1928, and following her secondary school education, she enrolled in the inaugural Interior Design Diploma at the Royal Melbourne Technical College (later RMIT University) conducted by Frederich Sterne, in 1946. It was here that she met fellow student William LeLievre (Bill), whom she married ten years later, and they went on to form a business partnership for the next thirty years when they created William Le Lievre Interiors, at 1120 High Street, Armadale.
Le Lievre Interiors had a strong commercial base of clients including Dunlop, Shell, Repco, Hungerfords and Pioneer Concrete.Their interiors work also embraced healthcare, with the design of professional suites at the Austin Hospital, Staff Lounges at the Alfred Hospital and interiors at the Royal Southern Memorial Hospital.
The strongest area of the practice however lay in the domestic sphere, and there were engagements with many hundreds of clients over the ensuing years. The studio worked also with many leading architects including Neil Clerehan, Ted Ashton and Daryl Jackson.Keera was a Charter Member of the Interior Designers Association (1956), which was to merge into the Society of Designers for Industry, before becoming the Industrial Design Institute of Australia and then become the current day Design Institute of Australia.
During her professional life Keera, together with Bill, was a passionate advocate for design in Australia, and she represented the profession at a national and international level. Together they were members of the Design Council, the Textile Board, the RMIT Course Advisory Council and CAE lecturers for more than thirty years. She became a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia in 1985, and was ultimately inducted into the Institute’s Hall of Fame in 1997, together with Bill, her husband and partner for the past sixtyyears.
Keera passed away peacefully on April 13th. She leaves her loving children David, Carol; Andrew and Chele, and grandchildren Riley and Perri; Nicholas, Sassika, Oliver and Camilla.
