Cirrus@Austlit

Noela Young was born in Sydney. She attended Sydney High School and won a scholarship to the National Art School, at the time called East Sydney Technical College. She graduated with a Diploma in Illustration and the College Medal for Highest Honours.

Young began illustrating books in the early 1950s and became widely admired for her ability to vividly present the world of children and animals. Writers with whom she has collaborated include Duncan Hall, Hesba Brinsmead, Irene Gough, Christobel Mattingley, Ruth Park, Patricia Wrightson, Emily Rodda, Robin Klein and Margaret Wild (qq.v.). Young has used her own text for several books, including Flip the Flying Possum (1963) that won her first commendation in the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards. Since then she has won numerous children's book awards but is best known for her illustrations to Ruth Park's (q.v.) Muddle-Headed Wombat series of stories.

Young's husband was the illustrator Walter Cunningham (q.v.).