Eirene Mort described herself as a 'designer and crafts worker'. She travelled to London in the early 1900s intending to study at the School of Design, South Kensington. On arrival, she found she did not have the necessary qualifications and instead took classes at a range of art schools including the Grosvenor Life School and Chelsea Polytechnic Life Classes. On her return to Sydney Mort taught art at several girls' schools as well as exhibiting her own work. She illustrated seventy-one known bookplates, some for children's books. As well as Old Canberra, she published a book devoted entirely to sketches, The Old Roads (1931).
