Lynn Bayonas

Lynnette Margaret Bayonas (11 April 1943 – 25 January 2010) was an Australian television producer and writer. Her sister was Neighbours executive producer Susan Bower.

Personal life Bower was 18 years old and living in London when she got her breakthrough into television. She was an assistant to the general manager of The Australian Ballet who were then travelling through Europe and were due to travel on to the United States, somewhere that Bayonas didn't want to go.

Whilst working in London, Bayonas heard of a job coming up with Citizen Kane creator Orson Welles. She agreed to meet Welles when he was making Casino Royale with Peter Sellers, Bayonas told him how she wasn't enjoying her job at the Australian Ballet and Welles invited her to Spain immediately. Division 4, In the 1980s she started work on A Country Practice, the programme that later allowed her sister Susan Bower to break into television writing. Whilst working for Nine Network, she created and worked as the creative consultant on the cult serial, Chances, which had a two-year run from 1991-92. All 126 episodes of this series were released on DVD and Blu-ray in August 2021.

Beginning in 1994, Bayonas lived in Los Angeles, California for six years, writing for Paramount Pictures. During her time in Los Angeles, she worked on programmes such as Sunset Beach and Prime Time. In 2000, Bayonas decided to return to Australia and began work on television programmes such as The Saddle Club, The Secret Life of Us and Lawrence of Arabia. In 2008, just as the third series of The Saddle Club finished production, cancer took hold of Bayonas

Filmography

Television Role Production Duration Writer Homicide 1964 Writer Division 4 1969 Writer/Script Editor Homicide 1971–72 Writer The Box 1974 Writer Quality of Mercy 1975 Writer The Sullivans 1976 Writer Skyways 1979 Producer The Nargun and the Stars 1980 Writer Holiday Island 1981 Script Consultant Hector's Bunyip 1986 Writer/Creator Willing and Abel 1987 Producer Raw Silk 1988 Writer Chances 1991 Producer/Writer Good Vibrations 1992 Writer A Country Practice 1994 Producer The Saddle Club 2001–08 Producer Guinevere Jones 2002 Writer Parallax 2004

Death It was announced on 25 January 2010 that Bayonas had died following a long battle with cancer. She was 66 years old. The Australian soap opera Neighbours, of which Bayonas's sister Susan Bower is an executive producer, marked Bayonas's death at the end of their episode broadcast on 25 January 2010 with a title card as the credits rolled.