For Blackman, 83, a distinguished publisher, interviewer, journalist, essayist, poet, pioneer of Radio for the Print Handicapped and Australia’s most famous patron of contemporary music, sees herself as belonging “in the background… you see that something that needs to be done and you do it.”

Those familiar with Blackman and her insatiable appetite for entertaining members of the Canberra arts world since she moved from Berry NSW 10 years ago, will be astonished at this. With a larger-than-life personality, always ready with an apt word and always the centre of attention, she relishes the epithets heaped up her, whether it be the flattering “Patron Saint of Audiences” or her current favourite, the less-flattering “Crone of Canberra.”

Her gift of almost $1 million to the music world and most notably to Canberra’s Pro Musica, which administers the Canberra International Music Festival, earned her the Australian Contemporary Music 2006 Award for Patronage.

“For me, philanthropy is a badge of honour,” she says, “from those to whom much is given, much is expected… some things in life I’ve enjoyed beyond anything money could buy.”

And if that means giving up the quiet life, well, as Dame Elizabeth Murdoch always says: “You have to give up your anonymity in order to set an example.”

Blowing her cover allows Blackman the luxury of speaking out on questions dear to her heart, such as why Jan Brown’s “Icarus” sculptures in Civic have no sense of flight, or why the ANU should “humiliate its splendid teachers” by spilling faculty jobs at the School of Music.

Now deeply embedded in the cultural life of Canberra, she deplores the university’s peremptory way of dealing with its staff and with the public.

Blackman has revealed to “CityNews” that when she was considering how to dispose of her “spare million dollars”, she approached the ANU with a pilot sum of $10,000 to set a up a music-art studio on campus and a suggestion of a substantial donation to follow. The university, she says, sent her a receipt, but never followed up on her requests for a meeting with the then vice-chancellor, while indicating that she could have no say in the use of any sum she gave.

The result?

“I signed the biggest full stop you’ve ever seen,” Blackman says. “Thank God I didn’t give them any more.”