Bill McSwain was born in Seymour, Victoria in 1944 and attended the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the Caulfield Institute of Technology for his Diploma of Graphic Arts.

He worked as a set designer for Channel 9, Melbourne as well as a free-lance Graphic Artist/Illustrator.

Bill has travelled extensively through Europe and Great Britain during which time he worked and taught in Scotland and painted at the National Gallery London, Old Masters. On returning to Australia he attended the Toorak Teachers College, Melbourne and his subsequent teaching career included positions in the Victorian and South Australian Education Departments, plus numerous private school appointments such as Woodland Girls Grammar, Westminster and Muirden College teaching art and design.

In addition, Bill has taught Curriculum Studies Art to primary and secondary teachers at Sturt C.A.E. as well as drawing and painting at TAFE Colleges. Finally, Bill worked and lived in the South Pacific as an Art Teacher in Nauru and also in a UN funded youth program in Kiribati.

Bill has participated in numerous group and individual art shows in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.