 As a student, she worked as an usherette at the Roseville theatre.She went on to study visual arts at the Sydney College of the Arts, pattern cutting at East Sydney Technical College, and design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where she gained a Diploma in Design and started collaborating with fellow student and now husband Baz Luhrmann.Catherine Martin designed sets and costumes for Luhrmann's one-act stage precursor of "Strictly Ballroom".