Guertner was born in 1917 in
Paddington. Her parents were Maude (born Ireland) and her husband Eugene Henry Gürtner. Her mother was from Sydney and her father was a German immigrant cook and masseur. The first editor was Guertner who was an enthusiast for interior design and gardening. The magazine championed the interior design advocate
Marion Hall Best, the architects
Robin Boyd and
Harry Seidler and furniture designer
Grant Featherston. Her magazine's long collaboration with the architect, W. Watson Sharp, led to,
The Australian House and Garden Book of Orchids, a book by him that sold under the name of the magazine in 1969. Guertner was editor of
Australian House and Garden until 1973 when she retired. She had lived with Catherine (Kate) Warmoll from 1949 at Warrimoo. The two of them moved to live at
MacMasters Beach beside Cockrone lagoon. ==Death and legacy==