[5] After NIDA, her father wanted her to join the Young Elizabethans; instead she chose to work with Raymond Westwell and Joan MacArthur in Perth, while they were establishing the National Theatre Company.
Subsequently she and her brother Guy appeared in plays by her father, including as the apparition of MacBeth, and then took roles in the Alan Hopgood "football play" And the Big Men Fly and A Cheery Soul by Patrick White[3] She became a staple of the early Crawford Production serials in the 1970s, including Division 4, Matlock Police and Homicide.
[6] Ballantyne appeared in three iconic small screen roles, starting with the ABC serial Bellbird in which she played librarian Lori Chandler.
After Prisoner was cancelled, Ballantyne filmed a lead role as Maude Bum in Fool's Shoe Hotel for the ABC.
[7] She also appeared in an episode of The Flying Doctors, a production for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and was cast in children's series The True Story of Spit MacPhee, along with John Bach, Ray Meagher and Linda Cropper.
Subsequently, she appeared in guest parts on TV dramas Blue Heelers, The Secret Life of Us, All Saints, City Homicide, and miniseries Paper Giants: Magazine Wars (2013).