Aarne started his professional theatre career in 1962, as a dancer in a Christmas pantomime at Melbourne's Tivoli Theatre. 

He has worked mainly as a director and a lecturer in both vocational and academic institutions, throughout Australia and in New Zealand and Singapore.

He has been the Artistic Director of a number of organisations, and has been the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships.

In recent years, he has also turned his hand to television directing.

Aarne has a 30 year history with Rep, having directed a number of plays, from Tom Stoppard's Enter a Free Man in 1983, with Peter Robinson; to most recently, John Doyle's The Pig Iron People in 2011 with Judi Crane and Sam Hannan-Morrow. 

He has also had long term associations with Helen Vaughan-Roberts, Liz St Clair Long, Russell Brown, Jeanette Brown, Mandy Brown, Quentin Mitchell and Joyce Gore, to name but a few.

And he is delighted to rejoin the Rep family once again.