At five foot six inches, Miss Cocks is taller than the average woman of the time, and as “neat as a pin” in a “light green, ankle-length silk frock with an understated ruffle at the throat and a fitted waist”. From the pianist in Moore’s department store playing Pack Up Your Troubles on repeat, to the returned soldiers in Victoria Square, “broken men with missing limbs and lost hope”, the impact of the war on the inhabitants of Adelaide is a constant theme. As they watch a young amputee threaten to throw himself off a balcony and into the arms of a young woman he has just met, they are once again presented with forces beyond their control: including love, lust and the notorious six o’clock swill – not to mention a predatory rapist.
Author: Sue Turnbull, Honorary Professor of Communication and Media Studies, University of Wollongong
Published at: 2026-01-26 22:37:50
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