“Thanks Girls and Goodbye” (working title only). Written by Sue Hardisty and Sue Maslin. [Draft script for the 1988 documentary film about the Australian Women’s Land Army in World War Two].

[Melbourne] : Sue Hardisty and Sue Maslin, 1986. Foolscap folio, spiral-bound stiff wrappers; 45 pp, roneo-printed typescript with b/w photographic illustrations; fine.

‘Thanks Girls and Goodbye is the story of the Australian Women’s Land Army which was set up during the Second World War to keep Australian farms producing food for the war effort. The film uncovers the amazing story of the women who volunteered to fill the boots of men who had left the farm to fight abroad. This little-known story is told through the memories of the women who volunteered as well as the historical stills, news footage, home movies, letters and songs of their time on the land … Thanks Girls and Goodbye is a gentle documentary about an extraordinary time in Australian history – the Second World War. Most importantly it documents Australian women’s wartime experience, largely overlooked before feminist historians and filmmakers started to explore it in the 1970s and ’80s.’ (NFSA)

Provenance: From the estate of Virginia Fraser (1947-2021), feminist, artist, writer, editor and curator.