Exhibition Theme - Service

Smoko time with the AWLA

As Australia's war economy was increasingly geared to the needs of total war, women became an even more important labour resource. These Australian Women's Land Army girls, sitting on the stubble from the cotton plants, form an idyllic subject. Their strong limbs are bronzed from the sun as they sit chatting, smoking reading and drinking tea. However, the blue sky and the landscape bathed in sun in no way reflect the hardships these women endured in taking on this difficult, back-breaking activity.

Oil on hardboard 45.7 x 55.8 cm
Painted in Queensland, 1945
Presented in 1992
Australian War Memorial
ART29758

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