AustLit

King Kangaroo, Queen Emu and the other native bush fauna and flora introduce themselves. Finally, King Kangaroo introduces their 'guiding star': 'Our good old friend/ the Native Black/ heard is true to us as gold,/ Although his country has been sold.'

'The Abo' explains his state of dispossession:

I have no land, I have no home;
No hunting ground 'neath heaven's dome,
No nulla, boomerang, or spear,
But memories of my land most dear;
And of the lovely scented gums.
But where I grew, the city hums.
Poor Aborigine am I,
I've nothing left to do but die.

The play concludes with a full-cast refrain: 'He's nothing left to do but die.'

'The Browns of Bangaroo–Dad and Mum, 20-year-old Cynthia, and flapper Betty–are in London, while their relations, the Forsyths, look after things for them in Australia. The Browns are growing homesick, in addition to which Cynthia is suffering the pangs of love for Ian Travers. And what with weather and one thing and another .... Well! Read this and see how it works out.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 28 August 1937, p.9.

'The Browns of Bangaroo, Dad and Mum, 20-year-old Cynthia, and flapper Betty, are in England doing the grand tour. Meanwhile, their orchard home, somewhere in Australia, is being cared for by their relatives, the Forsyths, whom Ian Travers, second officer of the R.M.S. Mandalay, and the affianced of Cynthia Brown, is visiting. It is his first up-country trip in Australia, and he has been mistaken for a confidence man and arrested by the local police.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 21 August 1937, p.9.

'Bangaroo is the stage this week, and to it comes Ian Travers, second officer of the Mandalay, and affianced of Cynthia Brown, who is at present in England with her family, the Browns of Bangaroo. Ian is going to Bangaroo to visit the Forsyths, the Browns' relations, who are minding the home in the Browns' absence. But Ian's dramatic entry is marred by an unfortunate accident.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 14 August 1937, p.9.

'The Browns of Bangaroo – Dad and Mum, 20-year-old Cynthia, and flapper Betty – an Australian family on a visit to Great Britain, find that water is, apparently, as valuable in the midst of the plenty of an English summer as in Australia during a dry season.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 7 August 1937, p.9.

'"The Browns of Bangaroo," Mum and Dad, 20-year-old Cynthia, and flapper Betty, are doing the grand tour of Europe and the British Isles. While they are away, their relations, the Forsyths, are looking after the family interests at Bangaroo, Wynlunga West, somewhere in Australia. In this episode, letters give a progress report of the travelling family's wanderings.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 31 July 1937, p.9.

'An Australian family, the Browns of Bangaroo, are in London, and have been given invitations to Ranelagh. The problem of dress arises for Mr. Brown, and of her love affair for 20-year-old Cynthia, who is in love with the second officer of the Mangalore, in which ship they travelled to England. Flapper Betty is busy disentangling the skein.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 24 July 1937, p.9.

'The Browns of Bangaroo, having travelled to England in the R.M.S. Mangalore, are now settled at Tunbridge Court, a boarding house, where they contact with a strata of English society–as represented by 'the butter lady'–that annoys them. Ian Travers, erstwhile second officer of the Mangalore, with whom Cynthia Brown is in love, is meanwhile sitting for his master's certificate.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 17 July 1937, p.9.

'London! Having voyaged from Australia to England in the R.M.S. Mangalore, the Browns of Bangaroo – Mum and Dad, 20-year-old Cynthia, and flapper Betty – at last realise a life-long dream. London, of which they have heard so much. London, with its colour and romance. They are sick of their ship-board companions, especially of Mr. Gibbs and little Rodney. And now ... But things are not always as visioned.'

Source:

'The Browns of Bangaroo', The Australasian, 10 July 1937, p.9.