Shared Experience: Smoko time with the AWLA

Art and War

Accession Number: ART29758

Grace Taylor
Smoko time with the AWLA
oil on hardboard
45.7 x 55.8

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.