Caddie, A Sydney Barmaid

Entertained by Edmonds' turn of phrase and her stories of working as a barmaid during the Depression, Cusack and James encouraged and coached her through seven drafts of an autobiography until 1952.

[2] Edmonds married Frederick George Holloway (represented as 'Jon Marsh' in the book) on 25 January 1919 at St Stephen's Church, Newtown.

John Ritchie's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes her as plump, round-faced, with "narrow, grey-blue eyes, 'wavy, light brown hair streaked with grey', and deeply-graven lines at the corners of her mouth".

[2] The book tells the story of Caddie, starting with her birth in Penrith, New South Wales, in 1900 to a family living in poverty.

She feels constrained by the control taken by her mother-in-law, living next door, who treats her as undeserving of her son, as Caddie is not "pure merino" (i.e., with only free-settler, not convict, forebears).

With the effects of the Depression deepening, Caddie takes additional work by running tabs for the pub's SP bookmaker.

The story ends in tragedy when Peter returns, following the death of his wife, and the couple is finally able to make plans to marry.

As a result, barmaids had a bad name because a woman working in such conditions was regarded as morally suspect, perhaps luring men into spending their money in bars, perhaps soliciting commercial sex.

Indeed, Caddie makes reference to the numerous sexual advances made towards her, both in her role as barmaid and in situations where it would benefit her, such as from the teacher at her children's school.

The story makes reference to the six o'clock swill, written at a time shortly after the war when it was presumed that the reader would be familiar with the phenomenon.

Cusack notes how Caddie was reluctant to give any signs of complaint, but to take everything in her stride in order to meet the needs of her children.

It launched the careers of Jacki Weaver as Josie and Helen Morse in the title role of Caddie for which she won the AFI Best Actress award.

It also starred Takis Emmanuel as Peter, Jack Thompson as Ted, Melissa Jaffer as Leslie, Ron Blanchard as Bill and Drew Forsythe as Sonny.