In 1919 she joined a theatre company touring the musical comedy The Better 'Ole to country towns, using motor vehicles to convey the artists and scenery (a process that had previously relied on the railway network).

[3] On 30 January 1918 Hawtree, aged 15 years, appeared as the character 'Fanny Sunbeam' in "an up-to-date pantomime version" of Babes in the Wood, a performance described as "one of the successes of the evening".

The entertainment was presented in the Repertory Theatre in Grosvenor Street, Sydney, with the proceeds going to the Bondi-Waverley Voluntary Aid Detachment for the Anzac Buffet in the Domain.

[4] In mid-year 1918 a competition was held in Sydney designed to discover Australian young women "capable of doing work for the films", jointly organised by the proprietors of the Green Room magazine and Alec Lorimore of Paramount Pictures.

[5] A reference from 1922 indicates that Hawtree entered and won the Green Room Paramount Screen Contest (or perhaps she was one of the twelve who were awarded gold medals), despite the fact that she was still aged fifteen years at that time.

[6] In 1919 Hawtree was engaged to join an Australian theatre company to tour the patriotic musical comedy The Better 'Ole to country towns in New South Wales and Victoria.

[10] In early 1919 an English dramatic company was brought to Australia by the theatrical entrepreneur Hugh D. McIntosh, performing the musical to great acclaim in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide (and several major regional centres).

[8] An account in The Wyalong Advocate drew attention for its readers that the coming attraction to the township "is the actual play, not a picture" and that the performance "will be staged and mounted on the same complete and elaborate scale as characterised its production at the Tivoli Theatre Sydney".

[9][13] After a month in Victoria the company crossed back into New South Wales, playing at Deniliquin on November 11 and the following night in the town hall at Jerilderie.

[16] In Sydney in February 1920 a contest was commenced to find a double for the popular American silent-film star, Olive Thomas, with the winner to secure a film engagement of six months at £35 a week.

[21] The advertising copy was updated to inform readers that "Miss Hawtree is the winner of the Olive Thomas Beauty Contest, and has a great future predicted for her in motion pictures".

[32] When The Mark of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks was showing in the Strand cinema in May and June 1922, a special stage prologue was performed at the afternoon and evening sessions by Hawtree and F. M.

[33] Hawtree played the part of Lolita, Zorro's "sweetheart", and Crougey, a well-known baritone singer, impersonated Fairbanks in the feature film's title role.

[36] A critic for the Sunday Times newspaper described the prologue to The Sheik as "bright and novel" and remarked that Hawtree was "unusually pleasing in her new role, and her clever dancing is shown to advantage".

[21] Dorothy Hawtree and Roy Darling were two of seven directors of Olympic Films Limited, registered as a company in December 1922 "to carry on the business of making, producing and completing moving pictures".

[47][48] In January 1927 a competition called the First National Film Star Quest was announced, a nationwide search for young women with the qualities to be a motion picture actress.

Sponsored by the First National Exhibitors of Australia, the first prize was all expenses-paid travel to Hollywood for the winner and her chaperone, together with a ten-week contract (with a weekly salary of £20) with the American producer Cecil B.

[51][52] Hawtree was one of fifty competitors who were short-listed in the New South Wales section of the Film Star Quest, which was co-sponsored by the Evening News newspaper in Sydney.

[55][56][C] From late April 1927 Dorothy Hawtree was part of a special prologue to accompany the screening of Cecil B. DeMille's The Volga Boatman at the Crystal Palace in George Street, Sydney.

[57] In June 1927 Hawtree was part of the Penfolds Wines tableau at the Movie Ball at the Palais Royal at Moore Park, an annual event for charity of the Sydney motion picture industry.

[59] In late December 1929 and into January 1930, Hawtree played the role of 'Will Scarlet' in matinee performances of the pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Grand Opera House in Sydney.