[1] Joan and older sister Mauricette attended Catholic Ladies College in nearby Grey St, East Melbourne.

[4] According to John Meredyth Lucas's memoirs, Maurice had discovered he had cancer, and decided to take the family for an extended trip overseas, to make the most of life while he could.

Lucas states Joan met a Warner Bros. talent scout at a New York party and soon found herself at work in Hollywood.

and she was offered several roles in B films at Warner Bros. She was presented by studio publicists as a stereotypical pin-up girl, supposedly popular with Australian soldiers.

In 1959, Lucas was offered the role of associate producer, director, and scriptwriter on the Australian TV series Whiplash, an imaginative retelling of the Cobb and Co story starring Peter Graves.