[9] The TV critic for The Sydney Morning Herald said Safran "avoided the common fault of accentuating the Australian features" of the play.
"An Australian production which does not stamp 'this is Australia' on any local subject matter may be said to make great strides in maturity and competence and there was promising evidence of this in excellent acting, capable camera work and fluency of treatment.
"[10] Another critic from the same paper said that although the play "had... some holes in its... story big enough to sink the entire cast and author combined, it came off as one of the finest bits of Australian drama from the A.B.C.
It plunged straight into the centre of the story with a minimum of preamble, the cast all turned in workmanlike performances, and action and suspense (even with those implausible holes) was sustained to the last.
"[11] A critic from The Canberra Times said the pay "opens tautly with not a moment wasted in creating the setting for a night of adultery" but that the writer was "unable to sustain this idea in the same vein.
[7] The Age TV critic said "it offended Australian women by implying bush wives are as hard as nails to swagmen... it made repeated and I think unnecessary, disparaging references to Italian migrants... painted a false picture of the swagman... the producer's quest for 'realism' provided early embarrassment with protracted scenes of passion on the bed which left nothing to the imagination... [the ABC] should have warned viewers of the 'torrid' scenes in store.