The choice fruit of 'The Mango Tree' (Kevin Dobson, 1977)

It's not as though there was nothing else going on in Australian cinema in the 1970s, but the combination of period piece, eye-catching locations, literary adaptation and coming-of-age theme surely conjures up a good deal of that crucial decade. Even in that climate, though, Kevin Dobson's 'The Mango Tree' (1977) wasn't very popular. It was securely set during World War One, picturesquely located in Bundaberg and surrounding cane-fields, was derived from Ronald McKie's award-winning 1974 novel and its ostensible concern was the rites of passage undergone by young Jamie Carr.