ANZAC Girls | Home

ANZAC Girls: episode guide

1.01 | 1.02 | 1.03 | 1.04 | 1.05 | 1.06

Duty

Episode 2
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Ratings: 875,000 viewers (8th)
Written by Niki Aken & Felicity Packard
Directed by Ken Cameron

Overcoming intense hardship and trauma on the Greek Island of Lemnos, Olive and Grace care for the injured troops from the botched August Offensive. In Egypt, Elsie has to fight to stay at the British Hospital in Alexandria in order to save the life of her seriously wounded husband Syd.

On the barren, windswept Greek Island of Lemnos — close enough to Gallipoli to hear the boom of the artillery — Matron Grace Wilson (Caroline Craig) and her nurses arrive to no supplies and no hospital. To make matters worse, the conditions on Lemnos are barely fit for living, let alone nursing. Their Commanding Officer, Colonel Thomas Fiaschi (John Waters), is unsympathetic and hostile. If he had his way, there would be no women in a forward zone at all.

Dispirited by the state of the hospital and overwhelmed by the suffering, one by one the staff of No 3 AGH take any opportunity to get off the island. But Grace encourages her nurses to improvise wherever possible, and tasks Olive (Anna McGahan) with keeping everyone's spirits up. Olive is determined to keep her promise, despite the toll Lemnos takes on her health and spirit. Water shortages and insanitary conditions lead to a wave of dangerous dysentery, to which she succumbs.

A bright point amongst the hardship is the visit from Kiwi nurses, including Edith "Poppy" Popplewell (Brooke Williams) and Lorna Rattray (Robyn Patterson), who spend a couple of nights on Lemnos bunked in with the Aussie Sisters. Grace is devastated to learn that her beloved brother Graeme has been killed at Gallipoli, but with a steady rush of wounded coming in she — and Olive — have no choice but to soldier on.

In Egypt, with Harry (Dustin Clare) away at the Peninsula, Xavier (Charles Mayer) continues his 'slow and steady' approach in wooing Alice (Georgia Flood), while Elsie (Laura Brent) receives the shocking news that Syd (Todd Lasance) has been wounded at Lone Pine. With Alice's help, Elsie gets leave to go to him at the British Hospital in Alexandria, where she has to deal with the fact that his head wound is life threatening whilst managing the obstacles of British red tape. When Syd regains consciousness, he is unable to speak and Elsie realises that, if he is to fully recover, she needs to be transferred there to "special" him. In negotiating her transfer, she antagonises the British staff, and Elsie finds she must draw on every ounce of courage, tenacity and skill she possesses if she is to save Syd's life.

Cast:

  • Georgia Flood as Sister Alice Ross King
  • Antonia Prebble as Sister Hilda Steele
  • Laura Brent as Sister Elsie Cook
  • Anna McGahan as Sister Olive Haynes
  • Caroline Craig as Matron Grace Wilson
  • Dustin Clare as Lieutenant Harry Moffitt
  • John Waters as Colonel Thomas Fiaschi
  • Todd Lasance as Major Sydney 'Syd' Cook
  • Charles Mayer as Major Xavier Leopold
  • Joseph Ber as Major Sherwin
  • Brandon McClelland as Private Norval 'Pat' Dooley
  • Rhondda Findleton as Matron Nellie Gould
  • Honey Debelle as Sister Catherine 'Kat' McNaughton
  • Sara West as Sister Clarice Daley
  • Charlotte Hazzard as Sister Florence Tilley
  • Demelza Cadwallader as Sister Agnes Jones
  • Charlotte Rose as Sister Halliwell
  • Brooke Williams as Sister Edith 'Poppy' Popplewell
  • Robyn Paterson as Sister Lorna Rattray
  • Madeleine Jevic as Sister Meg Hayes
  • Lisa Waite as Sister Watson
  • Elizabeth Hay as Sister Tait
  • Ellonye Keniry as Sister Denton
  • Celine O'Leary as Matron in Chief
  • Martha Lott as Matron Jessie Jaddard
  • Jaye Gordon as Matron Marie Cameron
  • Bronwyn James as QAIMNS Nurse
  • James Fraser as Private Jimmy Stubbs
  • Mark Saturno as Captain Perrin
  • Staten Evans as Sergeant Ernest Lawrence
  • Sebastian Freeman as Lance Corporal Graeme Wilson
  • Craig Behenna as Major Woolf
  • Aaron Cartwright as Major Wilcox
  • Lochlin Maybury as Batman
  • Scott Perry as Private Griggs
  • Cameron Robertson as Private Braithwaite
  • Tom Cornwall as Recruit #1
  • Simon McLoughlin as VD Patient #1
  • Michael Esce as VD Patient #2
  • Matthew Randell as British Colonel
  • Steven Zachary Parker as Drill Sergeant
  • Tristan Hudson as Camp Superintendant
  • Daniel Baldwin as Soldier
  • Peter Cortissos as Soldier
  • Callum Di Sario as Soldier
  • Patrick Gilbert as Soldier
  • David Lampard as Soldier
  • Alex Pickering as Soldier
  • Alexandra Blue as Nurse
  • Catherine Hancock as Nurse
  • Kaiy Azadegan as Ticket Seller
  • Yazeed Daher as Street Urchin
  • Justice Noori as Street Urchin
  • Andrew Pawson as Scottish Piper
  • Marion City Band as Army Band