It was so very like analytical "Clio" of Melbourne Punch that 100 years ago this week she felt the need to analyse how on earth people could still have so much fun in a time of war. As she wrote, 6000 Australians had been killed and 19,000 wounded in the Great War.
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"From more than one seaside resort I hear of this being a record [summer holiday] season. How is that accounted for? It is war time, when mere pleasurings and frivolity seem repugnant to our sense of the fitness of things.
"Yet at most of the Bay retreats, a splendid season was experienced ... These are light-hearted places, gay and attractively pleasant, and dancing – that almost forgotten art – is included among the list of frivollings. It does seem callous, and at first difficult to understand.
"But take into consideration that the great army of war-workers, most of whom have all these long months been tortured under the continual strain of anxiety, were glad to grasp at a short respite at these nearby beauty spots.
"Then there is the fact that 'final leave' and New Year holidays were granted to hundreds of the men in camp. Is it likely that they would use that time to mope and moon about their city homes?
"So, though heartfelt sympathy and anxiety is felt for our dear ones in the trenches all the time, a brief respite is being seized and enjoyed even by the most earnest and conscientious citizens."
