“Joe bashes the paper into shape and reads aloud falteringly”

When the natives speak to each other, their speech is fluid, skilled, and idiosyncratic. However, Joe, who never presented as unintelligent, cannot read without substantial effort. Early in the play this seems like a small detail. By the end of the play, once the reader learns of the attempts to keep Aborigines from reading, it becomes an ominous bit of foreshadowing. 

“With them a reminder of the dangers they faced, in the shape of three lorries…carrying Aborigines”

Joe is reading from a Centenary edition of the Western Mail. Already, the Aborigines are being described as dangerous, despite the gentle opening scene in which this passage is being read.

“It is an offence to supply liquor to an Aboriginal native under the Aboriginal Act”

The sergeant accusing Frank of committing a crime. The double standard is apparent: alcohol, a mainstay of adult life, can only be consumed legally by the whites. The assumption is that they are civilized enough to control themselves while under the influence. Policy makers have apparently been so unnerved by the prospect of intoxicated Aborigines that they punish those who provide them with alcohol.