DELVENE DELANEY

Delvene Delaney, house model for H.B. Green & Co, Brisbane c.1969

Delvene Delaney was the house model for Barry Green’s Brisbane studio, H.B. Green and Co., when I started work there in 1968. She was seventeen years of age, and was one of those people who was destined to go places. A house model is kept very busy as an on-demand model for all manner of advertising purposes, and Delvene’s physical attributes and vivacious personality ensured that she was very much in demand.

She was a delight to photograph, as there were no imperfections which had to be avoided. Her face was lightly freckled, but that was easily hidden with a dash of makeup. She seemed to have no need to watch her diet, as we both shared a fondness for lunch-time chip butties, i.e. two slices of bread and butter with as many French Fries as possible crammed between them.

In, I think, about 1970, Delvene headed overseas. She worked as a Playboy Bunny in London for some time, and had a couple of brief romances with airline pilots and ski instructors, before returning to Australia, where she found roles in the television series “The Box” and “The Young Doctors”. She was really put on the map by becoming the female star of the “The Paul Hogan Show”, where she met the man she married in 1977, John Cornell. They had three daughters. John played the part of Hogan’s sidekick “Strop”. John had fought a twenty year battle with Parkinson’s Disease, and finally succumbed on 23 July 2021. Paul Hogan had enormous international success as the archetypal Aussie in “Crocodile Dundee”. Delvene won a Logie Award in Victoria as most popular female.

Delvene has also had several film roles, and has lived in idyllic Byron Bay for many years. Her sister, Cassandra, was married to John Denver. Born in 1951, Delvene still looks fantastic, so all of those chip butties did her no harm.