Captive Singer is about Mills. She was not necessarily a lesbian however, or at least not seen as such in her own time; close sentimental women's friendships were still not assumed to be sexual in 1920s Australia. Career in physical culture In 1892, her brother Lt Col Hans Christian Bjelke-Petersen founded the Bjelke-Petersen Physical Culture School. (He is credited with building Australia's first squash court, shortly after World War I.) Marie was in charge of the women's section and taught there and at other schools before turning to writing in 1910 when injury meant she could no longer teach. In the mid-1890s, the Bjelke-Petersens learnt of the new game, basketball, that was becoming popular in the United States. Marie is credited with introducing drills designed specifically for players of the game into the physical culture program she taught in schools. "It can be argued, therefore, that Marie Bjelke Petersen was instrumental in introducing the sport of netball to Tasmania." She was also a registered massage therapist. Writing career She had short sketches and stories published in various newspapers and magazines before achieving success with her first novel. Three religious tracts were published as The Mysterious Stranger (1913), Before an Eastern Court (1914) and Muffled Drums (1914). The success of the first of these tracts helped her to find a publisher for her first novel, The Captive Singer (1917). It was based on a guide who sang at Tasmania's Marakoopa Cave and was a financial success selling 150,000 copies in English and a further 40,000 in Danish translation. This first novel established Marie Bjelke Petersen as a significant Australian writer. Bjelke Petersen approached Australian-born Hollywood actress Louise Lovely with her story Jewelled Nights suggesting it might suit Lovely. Louise Lovely liked the story and produced a film of the same name with her then husband, Wilton Welch, in 1925. However, it was not a commercial success, recovering £5,000 of its £10,000 production cost. The film had its critics, some regarded its primary weakness as its plot which involved a girl disguising herself as a boy. However the film was a popular success in Australia and overall the critics were friendly – another explanation was that this ambitious film fell victim to structural distribution problems facing the Australian film industry. Her novels were distinguished by a fresh literary take on Australian life, closely observed scenery and social background and, by the standards