Early years
Deirde Cash was born in Melbourne on 16 July 1924 in Melbourne, the child of two artistic but uncommitted parents. Leo Avaristus Cash, her father, was a salesman involved in the 1930s New Theatre movement in Melbourne. Her mother, Valerie Eileen, was an operetta principal.
Deirde’s parents separated while she was still young, and she was raised first by her father’s parents in South Australia and later by her unmarried aunts in Melbourne.
After graduating from boarding school at the Convent of Mercy, Mornington, Deirde attended the Melbourne Conservatorium of music, where she fostered her talents for singing and performance.
Even at a young age, Deirde was interested in writing, producing a number of unpublished stories.
Musical career
Deirde set out to make her living on the stage as a singer and dancer. She had some success, but in 1948, at the age of 24, she fell pregnant and married the law student Michael Damien Blackall, putting her career on hold.
Soon after the birth of her son, Deirdre separated from her husband, leaving the child in the care of his father. During this time, she worked as a torch singer and ballroom dance teacher, occasionally coming into contact with the fringes of society that would inspire her fiction.
In 1954, Deirdre met the love of her life, the seaman Otto Ole Distler Olsen. She followed Otto from port to port, working whenever the opportunity arose until their daughter Leonie was born.
Writing career
When she was hospitalised with suspected tuberculosis – faced with a debilitating illness that made performance a challenge – Deirdre turned to writing as an alternative career. As a nod to her Irish heritage, she adopted the penname Criena Rohan.
After being rejected by several Australian publishers, Deirdre found a place for her novel The Delinquents with a London publisher in 1962.
A tale of star-crossed teenage lovers contending with poverty, corruption and stifling social conventions in 1950s Brisbane, the novel was a commercial success and is still remembered as an Australian classic of its period, republished by Text Classics in 2014. In 1989, it was adapted into a cult film starring a 20-year-old Kylie Minogue.
Her second novel, Down by the Dockside, was also a success. Published in 1963, it depicted working class communities in wartime Melbourne.
Death
Just as her young career was blossoming, Deirde was diagnosed with colonic cancer. She died in 1963 at the age of 38, leaving her husband Otto to care for their three-year-old daughter.
She is buried at Fawkner Memorial Park.
Bibliography
Adapted from material supplied by historian Dr Jan Penney, GMCT Trust member 2010-2020.
Griffin J (1993) Cash, Deirdre (1924-1963), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University [website]