The delightfully named Heidi Virtue, Australian Channel Nine’s director of publicity, has declined to comment on very un-ladylike behaviour by all but one of the stars of Aussie Ladette to Lady. This show takes ordinary sheilas who don’t have much idea of decorum, manners or what contstitutes lady-like behaviour, and puts them through a finishing school type process, where they learn to talk, dress, walk, and generally behave in a way which would be acceptable in society. A bit like My Fair Lady, except that Eliza, for all her rough edges, was really a lady to start with.

Despite all the effort, money, and publicity, these girls seems not be ladies even at the end of the process.

Far from being models of deportment, as Nine would have viewers believe, a hotel source confirms the ladettes drew at least a dozen complaints after having a topless romp in the hotel swimming pool at 1.30am, throwing objects from windows and trashing a hotel room, resulting in a cleaning bill worth several hundred dollars.

This was just after filming of the final episode, which was meant to show how far they had come. Not content with that, the girls then hit the night clubs, and bared their breasts to bus drivers in an effort to get free lifts back to their hotel.

You can take the girl out of Cunnamulla, but you can’t take Cunnamulla out of the girl. Sad, because most Australian women are not like this, and this kind of behaviour just confirms the stereotype of the loud, rude Australian.