This doctoral creative thesis comprises a novel This town, last town, next town, and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is set in Western Australia in the 1950s in sideshow alley, a unique part of Australian culture that has not previously been represented in Australian fiction. It is a period in which the sideshow is coming to the end of its heyday as a place of carnival and spectacle. The three main characters are: Joan Tiernan, a dancer and married to the owner of an entertainment show; Rose Jackson, the wife of a boxing tent owner; and Corrie Cooper, married to an Aboriginal boxer. Joan and Rose travel with the show but Corrie stays behind, living in a small timber shack on the outskirts of a wheatbelt hamlet, while her husband travels with the tent most of the year. The narrative explores the women’s hopes and personal desires and how these are negotiated and shaped by the needs of the community.