The Negroes especially used to enliven the Cross with their flamboyant dress and ever present shades. In the discos they drank beer and danced with such style, really locked into the music.  ... You'd find them in the afternoon in the rock-out cellars of the Red Baron and the Groovy Room, the heavy music drawing them in off the streets.

Rennie Ellis and Wesley Stacey Kings Cross Sydney: A personal look at the Cross 1971 pg 36

By 1970 the War in Vietnam had become America’s Achilles heel. Sydney, and in particular Kings Cross, was a major R&R centre for war-weary and often disenchanted soldiers looking for girls and a good time. Many of the clubs and bars of the Cross loaded their prices for the Yanks and made a killing. The presence of the Americans fostered a corps of girls who literally lived off the soldiers. Many worked on a casual basis for a shop or a service that wanted R&R custom. The girls chatted up the guys in the street and inveigled them into giving money to their employers. For this they received a healthy commission. Others became G.I groupies, moving from soldier to soldier, playing the role of temporary mistress and allowing themselves to be richly provided for. Others still worked the bars and discos on a straight cash basis.