a brand new CPL holder shows up at an operator in Darwin dressed in thongs and shorts.
Please tell me that this is a joke. That no-one has ever done such a thing!!
Right... now that I've got that off my chest; I think I can assume that you are not joking and that some clown has done precisely that!
I lived and worked in Darwin from mid '79 to early December '81 (not in Aviation) but I shared a house with a then Coastwatch Pilot (Don L) and the Tropical rig for everyone was a shirt, trousers or proper shorts,
not denim, long socks if wearing shorts, and shoes. If you turned up to an interview not wearing the above, you would not have even been given the time of day!
