Dorothy Hewett achieved distinction as a playwright, poet and novelist. Her stage works include The Chapel Perilous, Mrs Porter and the Angels, Bon-Bons and Roses for Dolly, The Golden Oldies, Pandora's Cross, The Man from Mukinupin, Golden Valley, The Fields of Heaven and Nowhere. The plays range in style but all exploit the imaginative possibilities of language, music and theatrical effects. Many of her early plays in particular shocked audiences with their explicit female sexuality, and she retained a maverick image and an ability to polarise audiences and critics through her life. Hewett also published eleven volumes of poetry, with three novels, a collection of short stories and an autobiography.