Melbourne's walks
Atmosphere · Melbourne
Scandals & Scoundrels
Larrikins, brothel madams, corrupt mayors and the Painters & Dockers.
The Melbourne the official histories tiptoe around. Madam Brussels and the Little Lon brothels. The Painters & Dockers' waterfront wars. The mayors who took the money. The larrikin pushes of the 1880s — the decade a young clerk named Fergus Hume, working near Scots' Church, turned the city's underworld into The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, the bestselling crime novel of the Victorian era. A walk through the corners where the respectable city met the one it depended on, and the one it sold to the world as fiction.
How long have you got?
75
minutes
30 min2.3 hr
Narration, anchors, accessibility and refreshments are pre-set from the editorial defaults — tap to change.
Other Story Walks
Editor's Choice · Melbourne
Beneath the Bluestone
Our recommended first walk — read Melbourne in layers, from Birrarung to the city's living edge.
Atmosphere · Melbourne
After Dark
Dusk-lit crime, ghosts and the lanes that won't let the city forget.
Culture · Melbourne
Sound of the City
The pubs, lanes and tram tracks that made Melbourne loud.
Culture · Melbourne
Lights, Camera, Melbourne
The exact corners where Melbourne's most-watched scenes were shot.