Our Story
Melbourne Historical Crime Tours are about more than just true crime. They reconstruct entire historical crime districts - the people who lived, worked and interacted with each other within a geographical space. The walking tours delve into their relationships, disagreements, collaborations - and their interactions with police. It is from the police perspective that we learn about their stories, because it was from within the original police files that the tour narratives were found. Through 10 years of dedicated research, writer and historian, Michael Shelford has resurrected, and re-imagined, lives and stories long forgotten. We get to know various police officers too, the ones tasked with keeping the crime districts under a modicum of control. And to make things even more interesting, we get to see the faces of the characters discussed, either in printed form via the free tour booklet or by a hand-held projector which is used on night tours.
The Gangsters, Brothels & Lolly Shops tour is in Melbourne’s CBD and explores the old slum district known as ‘Little Lon’. It runs every Saturday at 4.30 pm. The meeting point for the tours is at the corner of Artemis Lane and Russell St (251 Russell St, the side entrance to Queen Victoria shopping complex).
The Fitzroy True Crime walking tour is in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy which is only 2 tram stops from the edge of Melbourne CBD. Fitzroy was known to police as "the home of Melbourne's criminals. The Fitzroy True Crime walking tour runs every Sunday afternoon at 1pm. The tour group meets at the front steps of the Fitzroy Town Hall, 201 Napier St, Fitzroy.