Melbourne Historical Crime Tours

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Melbourne Historical Crime Tours Walking tours in Melbourne CBD & Fitzroy 6 days per week, Tues-Sun The Fitzroy True Crime tour shows old Fitzroy through the eyes of its cops and crooks.

Explore the streets and alleyways of Melbourne's two most notorious crime districts from 100 years ago. The Fitzroy Crime Tour goes for 2 hours every Sunday from 1pm. Tours meet at the Workers Club, corner Gertrude and Brunswick St, Fitzroy. The suburb of Fitzroy is right on the edge of Melbourne's CBD and easily accessible by public transport. The Gangsters, Brothels and Lolly Shops tour is a tou

r of Melbourne's old brothel district which was known as 'Little Lon'. It runs every Friday night at 8pm (with hand held laser projector), and Saturday at 4pm. The meeting place for the Gangsters, Brothels and Lolly Shops tour is the Coopers Inn, 282 Exhibition St, Melbourne CBD.

17/01/2025

Station Officer Grace Brebner QPM 9690, standing outside Russell Street HQ circa 1963. Ms Brebner joined Victoria Police in 1942 and became the first female detective in 1950 and the first female to be promoted to Inspector in 1971. Inspector Brebner retired in 1974 A real trail blazer. Photo Victoria Police Museum.

Thanks The Bendigo Hotel New tour, Collingwood Crime Crawl. Sundays 2pm. Bookings via www.melbournehistoricalcrimetours....
12/01/2025

Thanks The Bendigo Hotel New tour, Collingwood Crime Crawl. Sundays 2pm. Bookings via www.melbournehistoricalcrimetours.com

🍺📜 NEW! A COLLINGWOOD PUB CRAWL THROUGH TIME by 👀

🕰️ c.1860s to 1920s: When Collingwood’s streets were run by youth gangs known as larrikin pushes. A time when Collingwood was considered by police to be ‘the home of Melbourne’s criminals’.

Tour Highlights include stops at 4 historic pubs - Birmingham Hotel, Albion Hotel, Bendigo Hotel, Yarra Hotel 🍻

📜 Stories shared by true crime author Michael Shelford.
📜 Includes tour booklet featuring photos of key characters, historic Collingwood streetscapes, police-drawn crime maps.

Food & drinks to be purchased at the pubs along the way.

📅 Tours run on Sunday arvos, must be booked in advance.
🎟️ Details & ticket link in our bio!

My new tour, Collingwood Crime Crawl, is now up and available for bookings. It will run every Sunday starting at 2pm at ...
24/12/2024

My new tour, Collingwood Crime Crawl, is now up and available for bookings. It will run every Sunday starting at 2pm at the Birmingham Hotel (featured in the photo attached). The tours go for 3 hours and stop at 4 pubs: The Birmingham Hotel, Albion Hotel (recently Punters palace), the Bendigo Hotel, and the Yarra Hotel.
Other places visited along the way include John Wren's Collingwood Tote and Victoria Park, the home of the Collingwood Magpies.
We'll stop at each of the pubs for 30 minutes, giving attendees the chance to purchase a drink if they so desire.
At the pubs and the stops in between you'll hear stories of the street gangs from the 1870s to 1920s, and also stories about John Wren's illegal gambling venture, the Collingwood Tote.
Prices are $40 for Adults, $35 for Seniors and Concession. Children can attend but need to be accompanied by a responsible adult. Children can be booked by selecting the Concession option.
Tours commence Sunday 12th January and bookings can be made via www.melbournehistoricalcrimetours.com

MELBOURNE HISTORICAL CRIME TOURS

1920 was the year Christmas was sent to prison.Christmas Roddy was not the brightest candle in the chandelier.In 1918 he...
21/12/2024

1920 was the year Christmas was sent to prison.

Christmas Roddy was not the brightest candle in the chandelier.

In 1918 he got married for a second time without getting divorced first.
If that wasn’t complicated enough, he continued living with his first wife without informing her of the change in circumstances.
His second wife didn’t know about his first wife either. She thought she’d married a bachelor named John Rodgers.
Things began to unravel when his first wife turned up to visit him in hospital and found his second wife sitting by his bed.
In the presence of them both, he told his first wife that the woman sitting by his bed was a volunteer who delivered fruit and magazines to hospital patients.
It’s not hard to imagine how the rest of the visit turned out.

Christmas was convicted of bigamy in 1920 and sent to prison for 6 months.
He was released just in time for Christmas.

If you’re looking for a gift idea for Christmas (not Christmas Roddy, the other one), look no further than Gift Cards from Melbourne Historical Crime Tours. Purchasing them is fast and easy, all you need to do is go to https://www.melbournehistoricalcrimetours.com/book-now.html , The cards are delivered immediately via email. They can be used to book any of our tours throughout the year.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from Melbourne Historical Crime Tours

(Story © Michael Shelford)

09/12/2024

Coming soon, a Collingwood Crime Crawl. John Wren, larrikin gangs, pubs.

08/12/2024

Some amazing 1920's Melbourne footage courtesy of NFSA - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

I only realised yesterday that my website had been incorrectly flagged by Norton's automated system as unsafe.I lodged a...
05/12/2024

I only realised yesterday that my website had been incorrectly flagged by Norton's automated system as unsafe.

I lodged an appeal and they fixed their error overnight.

I have no idea how long it had been that way but I thought I'd post this in case anyone had encountered the unsafe message.

My website is a safe website run through Weebly/Squarespace.

It was an automated computer error on the part of Norton.

Just a reminder that this Friday night the 6th December, being the first Friday of the month, the Gangsters, Brothels & ...
02/12/2024

Just a reminder that this Friday night the 6th December, being the first Friday of the month, the Gangsters, Brothels & Lolly Shops tour will be running in the former Little Lon precinct of Melbourne CBD.
The tour commences at 8pm, (rather than the usual 7pm), outside the historic Coopers Inn, (282 Exhibition St), and finishes at 10pm near Madame Brussels Lane.
The night tours feature a handheld projector which is used to project photos of the characters discussed onto the buildings and streetscapes they once frequented. Another bonus of the night tours is that I get to share some of my research by projecting original police documents about, and even handwritten letters from, the old inhabitants of this part of town.
Day tours, with free tour booklets, are currently running 6 days per week, Tuesday to Sunday.
Melbourne Historical Crime Tours have recently been awarded the TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Award for 2024, placing us in the top 10% of attractions worldwide.

$50 Adults $45 Seniors, Concession and Children 16+
8pm outside Coopers Inn, 282 Exhibition St
(Daytime tours are currently available 6 days per week, Tuesday until Sunday)

Gift Cards also available for Christmas or any celebration.
Bookings via www.melbournehistoricalcrimetours.com

Photos by Tristan Pemberton of Flywire Films

Melbourne True Crime walking tours, hosted and created by writer and historian Michael Shelford. Take a trip back to the early 1900s when Melbourne was run by armed gangsters and corrupt politicians.

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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.