As featured on BBC Radio, ABC Radio, and SBS Television's 'Secrets Of Our Cities', tour guide Michael Shelford is a true crime writer and journalist featured regularly in the Herald Sun newspaper and other publications. 

Gangsters, Brothels & Lolly Shops tour c.1850’s-1930’s

The downtown Melbourne slum quarter of ‘Little Lon’ was known for its brothels, street prostitution, illicit drugs and as being the habitué of many of Melbourne’s worst criminals. This district, which by the early 1900’s was largely confined to the area bounded by Spring St, Russell St, Lonsdale St and La Trobe St, is the heart of Melbourne Historical Crime Tours’ Gangsters, Brothels and Lolly Shops Tour which runs every Friday nights 8pm and Saturday afternoons 4pm.

Fitzroy True Crime tour c.1890’s-1920’s

​Right on the edge of Melbourne’s CBD is Melbourne’s oldest Suburb: Fitzroy. In the early 1900's this locality was considered by Police to be “the home of Melbourne’s criminals and the home of criminals generally”. Fitzroy was also the home of a high percentage of Melbourne’s low budget brothels and most of its sly grog shops (speak easies). It was the only area of Melbourne considered so dangerous that police were directed to work the beat in duos after dark. Shortly after WWI Melbourne’s criminal community split into 2 rival factions, sparking Australia’s greatest ever gang war: the ‘Fitzroy Vendetta’. The Fitzroy True Crime Tour takes you on a journey from the suburb’s wealthy beginnings through to the heights of the gang war and its repercussions. Tour guide Michael Shelford, shares insights gathered from original police files as he takes you past the former brothels, sly grog shops (speak easies) and crime dens of the era. A 32-page tour booklet puts faces to the characters featured. The Fitzroy True Crime Tour runs every Sunday 1pm

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Location

The Gangsters, Brothels & Lolly Shops tour meets at the Coopers Inn, 282 Exhibition St, Melbourne.

The Fitzroy True Crime Tour meets at the Workers Club Hotel, 51 Brunswick St, Fitzroy.
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​*The prisoner photographs above have been reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia. © State of Victoria through Public Record Office Victoria. PROV VPRS515 & VPRS516.
The streetscape photographs were sourced from the State Library of Victoria's Digital Collection, are out of copyright and are reproduced through Creative Commons.
The police in uniform photographs are from Museum Victoria's digital collection.

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