Tutor/Leader: Beris Cook
Location: Sunbury Station
Day: Thursday, 8:50am – 4:00pm
Date: 23 February 2023
Capacity: 25
Fee: $30
Historian Michael Shelford takes us on a walk through Fitzroy. Come and join us for a day with a difference.
Did you know that in the early 1900s Fitzroy was the only area in Melbourne considered so dangerous that police were directed to work in twos after dark. Shortly after WW1 Melbourne’s criminal community was split into two rival factions sparking Australia’s first ever gang war – The Fitzroy Vendetta.
The Fitzroy 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 former brothels, sly grog shops and crime dens of If you need help please as era. You are also provided with a 32 page booklet which puts faces to the characters featured.
Our Melbourne Crimes Tour was so popular we planned to do the Fitzroy Crimes Tour last year but it was cancelled twice, first through Covid19 and then Michael having to go to hospital. So third time lucky.
Could you please meet at the Sunbury railway station at 8.20am so we can catch the 8.44am metro train to Parliament Station. Note we always sit in the back carriage. We then catch a number 11 tram at Macarthur Street and arrive at Fitzroy Town Hall around 10.15am, in time for a toilet break before the tour starts at 10.30am.
We will be having lunch after the tour at a near by hotel- The Workers Club at 12noon at Brunswick Street at 51-53, corner Gertrude Street. The Hotel can cater to all tastes with vegetarian and gluten free foods available.
***Attendance at Outings & Guest Speakers requires that members must be fully vaccinated. Therefore new members of U3A Sunbury must bring their vaccination certificate to be sighted at this event, unless it has been sighted and registered previously.