This is a
quick unreferenced snapshot of Melbourne
born gangs I typed up for a Film student.
Melbourne has a long history of gangs and
subcultures that are unique.
The first
subculture was the Larrikin. It is believed the term ‘Larrikin’ came about in the
late 1860s in a Melbourne
courtroom, when a local foot policeman with a heavy Irish accent described some
naughty boys he had arrested as ‘a larkin in the street’. The judge asked him to repeat
what he said and a court reporter recorded it as ‘larrikins in the street’ and
the name stuck. In those days people could be arrested for play fighting,
whistling at girls, jostling passers by, drunkenness, swearing in public,
loitering and vagrancy, if they had no money in their pocket.
Larrikin boys
and their gangs, called ‘pushes’ are described as wearing tight black bell
bottom pants, with a belt at the back to pull them in at the waist, a white
shirt, and a short jacket. Often the jacket was decorated with pearl buttons. Shoes
or boots in a Victorian style would be high heeled and laced, carved or beaded,
and hats could be a black velvet cap, straw boater, bell topper or a wide
brimmed hat, depending on the gang. A bright coloured scarf would be secured
around the neck with a bone ring, preferably carved in Pentridge. Larrikins loved going to Pentridge, they
would insist on hard labour, so they would come out tanned and fit, after
working in the sun and a guarantee of three meals a day. It would give them a
chance to network with other Larrikins and criminals and increase their social
standing once back on the streets of Melbourne.
In prison, they could learn shoemaking as a trade, but often preferred to hang
out with mates once back on the street.
The Larrikin
girls, known as Donahs, wore fashionable frocks of the day, but in gaudy
colours, with lots of ribbons and feathers and similar footwear.
The push hung
around street corners, or in broken paddocks and would make their own fun,
drinking, telling stories, and practicing dance moves, until the constabulary
would come to break it up, which could end up in a bluestone rock fight or a
chase through the brothel lined lanes of Melbourne.
The Larrikins
featured in Melbourne
until the 1930s. During the 1890s a group of policeman called the Terrible Ten
were bought in to smash the Larrikin menace and imprison the main trouble
makers, leaving their younger brothers and sisters to come up through the ranks
during the 1900s. The Bourke Street Rats are one group that had a media
presence for decades and Squizzy Taylor was a member before he became famous.
In the 1920s a
new version of the Terrible Ten returned, to deal with Squizzy and his razor
gangs and once The Great Depression started, the Larrikins disappeared from the
media during the 1930s and 1940s.
During that time
the media favored the name ‘hoodlum’ adopted from the gangs in Chicago
and New York, so once the war was over, they
were way behind in finding out the name for some of the new teenagers in Melbourne. The Bodgies and the Widgies.
A Bodgie and his Widgie (my parents)
Copying the
draped Zoot suit styles of the American soldiers and newly arrived European
immigrants, the Bodgies created their own fashion, and got their name from
using suit fabric that was considered inferior, or bodgy which they wore with
satin shirts and pointy winklepicker shoes.
There was
plenty of work and money to splash out on the latest fashions and the new
Devil’s music. Rock’n’roll. The teenagers stopped dressing like their parents
and exploded with the new style. This was a time of moral panic, especially
with young woman were cutting their hair and teenagers becoming openly rebellious,
so during the 1950s the police created the Bodgie Squad, to deal with these
horrible criminals.
In this1950s newspaper report. Mr Mayor is way out of touch with who the gangs are, but right up to date with the preferred punishment method of the authorities.
During the 50s
a small group of Bodgies decided their clothes were of a better quality, and
called themselves Sharpies. Their look was so much like the Bodgies, it was too
hard for them to differentiate themselves, and they disappeared.
In the late
50s the Bodgies were also known as Rockers and by the 1960s there were a few
different teenage subcultures, the Hippies/freaks, the Stylists, the Jazzers,
the Mods, the Rockers and the Sharpies. Some morphed and merged, but the
sharpies quickly became known as the most troublesome. For a long time the
sharpies stayed off the media radar. With their short square back, college cut hair
and neat clothes, everyone was focused on the long haired smelly hippies
instead. But after a few episodes of Sharpies mistaking military cadets on
leave for rival shorthaired gang members, and running street brawls with the Mods,
the Sharpies were recognised.
1960s Sharpies
Sharpie boys
started off wearing the stove pipe style of the 50s but later changed to a check pattern, wide leg trouser with 22” cuff, known as flags, with a
Crestknit top, three buttons done up, cable knit cardigan and a trench coat in
Winter. Shoes were handmade chisel toe, Cuban heel. Girls, or ‘Brush’ wore
pleated skirts, pastel twin sets, with sandals and a string of pearls.
In the early
1970s some of the long haired teenagers decided to become sharps, and instead of
getting a standard short back and sides, they had the barber leave the hair at
the nape of the neck long and whispy and the sharpie haircut that became a
recognisable feature was created.
Early 1970s Sharpies
The 1970s
sharpies took the fashion one step further. Flags were replaced with tight
fitting, flared leg ‘baggies’, in plains and pinstripes and the cardigans, once
cable knit were now skin tight and striped. Still wearing the Crestknits and
chisel toe shoes, boys and the girls added platform shoes to the look, as well as
Staggers jeans and other Glam Rock styles. If you were part of a gang, add in a
t-shirt with the gangs name. Denim jeans and jackets were part of the look for
both Bodgies and Sharpies.
Later 1970s
In spite of the reputation for violence, all of these subcultures had their own walk, talk, clothes, hair, jewelry, music, dance, fashion and moral code that they created for themselves. We don't have to celebrate them, but their place in our history books should be acknowledged.
