While contemplating life on St Kilda Road a yarn from the Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 1891, grabbed me.
The robbers were “old Van Demonian convicts, but being adverse to dig, they took to the St Kilda Road on a bright summer day. They took possession of this important thoroughfare for about two hours, sticking up every passenger who appeared on the road. As two of the gentlemen robbed were driving along the road from Melbourne toward Brighton, where they resided, they observed two men some distance in front carrying guns and occasionally looking up into the trees on the roadside as if in search of birds. But instead – ‘Keep still, or we will blow your brains out’. They continued to use the most abominable language.”
Wild language in front of the ladies.
Have a look at the wild ride down the St Kilda Road at holiday time and the passive look on the faces of the Wurundjeri people.
| Frederick Grosse, Holiday time – the St Kilda Road, 1867, wood engraving |
Julia Ritson
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