1. Themes
  2. A to Z
  3. Search

Brogans Lane

Brogans Lane was an infamous track off Little Bourke Street. It was not named, or at least was unnamed on maps, in 1895 and 1915, but was occupied by cabinetmakers Ah Jawl and Ah Tawt in 1900. Police records state that a Mary Wilson was charged with vagrancy in Brogans Lane on 9 December 1892. Wilson had accosted a young girl, Mary Glew, and taken her into Brogan's Lane where 'a bunch of larrikins' were loitering. Luckily, a man named Fisher living in Little Bourke Street knew that Wilson was 'a bad character' and called the police. The Argus report of this incident affirmed that Brogan's Lane was 'inhabited by the lowest classes'. Around this time, poet Louis Esson drew a vibrant description of the lane in his poem of the same name.

Edwina Byrne

References
Murdoch, Sir Walter, The Oxford book of Australasian verse, Oxford University Press, London, 1918. Details
Sophie Couchman, 'Not so Mug Mugshots: Behind the portraits of series B6443', Crossings: bulletin of the International Australian Studies Association, vol. 9, no. 3, 2004, p. 2004. Details