Interstitial Acts: Urban Space and the Larrikin Repertoire in Late-Victorian Melbourne

Abstract

The appearance of ‘larrikins’—or young street toughs—in city spaces across late-Victorian Melbourne represented a fundamental challenge to contemporary understandings of public order and age-related behaviour. This article reassesses the activities of these individuals and contends that larrikinism is best regarded as a series of ‘performances’ in space. Key aspects of the larrikin's repertoire are considered, and larrikin activities related to the urban locations in which they occurred. Application of a gender analysis further reveals the sexualised undertones of larrikin behaviour and the anxieties of society's elders concerning both native-born youth and the reputation of ‘Young Australia’.