Glebe’s Decade of Disorder: Crime and Gang Violence, 1910–1919
Gang fights, illegal gambling, burglaries and shocking murders reveal a very different Glebe a century ago
By Elliot Lindsay
It is hard to reconcile today’s leafy streets and bustling cafés with the Glebe of a century ago. Between 1910 and 1919, the neighbourhood was a very different place: densely populated, notoriously rough around the edges and seemingly never far from trouble. For a decade, Glebe and Forest Lodge provided Sydney’s newspapers with a steady stream of crime stories that would make extraordinary reading even today.
Glebe’s “Pushes”
By 1914, the Glebe crime problem had become so serious that the Evening News published a front-page investigation under the alarming headline "Terrorism at Glebe." The newspaper claimed that respectable residents were living "in a state of terror" because of the local "pushes"—gangs of young men who dominated parts of the suburb through intimidation and violence.
The worst area, according to reporters, centred on Mitchell Street, Campbell Street, Glebe Road (now Glebe Point Road) and Wentworth Park. Residents were reportedly too frightened to identify offenders, fearing retaliation from the gangs. One man was kicked unconscious by a mob after midnight, yet neither the victim nor witnesses would speak to police. In another incident, three men quarrelled outside a nearby hotel before one produced a revolver and emptied all six chambers at his companions in Mitchell Street. The intended victims escaped only by diving behind a lamp post, and once again no one was willing to give evidence.
Gambling, Grog and Gang Fights
The gangs were sustained by an underground economy of gambling and sly-grog selling. Although hotels closed on Sundays, alcohol remained easy to obtain through unlicensed sellers, while two-up schools operated openly in and around Wentworth Park. Scouts watched every approach to the gambling schools, warning players whenever a police officer appeared so the crowd could scatter before arrests could be made. The newspapers also reported that pak-a-pu agents regularly visited the district, allowing residents to participate in the popular Chinese lottery. Gambling, drinking and violence formed a potent combination, and arguments frequently escalated into vicious brawls.
One such fight erupted in Wentworth Park in October 1911 after a dispute at a two-up school between men from Glebe and Pyrmont. What began as an argument quickly developed into a full-scale "push fight". Between forty and sixty men joined the melee as fists, boots and beer bottles became weapons. Several participants were knocked unconscious while others suffered deep cuts from broken bottles. Only when the spectators feared someone might be killed did they intervene to separate the combatants.
Police repeatedly attempted to regain control of the park. In February 1912 they raided one of the largest two-up schools yet uncovered, finding more than 200 men gambling openly. Organisers had stationed lookouts around the park, including a scout on a bicycle, whose whistle warned the players whenever police approached. Despite numerous arrests, the gambling schools quickly reappeared, and by 1916 Annandale councillors were publicly criticising the police, claiming that illegal two-up continued almost unchecked within sight of the local station. Weeks later, twenty-five people were arrested during another raid on a gambling school operating inside a house in Westmoreland Street, Glebe.
Burglars in the Night
The police also fought an ongoing battle against burglary.
In February 1914, three burglars broke into the home of Charles Solomon at 122 Glebe Road, forcing open a rear window before ransacking the house. Awakened by the noise, Solomon armed himself with a revolver and fired two shots as the men fled through the backyard towards Boyce Street. Waiting in the laneway was local night watchman Frederick Holmes, who grappled with one of the burglars in a fierce struggle before the offender broke free and escaped.
Holmes would again make the newspapers only six months later. In August 1914, he joined Constable Strong in pursuing three suspected thieves from the corner of Ferry Road and Glebe Road during a dramatic pre-dawn chase. The suspects dropped bundles of stolen newspapers before sprinting towards Hereford Street. Strong fired warning shots while Holmes pursued the fleeing men with revolver in hand. One suspect was captured while the others disappeared into the darkness. Earlier that same morning police had arrested another suspected burglar in Federal Park, carrying pliers, an electric torch and boots wrapped in heavy socks to muffle his footsteps.
Crimes That Shocked Sydney
The decade also witnessed several crimes that shocked Sydney because of their sheer brutality.
In November 1911, metallurgist Henry Trevascus was found murdered inside his office at No. 1 Glebe Road, his skull crushed with the steel coulter of a plough before his throat was cut. The investigation became one of Australia's earliest murder cases to rely on fingerprint evidence, ultimately leading to the conviction of nineteen-year-old Campbell Nairn Moir. The sensational case dominated newspaper headlines for months and drew further attention because Moir was the nephew of a New South Wales government minister.
When Violence Came Home
Violence was by no means confined to criminals and gangs. On Christmas Day 1910, William Wellman fatally shot his brother Denis at the family's home in Derwent Street, Glebe, after a drunken domestic dispute in which Denis allegedly attacked the house with a chopper and hurled a block of wood through a window. At trial, a jury accepted that William had acted while defending his family and acquitted him without even retiring from the jury box.
Other acts of violence became equally notorious. In January 1914, Lily Haddrell was shot in the face inside a boarding house in Bridge Road, Glebe, surviving after surgeons removed the bullet from her cheek. Three years later, Rupert Lowe threatened to shoot his wife during an argument at their Glebe home before smashing furniture and crockery with an axe and firing seven revolver shots inside the house. Remarkably, the court merely required him to enter into a recognisance to keep the peace.
By the end of the decade, police had become accustomed to investigating shootings. In 1918, Ernest Ellis shot his stepmother during a family dispute before taking his own life in Jubilee Park. The following year another domestic argument ended in gunfire in Bridge Road, where John Rosman fired a revolver at his father-in-law after demanding to know the whereabouts of his wife.
Beyond the Headlines of Glebe Crime
Despite the headlines, it is important to remember that Glebe's reputation was created by the actions of a relatively small number of offenders. Contemporary newspapers repeatedly acknowledged that most residents were hardworking and law-abiding people who simply wanted safer streets. Many became increasingly frustrated that local gangs, habitual gamblers and violent drunks had come to define public perceptions of their neighbourhood.
