The Women of Little Lon: Sex Workers in Nineteenth Century Melbourne

Sex workers in nineteenth-century Melbourne were judged morally corrupt by the respectable world around them. But theirs was a thriving trade, with links to the police and political leaders of the day, and the leading brothels were usually managed by women.

While today a city lane is famously named after Madame Brussels, the identities of the other 'flash madams', the 'dressed girls' who worked for them and the hu...