YOUTH GANGS IN POSTWAR MELBOURNE
The gunshots that rang out across Carlton North and Fitzroy North were from the revolvers of teenage gang members who moved through the suburbs in teams of 50 or more seeking combat. In this era, ‘push’ was the term for a gang, and each push, when mobilised, had scouts on bicycles patrolling the surrounding area, keeping an eye out for police, opposition gang members and anything else of interest.
They were a generation of youths who’d entered their teens during World War I. Their childhood heroes had been the soldiers at the front and their postwar heroes had become the gun-toting stars of the silver screen. Their social hubs were the movie theatres of the area: the Lyric in Fitzroy, the Palace in Fitzroy North and the Jubilee in Carlton
