Epigraph: Some time back, the writer of this article had occasion, in company with the police, to explore that half-mile of alleys and rights of way that run off from that portion of Little Bourke Street bounded by Bilkem Square and Synagogue Lane. To the majority of our readers these names will convey no ideas; they are names, and no more. But for the detective, the night constable, and the thief, they have a world of meaning ...
(Marcus Clarke "A Melbourne Alsatia" 1869)