Photograph - Photograph, Sepia, 23 Police repelled 1500 Wharf Labourers - Blood on Pavement, November 1928

Album (item) - Photographic Album, 1928

Historical information

In October 1928, on the eve of the Great Depression, Melbourne’s wharfies went on strike. Strike-breakers were brought in and police, armed with guns and brandishing batons, lined the wharf to protect them. Tempers rose, fighting broke out, and a nervous inspector ordered his men to fire first into the air, then into the crowd.

Physical description

on page 8

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