Introduction
Listen to two walking tours of unemployed resistance in Brunswick from 1929 – 1935 which visit the sites of some of Melbourne’s fiercest unemployed battles.
The economic depression of the 1930s saw mass unemployment across Australia with working class areas hardest hit. These depredations did not go unopposed as across the city pickets, occupations and protests were organised to demand jobs and welfare as well as disrupt and prevent the evictions of unemployed people.
Listen to Tours
How to Use the Self-guided Audio Tours
See instructions on the Merri-bek Council website.
In the footsteps of Noel Counihan and the Brunswick free speech fight
Join historian and archivist Melinda Barrie as she takes you in the footsteps of Noel Counihan and the Brunswick free speech fight. From the theatres and soap-boxes; to riding atop street-cars and Counihan locking himself in a cage to escape arrest, Brunswick was a place of organising and dissent.
Lock Out the Landlords Walk
Join historian and author Iain McIntyre for Lock Out The Landlords, as he takes you on a tour of unemployed workers organising and anti-eviction resistance during the Depression – from urban communes to storming the Brunswick Town Hall and defending working-class families from eviction.
The Lock Out the Landlords walk can also be listened as a podcast below. For more see the Lock Out The Landlords: Australian Anti-Eviction Resistance 1929-1936 pamphlet.
Map
People’s History of Brunswick Map (PDF)
Credit
These audio tours were created in partnership with 3CR Community Radio, Victorian History Week 2018 and the Australian Heritage Festival 2019.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND