Morbidly Melbourne: A Situationist Street Art Tour

Curated by Unimelb, 2015

This exciting new street art tour explores the methods which people use to find or ‘hunt out’ unique street art, which is off of the beaten track. The usual locations for street art, such as Hosier Lane and Flinders Lane, are abandoned to make way for the exploration of unique, intricate spaces.

The key difference between the Morbidly Melbourne street art tour and your average street art tour is that historic, grisly murders and general human savagery has occurred at all 5 sites! Combining the concepts of murder and street art, participants will arrive at the site of an historic murder and be faced with a riddle. The riddle will then lead them on a hunt to discover the beautiful, unique and alternative styles of street art hidden in their surrounds. This interactive element of the Morbidly Melbourne street art tour embraces Melbourne’s graphic history as well as adding quirk which juxtaposes the atrocious with the artistic.

Stop 1: The Singing Strangler

The strangled body of Gladys Hosking, 40, was found outside Melbourne University on May 18, 1942.  She was the last victim of serial killer Eddie Leonski ‘The Singing Strangler’, who was an American solider stationed in Melbourne during WWII. Gladys,…

Stop 2: The Gun-Fight Showdown

Notorious Joseph Leslie ‘Squizzy’ Taylor was one of Melbourne’s key underworld figures between 1918 until his death in the infamous gunfight of 1927. Squizzy started his life of crime by pickpocketing and small robberies, but was also associated with…

Stop 3: The Queen Street Massacre

On the morning of December 8 1987, Frank Vitkovic entered the Australia Post offices on Queen Street and began shooting people at random, killing 8 people. The injured office workers managed to ambush Vitkovic, stashing his shotgun in an office…

Stop 4: The Gun Alley Murder

The Gun Alley Murder was the horrific rape and murder of 12 year old Alma Tirtschke, who was found in Gun Alley on December 30, 1921. Unfortunately Gun Alley was built-over and the equivalent location to where present-day Gun Alley would have been is…

Stop 5: The Boot Trunk Tragedy

Saving perhaps the most gruesome until last, on the muggy evening of December 17th 1898, a bright yellow suitcase or ‘boot trunk’ was mysteriously floating along the banks of the Yarra River. Up to 300 people stood watching, as the police retrieved…