THE
CHRONICLES
OF EARLY
MELBOURNE.
005
Russell Streets. This was always the most comfortable looking and select of the set, though occasionally some black sheep found a resting place there. There is a little history connected with the origin of one of the earliest villas in South Yarra, for ever so long classically Italianized as " C o m o . " T h e place was in thefirstinstance designated the " Punch-bowl," and it was taken up as a sort of small H o m e station by the popular old colonists, John and Joseph H a w d o n . Melbourne, was at the time (1837), in want of a convenient butchery. T h e beasts were fetched in batches of fours, and one at a time killed and cut up, when each of the then four Melbourne butchers would attend propria persona, and getting his "quarters" at 8d. per lb. would have them removed to town and retailed at is. It was in this same hut the final arrangements were m a d e for starting thefirstoverland mail from Melbourne to Yass. Originally the population was bi-sected into branches known as the "Ex-Convict" and " Immigration " sections. T h e Expiree Contingent, was, as a rule, the older, and at one time it would be something rare to find a resident of over forty years of age, w h o had not previously expiated At first, what for convenience sake some breach of the criminal law in chains, gang or prison. were termed the " b o n d " and the "free" did not take kindly to each other. T h e "Expirees" regarded the others with a feeling of pitying contempt, a species of simpletons w h o should have stayed at home. They called them " Johnny Raws," and " N e w Chums." O n the other side, the immigrants snapped their fingers at those w h o m they inelegantly denominated "the Old Lags." Time, which softens everything, soon mitigated those asperities. There was one line of demarcation between the two castes which took several years to remove, viz., in their style of apparel. T h e English, Irish, and Scotch appeared clad in heterogeneous garb, the men's upper and nether garments of every k n o w n cut, fashion, and material—cloth, frieze, and corduroy, and the head-gear either a felt hat or bell-topper, then stylishly known as the "Caroline." Their coats were mostly not over-long swallow-tailed, and the would-be swellish portion went in for glaring brass buttons. With the "Expirees" there was more uniformity of costume, for their dress was a cabbage-tree hat, a cloth jacket, " loud" necktie, and moleskin or drill trousers.
