Larrikins, Louts and Layabouts - Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey

Stories about wild gangs of Sydney: the cabbage tree mob, larrikin pushes and later youth tribes. This episode is part of the 'Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey' series.
Sydney abounds with curious history. Some stories are known and many have disappeared over time. Cultural historian and storyteller Warren Fahey has created a dozen video stories of the city's past; each offering a unique slice of Sydney’s hidden history.
Visit Warren's website: www.warrenfahey.com.au/
Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey features footage from the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. It was created with assistance from the City of Sydney Creative Fellowships Fund and support of The Vine Foundation. The grants were under the auspice of the Folk Federation of New South Wales.
LARRIKINS, LOUTS & LAYABOUTS
- The curious history of Sydney’s youth tribes from Cabbage-Tree mobs to Larrikin louts.
Synopsis
These days being called a ‘larrikin’ is a badge of honour but it wasn’t always so. Cultural historian, Warren Fahey, claims some right to the name as his independent Larrikin record label, established in 1974, released nearly 600 Australian recordings during its twenty-five year history.
For generations past there has been debate about the origin of the word “larrikin." The Sydney Gazette of July 21, 1825, carried a reference to "larky boys'," denoting toughs of the times. The word ‘larrikin’ likely originated in a colonial courtroom when a young lad, accused of being a troublemaker, a hooligan and public nuisance, defended himself to the judge by proclaiming he had been ‘larkin’ about’. Maybe his Irish accent made it sound like ‘larrikin about’ but the word caught on and up until the 1950s was considered an appropriate description for a street troublemaker.
In truth, the larrikins of the nineteenth century were despicable creatures and best avoided. They were a scourge on Sydney’s streets.
Sydney’s first troublemaking gangs were the ‘cabbage-tree mobs’ of the 1840s and 50s. A Sydney Herald writer described the Cabbage Tree mobs’ as: “An unruly set of fellows, native-born generally - sort of loafers, they are known as the cabbage-tree mob. They are identifiably dressed in a suit of fustian or colonial tweed, and wear the emblem of their order, the low-crowned cabbage-palm hat.”
Larrikins appeared in the late 1870s. They operated in gangs called ‘pushes’. Mostly living in the poorer parts of Sydney - The Rocks, Pyrmont, Paddington, Newtown and East Sydney’s Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo - they were inner-city street toughs, nasty and aggressive. Their favourite sport was throwing blue metal (from railway tracks and street ballast) at windows - and each other - and it wasn’t beyond them to kick a man to death
The end of the larrikin came in 1911, when the Federal government introduced compulsory military training.
Sydney in the ‘roaring twenties’ was the age of Gatsby-types and a new youth culture. Women saw themselves as ‘flappers’ who wore short skirts (just at the knee was short for that time), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behaviour.
Post war, the 1950s witnessed a new attitude and a new youth tribe appeared in the guise of bodgies and their female counterpart, widgies. Rebellious but not as violent as the larrikin. They were nonetheless seen as a threat to society.
The mid-fifties also saw the rise of the beat generation and folkniks. Duffle coats, desert boots and long hair and emergence of rejection of standard narrative values. Many looked to spiritual quests, the exploration of Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration.
Between the mid sixties and seventies the world turned upside-down as traditional modes of authority were questioned. Widespread social tensions developed concerning sexuality, women’s rights and indigenous rights. It was the hippy-dippy age of Aquarius and counter-culture with defiant alternative lifestyles.
Sydney’s youth culture has always been fluid - we create social tribes for a sense of belonging. Expressed in dress, hair do’s and dont’s, slanguage and even physical mannerisms. Tribes come and go like a parade - cabbage-tree mobs to larrikin pushes to beatniks to bikies, bodgies and widgies. Then came sharpies, rockers, surfies, punks, goths followed by emos, bros, lads, skins, hipsters and even self-professed bogans. It’s a never-ending parade of Sydney life and never dull.

[@sueaddison9958]

Thank you❤

[@4Dwooorld]

Thank you ❤️

[@davechristian7543]

3:39 This is so funny i had to laugh so hard buddy eh hhaha 'classic.

[@juliebates2166]

Thanks for the fabulously entertaining history lesson..be good to get some sex work/ers history in there. Also, what do you know about the Loo actress Nellie Stewart

[@lynettekomidar2819]

You left out Hippies!