ABSTRACT
Even the marvellous Melbourne of the 1880s had recognised that the poor were ever-present, and the institutions established for their care were a feature of the booming city. This chapter is based upon the examination of some 20000 individual case-records from 22 of the agencies which administered relief to Melburnians during the 1890s. It attempts a general portrait of those poor people who applied for relief, focusing particularly upon the immediate family situations which brought them into contact with the charities, and their interaction with those who administered the assistance which they so badly needed. Houses were stripped bare and clothes worn to rags as savings were exhausted and people began selling anything that could be exchanged for money to buy food. In Melbourne itself there was the notorious slum area in the north-east, with a further concentration of poor people living around the Victoria Market and in the small crowded houses of West Melbourne.
