Victorian Archives Centre, North Melbourne and online, Tuesday 31 October 2023, 6.30pm to 7.30pm AEDT
In this public talk with Alexandra Roginski and Andrew Singleton, attendees will explore the arcades and byways of inner Melbourne in the early twentieth century; visit the small businesses and networks of healing, divination and faith that offered an alternative way of life in the new nation; meet glamorous figures who combined the discredited science of phrenology (head reading) with astrology, palmistry and fortune-telling, attracting scandal and police stings; enter a medium’s parlour to receive messages from the spirits and witness women gaining authority in this new religion; and learn about the fights of women who earned their livings in these occupations while facing police harassment, prosecution and muck-raking journalism.