The Oscar Wilds of Sydney

Sydney’s history as a penal colony has meant that it has always had a gay reputation. In 1838, Reverend William Ullathorne, Catholic Vicar-General of the colonies, described New South Wales as a veritable “Sodom of the South” to a British inquiry into the transportation of convicts 3. He said homosexuality was very common, specifically amongst the prisoner population.

In an article from the mid 1890s about the “Oscar Wild’s [sic] of Sydney”, a newspaper claimed that disgraced gay men from London were fleeing to Sydney. When a gay brothel was discovered in London’s West End, many of the high-profile clients fled the country to avoid exposure and prosecution. The newspaper claimed that many of these men found their way to Sydney and they could be identified by their “effeminate style of speech, and the adoption of the names of celebrated actresses”4