Trams, lattés and mobsters

Ah, good old Melbourne. The arrest of this Fat Tony character in Greece has made for some interesting reading. I don't have to travel far from my leafy suburb to find some spot where some underworld figure was shot down sometime in the last couple of years. You don't get that in sleepy old Brissie.

Another thing you don't see as much in Brisbane is such blatant unionism. Every construction worker I see has a Eureka flag on his sleeve, and there are plenty of union offices scattered throughout the city. I guess then I shouldn't be that surprised by the following:

The majority of underworld crime figures and major incidents can be traced back to the Painters and Dockers Union that existed on Melbourne's waterfront after the Second World War. The Union had a Mafia-like structure, and most criminal activity was centered around control of the Union, and the cut associated with the drugs (primarily heroin and cocaine) that passed through the port.

Whatever happened to that romantic image of the hard-working union member with a family to feed? A fair day's pay for a fair day's work and all the rest. Our struggling family man was replaced by Tony Soprano, apparently. Still, makes for the odd interesting article in the news.