Newsboys Club

This faded and foxed image of the corner of Collins St has a ghostly quality that compels us to look within it. 

The man in his coat and stovepipe hat drives his cart away from us down the empty street towards the nothingness at the centre of the image, leaving only the newsboy to stare towards us sentinel-like defending his territory.

And defending his territory was a necessary skill. In the hierarchy of hard times newsboys were the poorest of the poor, using their meagre earnings to support themselves and often their families. So, although they took care of one another, a man needed to be able to stand his ground.

Late 19th-century Melbourne was tough times, and this brought out the best and the worst in people. The shoeless newsboys were seen by some as an “obnoxious annoyance” with a council by-law allowing them to be fined or jailed for the “violent outcry” with which they attracted business. But they had their champions too, who, like the founders of the Ragged Schools, thought all the boys needed was a chance. So, they gave them one.

Notable among these benefactors were William Forster and William Groom, who established “Try Excelsior” classes, which in time became the Newsboys Club.

Both the Newsboys Club and the Ragged Schools sought to raise children out of poverty, not by what they gave them but by how they enabled them. The Newsboys Club gave boys boots, but they also taught them how to mend them, so they were able to succeed through their own actions. 

Initially focused on overcoming the boys’ unmet needs for food, warmth and literacy, the Newsboys Club changed over time to meet the changing needs of the boys. 

One of the most important changes was the arrival of Miss Edith Onians. Well to-do and of practical Christian outlook, Miss Onians found her calling when she began teaching basic literacy to the newsboys at the Try Society. She spent the next 58 years supporting them, advancing them, responding to their changing needs and above all, caring for them.

During Miss Onians’ time services expanded to include sports teams, cabinet-making, fitting and turning, boxing, free haircuts, basic dental services, savings accounts and, in time, a baby clinic for the wives of old boys and much more.

As one former newsboy said of the club, “I saw opportunity” and of Miss Onians herself another said, “when I first met her, I was a poor ragged hungry kid. I had never been to school and could not spell ‘cat’. She taught me to read. She fed me and clothed me and taught me the difference between right and wrong.”

Unsurprisingly the Newsboys Club produced success stories ranging from Olympians, through a State Cabinet Minister to a Melbourne Cup-winning jockey.

So, although the newsboy of the faded image stands alone, he doesn’t stay alone. •