List of specific crimes in Melbourne

This page examines individual crimes & criminals in Melbourne.
Early history
The Nelson robbery was one of the major crimes of the Victorian gold rush. It involved the robbery at gunpoint of 8,183 ounces of gold valued at about £30,000 by a party of thieves from the barque Nelson as she lay at anchor in Hobsons Bay off Melbourne on the night of 1–2 April 1852.
The Depressions of the early twentieth century generated organised crime, as in most western cities. Infamous gangsters of the time included Squizzy Taylor, and were portrayed in Author Frank Hardy’s 1950 novel Power Without Glory.
From the 1950s until the early 1990s 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. Similar in structure to Italian crime gangs, the 'dockies' followed an unwritten set of rules which included assistance to members, rejection of conventional justice...