From the loft

Photographed 15 August 1923 at the State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay NSW.

I thought it would be easy to track down the stylishly dressed woman in this offender photograph. The name ‘Mary Harris’ has been scratched into the emulsion side of the glass plate by the photographer and is clearly visible on the right side of this image. The date the photograph was taken at Long Bay gaol is also evident which gives a rough indication of when she appeared before a court. Despite all the information I gleaned from the negative itself no record of her conviction appeared in the usual sources. A trip to the New South Wales State Records repository, located at Kingswood, was necessary before her story could be told.

Mary Harris was only 18 years old when she entered Long Bay Gaol. She was convicted of vagrancy and received a short custodial sentence. Her criminal record sheet showed that during 1923 she had accumulated two other convictions for vagrancy but it seems she may have paid a fine to avoid serving time. The obvious problem with this conviction is that she does not look like a vagrant, a term which conjures up an image of a hobo or tramp with no fixed address. Harris wears a luxurious fur and has even accessorized it with a fur hat. Her hair is shiny and her white stockings are pristine – she certainly doesn’t look homeless.

In all probability she wasn’t. Women charged with ‘vagrancy’, ‘indecent behaviour’ and ‘disorderly conduct’ where often, although not always, street prostitutes. Prostitution was an unlawful occupation and the term ‘vagrancy’ encompassed all those who had no visible or legal means of support. It was a useful charge for police to use, as they only needed to prove that a woman did not have a job or a male who supported her financially instead of the more complicated task of proving she was soliciting men for sex.