By Iain McIntyre.
In one of many such cases the Commercial Banking company obtained a court order in April 1931 to evict an unemployed family in Rose Street, Brunswick. On this occasion a real estate agent and two police were confronted by a crowd of 100. After the family were evicted the crowd grabbed their furniture and marched to the Brunswick Town Hall where they dumped it in the portico. Referring to the fact that one of the family had served in Gallipoli the protesters added a placard reading “Digger fought for home in 1915; Ejected on the eve of Anzac Day, 1931.” Although the council denounced the action it made sure that the family were quickly rehoused.
A demonstration that night broke the windows of a real estate agent on Sydney Road and the Rose Street property was also destroyed with The Age reporting “The front fence was uprooted and one of the main supports was thrown through the front window. Every window in the little house was smashed. The gas meter was torn bodily from the wall and the bath overturned and mantelpieces pulled down from the walls. In places the ceiling was badly damaged and holes were made in the flooring of several of the rooms. Doors were pulled from their hinges and thrown onto the floor amid the general wreckage… The taps were turned on with the result that the garden and the yard were flooded.”