Where else in the world can boast of having but a few tents on a less than average river in 1835 to grow to five hundred thousand souls and considered to be a jewel in the British crown in less than forty years. Yet Melbourne could. Marvellous Melbourne as it was all but officially named, Batmania was its first choice Bearbrass an option, a mistakenly heard word from the aboriginal Birraruna people, meaning junction of two rivers. Yet for a lad growing up during an international depression it was but a slum where he survived by picking the pockets of the rich.