Relics of Victoria's criminal history are being buried in sand at Melbourne's Brighton Beach
Relics of Victoria's criminal history are being buried in sand at Melbourne's Brighton Beach From:- ABC News Along a stretch of Port Phillip Bay, one of Melbourne's great archaeological stories is slowly being buried beneath tonnes of sand. It's a tale that has everything: ghastly crimes, executions, exhumations, grave robbery, publicly-funded Great Depression-era mass-employment construction schemes and, of course, Ned Kelly. But it's a story that's probably not as well known as it should be. It's not untold, but it's definitely under-told. John Conder's role in the story is small but fascinating and as good a place as any to start. Conder — a Yorkshireman who emigrated to Australia in 1859 — was a prolific felon whose crimes graduated in seriousness on each of the half a dozen times he was jailed in Victoria. Larceny. Cattle stealing. Bank robbery. Murder. In one of the earlier mugshots in his prison file, he is wild-eyed with a thick, bushy beard,...