History Or Hoarding? With Annabel Crabb
May 12, 2026 · 29 min · 20 segments
Long before the Internet introduced us to twinks and furries, the Victorian era had explored 'scandalous' gay porn via explicit love letters between men. The Library locked such filth away, lest it…
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[suspenseful music] Deep down in the earth, under the State Library of New South Wales sandstone building in Sydney's CBD, is the locked fortress where valuable things and shameful things live cheek by jowl, where priceless artifacts of the nation's pride and achievement lie peacefully on ordered shelves next to its dirty, smelly secrets.
I am literally not allowed to describe the process of getting into the Strong Room, but suffice to say, it involves multiple steps, multiple librarians, and puts me irresistibly in mind of a Victorian era quadrille, which is kind of appropriate, because today's story dates back to that exact period, specifically the 1890s, when widowed Victoria sat on the British throne, and far away Sydney was lit by gas lamps and wracked by economic hard times.
The New South Wales Police Force numbered nearly 2,000 officers, but only a tiny handful achieved the elevated rank of detective.
And in 1892, that elite brotherhood admitted a new member, [suspenseful music] Detective Jules P. Rocher.
[suspenseful music] Deep down in the earth, under the State Library of New South Wales sandstone building in Sydney's CBD, is the locked fortress where valuable things and shameful things live cheek by jowl, where priceless artifacts of the nation's pride and achievement lie peacefully on ordered shelves next to its dirty, smelly secrets.
I am literally not allowed to describe the process of getting into the Strong Room, but suffice to say, it involves multiple steps, multiple librarians, and puts me irresistibly in mind of a Victorian era quadrille, which is kind of appropriate, because today's story dates back to that exact period, specifically the 1890s, when widowed Victoria sat on the British throne, and far away Sydney was lit by gas lamps and wracked by economic hard times.
The New South Wales Police Force numbered nearly 2,000 officers, but only a tiny handful achieved the elevated rank of detective.
And in 1892, that elite brotherhood admitted a new member, [suspenseful music] Detective Jules P. Rocher.
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