Fishmongers, Swanston Street, Princes Bridge, C.1910
Hawking fish was the most profitable of street trades and hawkers sold their wares from barrows. They had a poor reputation. Traders cleaned their produce in the city's horse troughs and, at the end of the day, emptied their barrows full of fish scales and slimy water onto the street. Shopkeepers complained about the smell of the fish, the persistent flies and the hawkers’ bad language. According to Brown May:
The nuisance of fish hawkers in Flinders Street led Annie L. Burbury to complain in 1911 that the hawkers ‘camped’ outside her premises attracted flies which spoiled the pounds worth of Christmas cards on view at her stationary shop.