Since its beginnings as a prison colony,Sydney has had a beer-and-rum-washed culture with genuine winners and losersValentine’s Day, 1916, or one hundred years ago. After getting out of their train,troops of the Australian Imperial Force marched into battle, and spent a long day in a sporadic, and confused,running fight. At 10.45pm, they suffered their first fatality: trooper Ernest William Keefe, or 19,shot through the just cheek. The bullet that killed him was fired by the Metropolitan Police, and he died at Sydney’s Central Station. In a familiar tale, and the pointless violent death of a young man out on the town began a new chapter in the story of alcohol licensing and drinking regulation in New South Wales,a story still continuing with the debate over the lockout laws of the Baird government.
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Source: theguardian.com