“Rough on Rats” in Southbank

The combination of a river location servicing numerous ships (many from Europe), large warehouses, and heavily used drains meant that the area now known as Southbank was a haven for rats in the 19th century.

Rats were regarded as increasing in large numbers around 1910, predominantly the grey variety. But the government was alarmed at the increase of leprosy, carried by the less numerous (but more virulent) black rats. Rats also carried other diseases, as well as being highly destructive of goods in warehouses and holds of ships.

One effort to counter the effects of rats was the use of a product called “Rough on Rats”, introduced in 1889. It was a poison made from arsenic and coal, which was developed and marketed by the Forbes Company in Boston.

It became a worldwide best-selling product, which unfortunately also became the preferred method of suicides, as well as causing numerous accidental deaths. “Rough on Rats” also increasingly became a means of murder.

Many attempts were made by the Victorian Board of Health to introduce methods to control and eliminate the menace. Ferrets were also used in 1905, and council by-laws were proposed, where householders were required to keep a cat or a dog, which proved impossible to enforce.

Some councils (such as South Melbourne) offered rewards to those who could kill numerous rats (often using fox terriers), at the rate of two pence per head. However, locals often carried the bodies in bags to the council depot amid the South Melbourne Market for cremation (imagine the smell) and some carried their shopping home in the same bags!

Local doctors were aware of the dangers to public health of flooded drains throughout the district with increases in rheumatism, diphtheria and influenza. Even the local police station suffered, with the local force spending their time catching rats rather than criminals.

Although there were comparatively few houses in what was to become Southbank, other parts of South Melbourne suffered from foul odours arising from floors saturated by drain water that attracted multiple rats.

“They run over the bed while I am trying to sleep”, one resident of Gladstone St declared in 1923. What made it worse was that the council was accused (unfairly) of doing nothing to alleviate the drainage problem.

It was a continual problem for health authorities, alleviated somewhat by the introduction of the product called “Ratsak” in the 1950s, which provided effective solutions to eliminate rats.

But the ABC is reporting that rat populations are again on the increase in Southbank and Docklands, due to factors like construction, closed eateries, and decreased pest control demand. •