It is widely believed that in the tumultuous years following the Victorian gold rush that a number of robberies by armed bandits, known in Australia as bushrangers, took place on St Kilda Road, then a track through the scrub from the city to the seaside settlement of St Kilda. However only two events are recorded, and only one took place on today's St Kilda Road. It was probably the audacity of the first event, which was depicted in a famous Bushrangers on the St Kilda Road, painted 30 years after the event, that gave rise to the later reputation for hold-ups. This event took place over 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon of 16th October 1852, when 19 people were held up one by one or in groups, robbed, and tied up together at a spot near Glenhuntly Road, on the part of the road now known as Brighton Road that continues past St Kilda. “ The first victims appear to have been William Keel and William Robinson of Brighton who were driving in a cart down Brighton Road towards Brighton. After they had passed the St. Kilda racecourse and somewhere in the vicinity of Glenhuntly Road, they saw two men walking a little in front of them. There were two or three men with guns beside them, and they were looking in the trees, apparently for birds. Suddenly Keel and Robinson were surrounded, with guns pointed at their heads and that of their horse. At first, when they were ordered out of the cart, they thought the whole thing was a joke. Then, when they were roughly told that their brains would be blown out if they did not hurry, they realized that it was serious, and got out of the cart. They were quickly robbed of £28 and £46 and ordered to take their cart into a nearby wattle thicket. Here a halter was cut in shreds and used to tie them together. They were ordered to sit on the ground while two men stood guard over them with double-barrelled guns. At one stage the ring leader told the guard to put the victims together so that if he fired and missed one he would kill another. Mention was also made to one man already having been killed that after-noon and his body being put down a waterhole. However, no mention is made of his body in any