100 years ago this week - from the Bunyip Free Press of February 14 1914 comes the following report. The headline indicates how the meaning of word gay has changed over the years.
Gay Life at Garfield.
Two Men and a Woman.
On Saturday the Bunyip police got word that two men and a woman of the nomad travelling class, all under the influence of liquor, were behaving in a disgraceful manner in Garfield township. Constables Anstee and Phillips proceeded to Garfield, and a short investigation convinced them that the report was only too true. They arrested John Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, and A. Moss. Two vehicles were chartered, and the unsavoury cargo was landed in the Bunyip look-up. On Monday the trio were brought before Mr. C. Pearson, J.P., when the two men were each fined £5, in default one month in gaol; while the "wife" was fined £2, or a fortnight imprisonment. None of the fines were paid, and Constables Anstee and Phillips escorted the trio to his Majesty's hominy factory in Melbourne.
I had never come across the term hominy factory before; it means prison as apparently hominy is a slang word for prison food; hominy being a thin gruel or porridge made from cornmeal.
Gay life at Garfield
Bunyip Free Press, February 14, 1914, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129628335
