Sharpies (Australian subculture)

Sharpies, or Sharps, were members of suburban youth gangs in Australia, most significantly from the 1960s and 1970s.^[1] They were particularly prominent in Melbourne, but were also found in Sydney and Perth to lesser extents. Sharpies were known for being violent, although a strict moral code^{[citation needed]} was also evident, and many ex-Sharpies argue that claims of wrongdoing were exaggerated ^[2] The name comes from their focus on looking and dressing "sharp".^[1]

Sharpie culture

Sharpies would often congregate in large numbers, regularly attending live bands at town hall and high school dances.^[1]

Common clothing items included Lee or Levi jeans, cardigans, jumpers, and T-shirts—often individually designed by group members.^[1]

Mods were an enemy of sharpies, and their gang brawls were reported in the newspapers during 1966.^[3] In a 2002 interview, a former sharpie stated that despite the sharpie culture being quite violent – especially as they crossed other gangs' territories on the public transport network – the altercations were restricted to inter-gang rivalries.^[1]

Sharpies were particularly fond of Australian pub rock and hard rock groups such as Rose Tattoo, Lobby Lloyde and the Coloured Balls and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.^[4]

Sharpies in popular culture

• Photographer Rennie Ellis has included portraits of sharpies in his works^[5]
• Queeny (1994), Deep (1997), and Suburban Warriors (2003) are short films by Rebecca McLean related to sharpies^[6][7]
• Blackburn South Sharpies' member Peter Robertson curated Sharpies, a photographic exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in 2001–02, and also as part of the 2002 Melbourne International Fashion Festival^[1]
• Blackburn South Sharpies' member Larry Jenkins also photographically documented this gang^[8]
• The Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured sharpies in a 2002 episode of George Negus' New Dimensions in Time^[1]
• Comedian Magda Szubanski was a sharpie in her youth and parodied the subculture on Fast Forward.^[9]
• Levi released "Levi's Black Sharps", a denim range inspired by sharpies^[10]
• Top Fellas: The Story of Melbourne's Sharpie Cult is a 2004 book by Tadhg Taylor on Melbourne's sharpies^[11]
• Rage: A Sharpie's Journal Melbourne 1974–1980 is a 2010 book by Julie Mac on Melbourne's sharpies^[12]
• Out with the Boys: The Sharpie Days is a 2011 book by the Seagull about the Sydney Sharpies of the 1960s^{[citation needed]}
• Once Were Sharps: The Colourful Life and Times of the Thomastown Sharps is a book by Nick Tolewski, written by Dean Crozier^{[citation needed]}
• A resurgence of interest in the Sharpie sub-culture in recent times included Skins'n'Sharps Exhibitions in 2006 (Dante's Gallery, Fitzroy) and 2010 (Kustom Lane Gallery, Hawthorn) and a dedicated website Skins'n'Sharps^[13]