Fergus Hume evocatively described this scene in The mystery of a hansom cab, published in Melbourne in 1886:

'It was Saturday morning and fashionable Melbourne was 'doing the block'. Collins Street is to the Southern city what Bond Street and the Row are to London…Portly merchants, forgetting Flinders Lane and incoming ships, walked beside pretty daughters; and the representatives of swelldom were stalking along in their customary apparel of curly brimmed hats, high collars and immaculate suits.'

Doing the block, Gt Collins Street, ST Gill, 1880