In 1871, Madame Brussels – Melbourne’s most iconic nineteenth-century brothel-keeper – married an Englishman with the improbable name of Stud Hodgson. Stud Hodgson was born into a genteel family of British army careerists with a scattering of aristocratic titles, but as a young man Stud sought his fortune as a pastoralist in the colonies – in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales and the new colony of Queensland, outback of Longreach. When he returned to England Stud met Caroline Lohmar, the lively blonde domestic servant in his boarding house. They married in London and embarked for Melbourne soon after, but within two years Stud had joined the police force and Caroline was running a brothel. Stud’s voluminous reports to his superiors in the Victoria Police reveal his character and a whole lot more regarding his life, his marriage, and the state of the world around him. He was an ordinary man with an extraordinary story.
