Vagrancy – being found in the street without any visible means of support – was a crime in many parts of Australia right up to the final decades of the 20th century. In some jurisdictions, vagrancy laws were only repealed in the early 2000s.
Police could arrest people who were found asleep in lanes, walking around country towns without a job to go to, or loitering near buildings. These people may simply have looked different or “out of place”.
