Move Over Queen Lizzie, We’re Crowning a Very Different Monarch Today ?
Forget Buckingham Palace — today we’re diving into the much spicier, scandal-laden halls of power: the brothel scene of Australia. It’s a tale as old as time (or at least as old as your great-great-granddad’s dodgy weekend in the city). Ever wondered who truly reigns supreme in the empire of lace and latex? Who’s been running the red-light royalty with a diamond-studded whip in hand? Well, keep reading, because we’re about to introduce you to a line-up of Australia’s most infamous and fabulous madams — served, of course, in glorious chronological order. It’s time to answer the burning question: Who is the undisputed Queen of the Brothel Scene?
Caroline Hodgson: known as Madam Brussels was born inPotsdam, Prussia. Cazz married the well-connected pom Studholme George Hodgson in London on 18 February 1871. Wikipedia tells us that the couple immediately migrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne on the ship Melmerby on 24 June 1871. A year later Studholme joined the Victoria Police and was transferred to country Mansfield, leaving his 25-year-old wife alone in Melbourne silly boy. While the Stud was away Cazz started working as a Prostitute cause why not ? By 1878 she had opened her first principal establishment, which was also her home, and was located at 32-34 Lonsdale Street, not far from Parliament House. The building was extravagantly furnished and catered to Victoria's commercial, political and judicial ruling class, acting much as a gentlemen's club. Sadly Cazz or Madame Brussels was 'used as a political football in 1906' and the following year she was forced to close her businesses after the introduction of the Police Offences Act and increased efforts by the government to curtail prostitution.
Tilly Devine: known as the ‘Queen of Woolloomooloo’ ran a string of brothels centred around Darlinghurst and the infamous Cross. By 1925 Tilly was well known to police not in a small part for her connections to the Razor Gang, whose speciality was increasing the smile of its victims by several ragged inches. In short time Tills had accumulated a long list of convictions ranging from common prostitution to indecent language, offensive behaviour and assault; she was a wild one. Although she became one of Sydney's wealthiest women, by 1955 the Taxation Department (fricking ATO) ordered her to pay more than £20,000 in unpaid income tax and fines sending her close to bankruptcy. (1955 to 2025 comparison nearly $850,000.00) She sold off her last brothel in Palmer Street, Darlinghurst in 1968, and died two years later.
Kath Pettingil: Born 1935 Kath was an infamous crime family matriarch with two of her sons from her ten children suspected of serial murder and one for the Walsh Street murders of the two young policemen, although to be fair he was acquitted. Working first as a prostitute in the Richmond area of Melbourne Pettingill started her brothel in the area in the early 1970s. Famously, Pettingil had one eye shot out and she was known as the Evil Granny.
Shirley Brifman was a madam and police corruption whistleblower in Queensland and NSW born in 1935 and in 1972 died of a suspicious “suicide”. Working first as a prostitute in Sydney in 1963 in 1968 she opened brothels in NSW and Queensland a few years later. Shirley appeared on This Day Tonight, a national television program, to make allegations of police corruption, and over the following months was interviewed by senior officers from both the New South Wales Police and Queensland Police. She named over fifty police figures (from both states) who had allegedly been involved in prostitution, but criminal charges were brought against only one officer – detective senior sergeant Tony Murphy was charged with perjury. Brifman died at an apparently not so safe police “safe house" in Clayfield, Queensland in March 1972, aged 36. Her death came eighteen days before she was due to appear as chief witness in the trial of Tony Murphy; the case against him subsequently collapsed. The police gave her cause of death as "barbiturate intoxication", and the State Coroner declined to investigate further, as police advised there were "no suspicious circumstances”.
Shirley June Finn née Shewring: was an Australian brothel keeper, nightclub operator and Perth socialite who was shot dead at about midnight on 22–23 June 1975 in Perth, Western Australia. Wikipedia tells us that her body, dressed in an elaborate ball gown and expensive jewellery, was found at dawn in her car, which was parked on a golf course next to a busy freeway. The murder is notable because of Finn's close relationship with Western Australia Police detectives who, in that era, controlled and regulated Perth's prostitution and gambling activities. The crime remains unsolved. A coronial inquest held between 2017 and 2020 returned an open finding with an acknowledgement that "it was most likely she was killed because she had tried to blackmail police about corruption."
To quote directly from Wikipedia Category Australian Brothels and Madams, we can admire the life and the life’s work of our very own Mary-Anne Kenworthy (aka Mrs Langtrees) thankfully still very much alive and untouched by scandal or criminal associations.
Born in 1956 in New Zealand, Kenworthy is an advocate for the legalisation of prostitution and improving the rights of sex workers. Ms Kenworthy’s business ventures extend well beyond brothel ownership, with a dynamic media portfolio that includes the lively and uncensored TalkinSex forum, TV appearances, and active engagement across multiple social media platforms. TalkinSex originally launched as a dedicated sex education platform, aiming to inform and empower audiences about sexuality and the sex industry. However, thanks to its no-censorship ethos and growing audience appetite, it has since exploded into a lively, anything-goes media hub — covering everything from relationships and health to politics, lifestyle, and even the odd scandal — all served with unfiltered honesty and a good dose of humour. Until 2022 she owned Langtrees 181 Kalgoorlie. She currently owns Langtrees VIP Perth and Langtrees VIP Canberra.
Ms Kenworthy entered the sex industry in NZ in 1981 at age 26. In 1983, she travelled to Australia on holidays and purchased her first non-containment escort agency in Midland, the Agency Escorts & Moonlight Escorts. In 1984 Kenworthy was accepted by the WA Police into the WA Containment system.
In 1992, the “Boss” relocated to Burswood renovating an old chocolate factory and opened Langtrees of Perth. In 1998 she purchased a brothel in Kalgoorlie. In 2000, Ms Kenworthy reopened it as the Goldfields theme bordello. It was the only functioning tourist bordello and was sold in 2022. On 6 June 2002, she became an Australian citizen — swapping the All Blacks for the Baggy Greens, and basically trading a rugby dynasty for a cricket team that occasionally remembers how to win.
Conclusion
As biased as we are we respectfully contend that in terms of pure entrepreneurial business acumen, street smarts and class, not to mention life expectancy, it is indeed Mary-Anne Kenworthy who is the Queen of the Brothel scene in Australia. All those in favour say Aye!
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