In 1920’s Sydney, if you drank at a pub and hurt yourself it was you’re your own fault. One Christmas Eve morning in 1927, a naval petty officer fell 25 feet from the second floor of the Brooklyn Hotel, suffering “a probable fracture of the spine, fractured skull, and fractured jaw”. Today that might spark a media and public outcry. Instead, the Sydney Morning Herald at the time pithily reported that “it is believed he overbalanced on the railing.” Things, of course, have changed.
