Sydney has a long history of offering female companionship and escort services. The state of New South Wales, home to Sydney, the state capital, is particularly liberal – even by Australian standards – when it comes to this matter.
Starting from its founding as a colony in the late eighteenth century, Sydney has been home to a broad diversity of people from all walks of life. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, Sydney became known for its selection of recreational activities and so-called vices. The acquisition of female companionship as a paid service became increasingly common during this period. In 1859, a report known as the Select Committee into the Condition of the Working Classes of the Metropolis highlighted the extent to which this was occurring.
In the decades that followed, a series of actions were taken by the Australian government that were designed to reign in such activities. This initiative extended to the state level, where a varying amount of force was directed towards practices that some within the government felt to be unacceptable on moral, religious or ethical grounds. New South Wales was no exception. In 1883, the State Parliament passed Criminal Law Amendment Act 1883. Once passed, the act effected changes in a broad spectrum of legal gray areas, including the services of courtesans and other forms of female companionship, upon which it placed significant restrictions that had not existed up until that time. This was followed by the Police Offences Act of 1901. By comparison to other states, however, New South Wales was relatively lenient on this issue; certain measures, which by this time had gained traction in other parts of the country, were not implemented as thoroughly or with as much vigor in New South Wales.
Nonetheless, things began to change in the early years of the twentieth century, when a general movement swept across Australia calling for the restriction of “vices,” or activities that were seen by some as morally questionable. This in turn led to a slew of new legislation being implemented across the entire country. Some examples of legislation that came to bear during this time would be the Police Offences Amendment Act of 1908 and the Prisoners Detention Act. The legal tolerance for many things – the services of female courtesans and companions being just one among them – was considerably less during this period than it was in those prior.
Despite the legal restrictions now placed on them, the individuals affected by the act continued to work regularly in Sydney, and, in fact, the related businesses thrived in many respects. This was especially true in the years during and following the second World War. The presence of thousands and thousands of Australian soldiers, who were either returning from the war or were stationed at Sydney’s Garden Island Naval Base, led to an increased demand for the services of courtesans and for female companionship in general. Many of these developments were centered in the King’s Cross section of Sydney, which gained a reputation as something of a “Red Light District.”
The laws in Sydney regarding such activities finally changed in the late 1970s with an important act, passed in 1979, that greatly loosened the restrictions that had been placed on the procurement and availability of female companionship. Four years later, an amendment to the original act was passed, taking a step back from the 1979 act and reaffirming some elements of previous legislation. This piece of legislation was then supplemented with a series of others that were to come in the years that followed, leading to the passages of the Summary Offense Act of 1988, the Disorderly Houses Act of 1995, and, most recently, an amendment act that was passed in 2002. The Disorderly Houses Act of 1995 is the most significant piece of legislation regarding this matter, as it finally granted to escort services and the associated businesses the legal legitimacy and rights to operate freely throughout Sydney or anywhere else in state and not merely within the limited means that earlier laws had afforded them.
The end result of this body of legislation – accumulated throughout the course of over a century – is that citizens of New South Wales are perfectly free to appropriate the services of women offering companionship and escort services. There are, of course, laws and statutes in place governing the precise manner in which this can occur, pertaining to the location in which such business can be conducted, as well as the manner in which it can be advertised to the public. The services themselves, however, with certain exceptions, are legal.
Today, Sydney is home to a healthy and growing industry of escort and companionship services that have become a part of the city’s rich and unique cultural identity. Thousands of escorts and other professionals engaged in the same line of work currently reside in Sydney, providing services to a wide base of customers from both near and far.
