An Australian entrepreneur's plans to conduct tours of gangland murder sites in the country's second-largest city, Melbourne, have been shelved after a public outcry. The businessman hoped to give tourists an insight into the vicious, underworld drugs war which has led to the gunning down of more than 25 people in the past four years. Last week, he registered the business name Melbourne's Gangland Tours with the Victorian state government. The bus tour of pubs, clubs and other sites where criminals had been murdered recently, was to expected to cost A$55 (HK$290) per person. Typical of the places visitors would have been shown was the Brunswick Club, where crime 'godfather' Lewis Moran was recently shot dead by a masked gunman. The tour would also have included an Italian restaurant, 'La Porcella', in the inner city district of Carlton, where alleged underworld assassin Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin was himself assassinated. The businessman conceded that his scheme was 'a bit distasteful'. 'It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. But I have realised it is far too soon after all the killings to do it and I have totally dumped the idea,' he said. 'I've realised that the public aren't behind the idea, so at the end of the day common sense has prevailed,' the businessman said. His inspiration for the tours came from similar excursions in the US. Memories of Melbourne's underworld murders are all too raw - the most recent assassination was last month.
