[2][3] The strike started late in the evening of 31 October 1923 – the eve of Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival – when a squad of 29[a] constables at Russell Street Police Headquarters refused to go on duty,[4][5][6] citing the continued use of spies by management.
The strike was led by Constable William Thomas Brooks who, along with 16 colleagues, had been dismissed from the licensing squad earlier that year, without explanation, and returned to the beat.
The strike was not a Police Association initiative, although the organisation negotiated with the Nationalist government of Victoria, led by the Premier, Harry Lawson, on behalf of the strikers.
The Victorian Trades Hall Council, surprised by the wildcat strike, volunteered to negotiate on behalf of the strikers but was rebuffed by the government.
A request by the Premier to the federal government for troops to prevent and put down trouble was refused, but Sir Harry Chauvel, and other army chiefs, appointed guards at defence establishments.