Shelton Lea (1946–2005) was an Australian poet active in the Melbourne performance poetry scene.
He was adopted at the age of 13 months, along with another brother and sister, into the famous Darrell Lea family in Toorak.
After a series of criminal charges in his youth (including being homeless which was a crime under the Vagrancy act) led to stints in boys homes, and finally entered juvenile detention at Turana, where he first started to write poetry in exchange for tobacco.
[1] At the time of his death a documentary on his poetry was being filmed by Robert Price and Taylor Coventry and is available to view on Vimeo.
[citation needed] A biography of Lea, Delinquent Angel, was written by Diana Georgeff and published by Random House in 2007.