He’s in the same spot on Bourke Street every day, down the hill from Parliament House. He arrives in the early morning gloom and stays until dusk.

Tony settles his wiry frame on an upturned milk crate or sits on folded cardboard on the footpath. He leans back on the wall where an unoccupied warehouse meets a bookshop. Bourke Street’s elegant plane trees shadow him from the morning sun and drip on his umbrella when it rains. His upturned cap rests on the footpath, but money is not his raison d'etre for being here. His positive energy and constancy have led to his nickname, ‘the mentor of Bourke Street’.

Hundreds greet him. He shares a positive word and a smile with everyone. No one knows the true story of his life. His name is Tony Brooks.

Everyone has a story. This is his, and it’s not what you might think.

Bourke Street, My View from Here follows the untold story of street community member Tony Brooks through a life journey that tells the personal truth of an ordinary life landed in extraordinary circumstances - and the perplexing personal choices that followed, and their dire consequences.

Jen converses with the man people call ‘The Mentor of Bourke Street’ about tattoos, his past - drugs, gaol, family, release - and contemporary street life and its complex community. It is a tale of challenge, change and acceptance. Tony talks - about it all.

The reader is offered an analysis of another culture on our city streets, set in Melbourne. This could be any major town or city, anywhere in the world. Despite his struggles, Tony remains an uplifting charmer on Bourke Street to hundreds who know him, and a friendly stranger with a ready smile to those who don’t.