After the colony’s separation from New South Wales in 1859, the young police force was mainly concerned with patrolling the largest city, Brisbane. Rural areas were still looked after by the NSW police. In 1863, a separate police act was endorsed and took effect on 1 January, 1864, and marked the beginning of an independent history for the Queensland Police Force.
On 31 December 1864 the total ordinary Police Force of all ranks in the colony numbered 176 men, who were distributed around 28 stations. During 1865, 15 new stations were formed, with a consequent increase of the force by 38 Constables, while the overall population of the colony increased by 13,052 stretched over 22,331 square miles of new country.
Four indigenous Troopers at the Mistake Creek Native Mounted Police barracks 1880s. Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
As the colonial Queensland urban landscape was still developing, predominantly rural Queensland was patrolled by Native Mounted Police. The Mounted Police, a branch of paramilitary character, existed in extremely rough conditions patrolling the ever-extending frontier of the colony. Each patrol included a number of European policemen and a number of Native troopers. In the overwhelming vastness of the frontier the bushrangers were in open confrontation with the mounted police, unconstrained by the urban landscape and sharpened by the hostility of the wilderness.
Between 1864 and 1870, the Queensland Police Gazettes, issued fortnightly for internal use by the Force, listed 37 murders (including discovered bodies). According to the Queensland Supreme and District Courts trials, there were six murder charges recorded for 1864.
One of the trials was of Alexander Ritchie, who was convicted for murder of Charles Owen of Yandilla Station. Disputes such as these were all too common in the early days of the colonial history.
Owen was driving home in a buggy after holding Court at Leyburn on the day in the absence of the Police Magistrate, when Ritchie rode up behind the carriage, shot him in the neck, and immediately made off. Owen owed the defendant £20 for erecting several huts. Two witnesses reported that they heard Ritchie saying that, if he didn’t get the money, he will have Owen’s life.
Ritchie was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. He was the first convicted offender to be executed at the Toowoomba Gaol. It was the first execution to take place in Toowoomba, and specialised preparations were made in order to carry out the sentence by the letter of the law. The usual structure for public executions was erected within the western end of the new gaol. On the day, shortly after eight o’clock in the morning, the melancholy procession moved the condemned man from the cell and filed into the yard in which the scaffold stood erected. The prisoner’s demeanour — if not defiant — was bold and determined and he marched to the gallows foot and ascended the scaffold without hesitation or assistance.
Addendum: This entry was largely informed by digitised records from the following online repositories:
Trove – Australian online resource for books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more www.trove.nla.gov.au
The Prosecution Project – the project investigates the history of the criminal trial in Australia www.prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au
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This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available. The article was written by Museum Volunteer and Crime and Policing Historian Dr Anastasia Dukova.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – The Early Days” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence.
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