The battle, a fierce and violent display of street fighting, was the highlight of a series of processions, meetings and riots held by left-wing militants and Russian Bolsheviks on the one hand and returned soldiers on the other. Being almost continuously on duty from 1 p.m. on Sunday 23rd March until about 1 a.m. on Tuesday 25th March the writer had a grandstand view of all the main incidents, and still retains a fairly vivid recollection of the rapid march of events.
On 23 March 1919, a group of Bolshevik sympathisers gathered for a march from the Trades Hall to the Domain, when a large flag was unfurled by Alexander Zuzenko. Simultaneously, around a dozen returned soldiers joined by members of the Socialists League, formed into a line carrying red flags on poles. As the War Precautions Act banned public display of the Red flag, the police moved in to seize them. The violent struggle ensued between 400 marchers and the small police party:
The Police detachment at the scene comprised two NCO’s and eight Constables with myself and Plain Clothes Constable Jim Corbett (later Senior Sergeant) in charge of Sub-Inspector N. Brosnan (afterwards Chief Inspector) and Sub-Inspector J. McNiell. As the procession moved off to the singing of “L Internationale”, Sub-Inspector seized hold of a Red flag carried by a Russian in the front line, and after a struggle, gained possession of it. But he was quickly surrounded and overpowered and the marchers regained the flag.
Cartoon depicting ‘Red Monday’, the battle of Merivale Street between anticommunist factions and police in Brisbane on 24 March 1919.
Cartoon extracted from the Queensland Police Union Journal, June 11 1919.
As the captured flags were repossessed by the defiant crowd, the procession kept going, and all efforts by the police to stop them were unavailing. But the trouble was only starting, when somebody shouted Let’s raid the Bolshevik Headquarters. The Diggers formed up and marched across Victoria Bridge to Merivale Street. When the mob reached the Russian Hall, a series of warning shots resounded from inside the Russian headquarters. Discouraged by the fire, the Diggers relunctantly dispersed.
The following day rumours began to circulate of a plan to set the Russian Hall on fire. In the evening up to 8,000 men, some armed, assembled on Merivale Street and within an hour, a fierce battle started between ex-soldiers and police, with Constable Mick O’Driscoll once again was in the thick of the onslaught:
At about 7pm a strong force of police, with rifles and fixed bayonets, marched into Merivale Street, and was disposed in two lines stretching across the street and about 100 yards apart. Drawn up in the rectangle behind their armed colleagues were hundreds of police armed with batons, whilst a strong detachment of mounted police were stationed in Russell Street, close by. Sounds of soldiers singing “keep the home fires burning” and “Australia will be there” reached us in the rectangle. The air was tense and electric as the 50 odd men in blue came to the “on guard” position facing the soldiers now advancing towards them at the double. The diggers came on purposely, pausing only when they came in contact with the cold steel. The pressure from the crowd behind steadily mounted and eventually a concerted rush forced their leaders on to the points of the bayonets. Meanwhile a section of the mob, armed with palings and scrap iron, tried to infiltrate around the front lines of police, but were repulsed by the police armed with batons. The men in the ranks were receiving frequent injuries and the police casualties were mounting. Excitement and feeling became intense throughout the fighting, and many policemen were noticed with blood flowing down their faces.
The battle raged for two hours. Commissioner Urquart was stabbed in the right shoulder with a bayonet, but returned to the scene after his wound was dressed at the Mater Hospital. Sub-Inspector McNeill was hit in the forehead with an iron bar, Sergeant Ferguson sustained a fracture to the skull, mounted Senior Constable Bell had a broken rib, Constables Bateman and Byrne received bullet wounds to the arm and body. Plain-clothes Constable O’Driscoll was struck in the knee with a bottle. A total of 22 policemen and two civilians were listed as injured in the struggle.
If the enrage returned soldiers had got through the police lines and had reached the Russian’s building, it would probably have resulted in death or other dire consequences to the 30 or 40 scared inmates.
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This information has been provided 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 – Constable O’Driscoll and the Battle of Merivale Street” 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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