The very first edition of the Queensland Police Department’s ‘Vedette’ in November 1977, a journal for police officers described by the Editor, I.W. Hatcher, as ‘the birth of what we hope will be a lusty new baby’, featured an article about new police uniforms;
Police men and women have rarely been accused of leading the State’s Public Servants in the fashion stakes. Of necessity, police uniforms have been functional rather than fashionable. But a new range of police uniforms which has been approved for general issue in the future is likely to change the police image in Queensland for the better.
Police officers wearing winter uniform, c1975. They carry wireless radios and the female is also carrying her police issue handbag. We have one original handbag on display. Image No. PM2984 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Agreement on the new uniforms was reached after many months of deliberation and recommendations by a Uniform Review Committee, under the chairmanship of Superintendent Bob Matheson. The nine new uniforms include five different winter and summer uniforms for women police and four for the men. There has been a colour change in the basic uniforms in that it is now recommended that it be based on the dark blue of the New Zealand police uniforms. Samples of the new material were made up as uniforms and were subjected to field trials in Rockhampton, Southport, Cairns, Brisbane City Watchhouse, Gympie, Roma, Mackay, Brisbane Mobile Patrols, Mount Isa, Longreach, Charleville and Kingaroy.
Constable 1/c Phyllis Reynolds models the summer uniform, in 1973.
Image No PM1811 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Information fed back to the Uniform Review Committee indicated that all members involved in the field trials were in favour of the new material. The five new female uniforms are smart and stylish and give a considerable variety. They include a dress, a safari jacket and skirt, and safari jacket and slacks for summer. Female winter wear includes a dress and safari jacket and slacks. Separate new female summer and winter headgear also has been approved. The new men’s uniforms include a winter uniform with lumber jacket, a summer uniform, a country uniform which includes shorts, and a new range of dress and working uniforms for the Water Police.
Senior Constable Robert (Bob) Harding wears the new Water Police uniform which now features shorts, 1979.
Image No, PM3645 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
A full description of all of the new uniforms will be contained in the usual departmental circular which will be made available to members in the near future. It is also intended to publically launch the new uniforms at a media showing some time early in December. Many officers in the metropolitan area have not yet seen the magnificent facilities at the Academy. The public launching will be held at the Academy next month and the Commissioner issues an open invitation to all members and their families to look over our training institution at the same time. More details on the launching in the next issue….
(Photos were not included in this edition, and those pictured here were taken from our image collection.)
__________________
This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing. 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- A New Suit” 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. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode