Birds-eye view of Newstead looking upstream towards the city, c1890.
Image number RN10870 from the John Oxley Library collection.
Breakfast Creek Police Station opened on July 5, 1889 then closed on September 20, 1904 when the nearby Hamilton Police Station opened. It reopened on September 6, 1905. The initial police station operated from a rented house in Newstead Avenue, near Newstead Park.
The original house, built about 1919 for Brisbane tailor, Thomas T. Barry, was one of a number of houses in the area at that time following suburban expansion after World War 1. It is the last remaining dwelling on Breakfast Creek Road, now the main commercial artery between the Valley and Breakfast Creek Bridge. The building, initially used as married quarters for the police, is a typical example of the ‘Queenslander’ timber-framed and elevated dwellings of the period. It was first enclosed underneath with an office in 1939.
The Breakfast Creek / Newstead Police Station building (and below image of the single men’s quarters) as it looked in August 2009. It was the last remaining dwelling on Breakfast Creek Road.
Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
The tall, timber building at the rear of the property, built pre-1914, was relocated from the old Breakfast Creek Police Station near Newstead Avenue. It included single-men’s quarters and a police cell. The property could also be accessed from Roche Street at the rear of the site.
In 1926 the [Brisbane] City Council expanded the park, so the station moved to a timber building purchased by the Queensland Police Force on land situated between Roche Avenue and Breakfast Creek Road at 96 Breakfast Creek Road and near the Bowling Green.
The station was renamed Newstead Police Station in 1963 and operated as the local police station from until it closed in 1995. The property was owned by the Queensland Police Service until 2006.
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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 Friday 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: Breakfast Creek / Newstead Police Station 1889 – 1995” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a 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