Senior Constable John Power was first stationed at Mitchell in September 1889. In late 1894 just prior to his move to Charleville, he must have asked about painting the police station and received these instructions on how the surface was to be prepared, the paint mixed and subsequently applied. Depending on how easy it was to find a painter and since John was transferring out, perhaps the job fell to his replacement Senior Constable Thomas Walsh who transferred into Mitchell in January 1895.
A plan of the Mitchell Police Station and Lockup, May 1884. Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
In any event the Order includes quite a lot of detailed instructions, spare a thought for those police officers staffing stations in 19th century regional Queensland the next time you crack open a can of easily applied modern acrylic paint.
‘Points to be observed by the Police in carrying out the work of Painting Police Stations’, Mitchell Police Station Order Book (page 1), 1894. Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
‘Points to be observed by the Police in carrying out the work of Painting Police Stations’, Mitchell Police Station Order Book (page 2), 1894. Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
‘Points to be observed by the Police in carrying out the work of Painting Police Stations’, Mitchell Police Station Order Book (page 3), 1894. Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
‘Points to be observed by the Police in carrying out the work of Painting. Police Stations’, Mitchell Police Station Order Book (page 4), 1894. Image Courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
This information was assembled by Curator Lisa Jones and was sourced from Queensland Police Museum 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. Email: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“Points to be observed when painting police stations 1894” 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