Constable George Chatfield heads up a peace procession in Kalbar to celebrate the end of First World War, 1918. Kalbar Police Station, previously known as Engelsburg was opened April 25, 1899. The town name was changed to Kalbar in September, 1916. It is currently staffed by a Senior Constable.
At December 1864, in the first year of operation of the Queensland Police Force, there were 27 ordinary police stations with 151 foot and mounted officers, and 16 native police camps of 136 European officers and indigenous troopers. Twenty of the ‘ordinary police force’ stations averaged four officers each, the bigger stations like Brisbane, Ipswich, Rockhampton and Maryborough had larger staff numbers. Native police camps averaged between 7 and 17 men, large camps like Rockhampton could have up to 27 men of both officers and troopers.
Constable Daniel Fitzgibbon and his wife relax on the verandah of the Laura Police residence, 1906. Laura Police Station opened in 1877 with Sub-Inspector 1/c Hervey Fitzgerald in charge. It is still a single officer station today and is staffed by a Sergeant.
As policing reached across the state more and more stations were opened usually in small towns of less than 300 people or in places that were growing due to the building of train lines or the discovery of gold. By December 1884, twenty years after the inauguration of the Police Force, there were 155 stations with 657 police officers and 182 indigenous troopers and trackers. There was also a growth in the number of single officer stations. In 1884, 36 stations were operated by single police officers, of these 6 were assisted in their duties by an indigenous tracker.
The first officer to be stationed at Millaa-Millaa, Constable Daniel Dwyer, standing beside his horse, with his dog at heel, 1922. Millaa-Millaa police station opened in 1922, has always been a single officer station and is currently staffed by a Senior Constable.
Running a police station with one officer was a daunting task. Often there was no station building and one had to be rented or moves made to purchase something suitable. Married officers were generally not sent to single officer stations as there was generally no accommodation for them in town. However wives who did join their husbands found themselves looking after the station and taking enquiries, while her husband was away. Her tasks could also involve feeding and cleaning up after prisoners in the lock-up.
MacKinlay Police Station, c1950. Somewhere along the way MacKinlay became McKinlay. The Police Station was opened in 1893 and it is currently staffed by a Senior Constable.
The good will of the community was necessary if an officer was to be able to carry out his duties effectively while in town and to then to be confident that nothing untoward would happen while he was away checking the rest of his beat by horse. Communities were often loath to let an officer go when he was transferred away and often took up petitions and wrote letters to the Police Commissioner begging for the officer to remain in town. Long standing officers were often presented with gifts and highly decorated letters of thanks from their community.
This is the very first Eromanga police residence which was built in 1894 so the police officer could bring his wife out to live with him. This photograph was taken around 1960. Eromanga Police Station was first opened on the 26 September 1891 in a two roomed cottage rented at a cost of five shillings per week, with Senior Constable Manuell in charge. At this time the township consisted of one large store owned by Mr W Paterson, two first class ‘public houses’ built of brick, and a couple of ‘humpys’. The resident population was about 20 and there was always a number of men from the opal mines and stations ‘knocking down their cheques’ at Eromanga’s public houses. Senior Constable Manuell remained in charge of Eromanga until he was instructed to close this station on the 31 December 1891, and to proceed to Thargomindah. The station reopened in 1893.
There are still a number of stations run by single officers, in small communities across the state. All of the photographs below are of single officer stations, the majority of which still exist today and are still run by one officer all be it in more comfortable circumstances than available in the past.
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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 – Single officer stations” 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… Continue reading