At the turn of the 20th century the Queensland Police obtained its horses by purchase. In 1904 after Police Commissioner Parry-Okeden urged that the Police Department should breed its own horses, a stud farm with an area of 8.6 km2 at Woodford was established. It was used for police mares and for growing feed. Stallions were hired for £30 and between them sired 26 foals. However, this small reserve was found to be both unsuitable and inadequate and so with the cost of buying horses ever rising, the Department looked elsewhere for a larger breeding establishment.
Four policemen (not in uniform) sitting beside a small river at Rewan near Rolleston. These men were sent to the stud farm to build houses and stables, 1909.
In 1908-9 Police Commissioner Cahill reported that he had obtained “a very fine reserve at Carnarvon (now called “Rewan”) of 78 000 acres (318 km2), resumed from the Consuelo leasehold.” The Woodford mares and foals as well as two purchased stallions, ‘Libertine’ and ‘Mack’, were sent by rail to Roma and then over the range to Rewan. Improvements to the property were also carried out to make it a habitable police station and breeding establishment. Rewan was proclaimed as a stud farm for breeding police horses in April 1909.
By 1912 the first 69 Rewan bred remounts were ready for police work. At that time the property was running 400 horses and over 200 head of cattle, under the control of Senior Sergeant John Campbell, two Constables and three Indigenous Trackers. The staff were also carrying out various improvements, erecting stables, stalls, fences and yards, and cutting out prickly pear.
The Stallion “Libertine” was sent by rail from the Woodford Stud to Rewan as one of the initial breeding stock, 1910.
For the 1915 – 1916 year, only 20 foals were born from 124 breeding mares, due to the lack of grass from a two year drought. By the end of the decade, however, the situation had improved and the authorities were expressing satisfaction with the experiment. For the 1919 – 1920 year, Rewan ran five stallions, 177 mares with 70 foals at foot, and 445 other horses, worth a total of £9104. There were also over 1000 head of cattle valued at £9735.
Rewan station buildings and garden, 1910.
Rewan was plagued by a series of droughts between 1926 and 1932 and in one of these years only two foals were born. Even the successful cattle section of the station was badly affected by the dry conditions of 1931, which killed 1046 head including 38 out of 44 bulls. Apart from the droughts and fires, it was also felt that breeding practices had deteriorated. The best mares were being sent away for remounts so that stallions were being put with poor mares.
These buildings are still on the property even though the land has changed hands a number of times. Using Police Museum resources, along with the great work of retired Detective Sergeant Tom Mahon, Rewan, the former Queensland Police Horse Breeding Station, was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on on 31 May 2019. To read the full QHR entry click this link https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=650094
Rewan cattle on Bluegum Flat, 1910.
The press attacked Rewan for its cost in this time of depression and the Police Union asserted that a better type of horse could be purchased outside more cheaply. In 1933, Home Secretary Hanlon finally admitted that Rewan was a “distinct failure”. The property having made an overall loss of £27 000. The government decided to close it down, giving its reasons as inaccessibility and the unsuitability of Rewan horses for the work in the north. In 1933 the Rewan stud farm for breeding police horses was closed.
The horse named “Brisbane”, selected from Rewan stock, was sent to London in the charge of Constable Fenwick Wilson (the office astride the horse) as a gift from the Queensland Government to King George V. in July, 1911.
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This information was researched by Curator Lisa Jones and sourced from the best Queensland Police Museum 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
“From the Vault – Rewan: A Stud Farm for Breeding Police Horses” 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