Celebrating International Women’s Day – 8th March 2014
On March 16, 1931, Eileen O’Donnell (aged 35) and Zara Dare (aged 45), became the first female police officers in Queensland. Although they were appointed Policewomen, they were not actually sworn-in and had no uniform or powers of arrest. Both women were single, a criterion consistent with the marriage bar in the public service.
Eileen O’Donnell and Zara dare (right), Queensland’s first Policewomen, July 1931.
Miss O’Donnell and Miss Dare worked under the supervision of the Inspector for the Metropolitan Division. They worked regular hours, but with one of them on call out-of-hours. They do not appear to have received any formal training. One task they had was escorting female prisoners, sometimes on long train journeys. On occasions they were required to search female prisoners.
Prior to joining the Queensland Police Miss Dare was an organiser in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and served with the Salvation Army in China where her work included rescuing women from the white slave trade. Zara left the Queensland Police in 1940 in order to marry. She spoke glowingly of her time in the job and passed away in October 1965 just shy of her 80th birthday. Her replacement was a former confidential secretary, Miss Elizabeth Boyle who was appointed as ‘Supervisor, Women Police’ in June 1940.
Miss O’Donnell kept house for her brother in Gympie prior to her employment with the Queensland Police. Eileen spent 31 years as a Policewoman and retired in 1962 but passed away less than eight months later at the age of 67.
The Queensland Police Women’s Section, c1950
Back Row L-R: Clare Conaty; Laura Frish; Ailisa Warnick
Front Row L-R: Pat Ryan; Elizabeth Boyle; Olwen Doolan
On March 31, 1965 the eight serving female police took the Oath of Office and became fully sworn Police Officers in a special ceremony before the Commissioner and the Minister for Labour and Industry John Herbert, at the Petrie Terrace Depot.
Supervisor Elizabeth Boyle was assigned the rank of Sergeant and the other seven women, Laura Frisch, Ailsa Warnick, Pat Ryan, Clare Conaty, Yvonne Weier, Judith Barrett and Olwen Doolan were made Constables. These newly sworn Policewomen had to then wait three months for their uniforms to be ready.
On March 31, 1965 the eight serving female police took the Oath of Office and became fully sworn Police Officers.
Front to Rear: Elizabeth Boyle; Laura Frisch; Ailsa Warnick; Pat Ryan; Clare Conaty; Yvonne Weier; Judith Barrett; Olwen Doolan.
The changes to the Police Acts brought women police in Queensland into line with their counterparts in other States; most of whom who had enjoyed equal powers, pension rights and more substantial staff allocations since the time they were first appointed or soon after. The outstanding difference remaining for the Queenslanders was lack of equal pay. On the first day of September 1970, 39 years after the first policewomen were appointed, and on the same day that Ray Whitrod became Commissioner, equal pay was finally achieved.
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
“Women in the Queensland Police” 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