The need to transport prisoners from watchhouses to courts and back again has always been part of police life. From the late 19th century until the mid-1920s, Queensland police utilised a horse drawn prison van (Black Maria). In 1925 the body from the horse drawn Black Maria was mounted on a Bean truck chassis and so was born the first motorised prison van. Two of these vans worked the Brisbane city area until 1936 when one was converted into a truck and the other traded in for “The latest in limousines” as reported in the Courier Mail of 17 October (pg14).
The Latest in Limousines
Brisbane has a bigger, better, and brighter ‘Black Maria,’ and the Minister for Home Affairs (Mr. Hanlon), says it is so comfortable that it would be a delight to ride to Boggo Road in it. Two prison vails have been in use for several years. It was decided to convert one into a truck for police use, and to trade in the other for a vehicle of modern design. The new van made its appearance this week, but the first passengers were not given a remission of their sentences in celebration of the event.
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 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. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM THE VAULT – The Black Maria: the Latest in Limousines, 1936” 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