6 minute read
Celebrating 150 years of NTPOL
CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF POLICING IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY BY MARK MCADIE APM, CHAIRPERSON NT POLICE MUSEUM AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE REAL FIRST POLICE STATION IN THE NT For many years this building, located at the intersection of the Esplanade and Mitchell Street was regarded as the first police station in the NT. If you google “first Darwin Police Station” you will be presented with this picture:
What was thought to be the first Darwin Police Station
It certainly was the Palmerston (Darwin) police station from 1870 to 1875. It was even built by the police officers themselves (except for the roof), from wood they had hand cut and carted to the site. Because they also had to cut and carry timber for the first version of Government House (not the present building) the job was not completed until November 1870 when they moved into this building. They had arrived in January 1870, so where did the police operate from for the period from January to November? When Sub Inspector Paul Foelsche, along with his small detachment of South Australian Police, arrived in Darwin on 4th January 1870, there was no police station in Darwin, because of course at this early stage of Darwin’s history there were few permanent structures. So, Dr. Peel, whose house was near the camp, allowed the Inspector the use of same for a police barracks and Police Station. This house or police barracks was built of rough timbers, with iron roof and bark sides. It was used and known as the police barracks until 1874, once the move to the Esplanade was made. The location of this police station / police barracks is not completely clear, but it appears to have been near the beach at the base of Fort Hill, in what was then called Goyder’s Camp.
Inspector Nicholas Waters - ranking police officer in the NT from 1904 to 1924
Inspector Nicholas Waters, the Territory’s senior police officer, allowed the rally to go ahead only after he was assured by Nelson it would be non-violent. However, at the time Darwin’s police force consisted of just five members, steps were taken to swear in 27 (some reports indicate 40) ‘Special Constables’ to help the police with the management of the demonstration. For tactical reasons, Waters chose to lead a group of eight constables and special constables to Government House and leave the remaining group at the police station to be summoned, if need be, by a whistle blast from Government House. As it happened, the police signal, if given, could not be heard over the noise of the demonstrators, even though the police Station was only a hundred metres away. Thus, only a handful of police were left to deal with over 1,000 people. Gilruth was reportedly pushed to the ground (and his trousers torn), and Inspector Waters was also assaulted. The crowd disarmed two special constables of their revolvers, and a sergeant had his rifle taken. The crowd then burnt the effigy of Gilruth in front of
THE NORTHERN PATROL OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE Before the end of the First World War there was significant unrest in Darwin. There were several concerns arising from the administration of the Territory by Administrator John Gilruth who had been administrator since 1912. Much of that unrest was driven by the Australian Workers Union and its leader Harold Nelson. It culminated on December 17, with a stop work meeting at Vestey’s meatworks followed by a march of about 1,000 men to the Administrator’s Residence on the Esplanade.
Government House, together with the rifle taken from the police. Eventually, the crowd dispersed, but they had shown that they were a stronger force than the authorities. The Commonwealth for its part was not pleased with this turn of events. Gilruth had become a virtual prisoner in Government House and stayed there until 20 February 1919. Gilruth left Darwin by his own accord and boarded HMAS Encounter, a cruiser with eleven 6-inch guns and nine 12-pounder guns, still the Administrator, but now prepared to function from Melbourne, then the seat of the Commonwealth Government. In November 1919, around the same time that a Royal Commission into the events surrounding the Darwin Rebellion, Federal Cabinet directed that a: “Body of Mounted Constabulary, to be called the Northern Patrol, and to be a part of the Police Force of the Northern Territory, but separately organised and directly responsible to the Officer administering the Government…the duties of this Force are to carry out
Patrol (sic) work and in the case of emergency to be employed in the maintenance of order at Darwin.” This force comprised 30 members, or former members, of the Australian Army, all of whom had seen active service overseas, most with the Australian Light Horse. Major L.A. Macpherson DSO MC, who received a commission as an Inspector in the Northern Territory Police Force, commanded the Northern Patrol. Members of the Patrol swore a different oath to other members of the Northern Territory Police Force, acknowledging that they were members of ‘the Northern Patrol of the Northern Territory Police Force’. While the force was raised in response to major civil unrest in Darwin during September and October 1919, the reasons for supplementing the police in this way are not clear. What was clear however, was that it was not truly a part of the Northern Territory Police. Inspector MacPherson did not answer to Inspector Waters but to the Administrator (in his role as Commissioner of Police) and they did not undertake any traditional policing roles. That this force was raised and supported by the Commonwealth is beyond question but their reasoning for doing so is not known. Was it because they believe the NT Police Force too small to handle the ongoing unrest or was it because they did not trust the police to do their job? Certainly, the police force was small (we know that at the outbreak of the First World War numbers had dropped from 26 to 22 and that they did not rise to a post war high of 38 until 1926). It is likely that the police numbers in Darwin were between five and seven. This meant that the Northern Patrol was probably about four times the total strength of the Police in Darwin and larger than the Police Force for the whole of the NT. Whether it was raised in an abundance of caution or a belief that the NT Police were untrustworthy is beside the point, by placing it outside the control of the Inspector of Police and under the control of the Administrator the Commonwealth had firmly made a statement that it did not trust the NT Police to handle the public order problems in Darwin.
The entire complement of the Darwin Police Station - 1914
The First Darwin Police Station (left, temporary)
