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Police Stations in New South Wales A Graduate Project submitted in part fulfilment of the award of the degree of Master of the Built Environment (Building Conservation) by the University of New South Wales
Cornelius Breen O'Donnell, 1993 Table of Contents
Candidate's Statement page 1
Methodology 2
Acknowledgments 3
Abstract 5
PART I: POLICE AND POLICING 6
SECTION I: 1788 - 1862 6
Introduction 6
Chapter 1 * Background 7
Chapter 2 * Policing in Sydney 10 *1788-1833 *1833-1862
Cha:gter 3 * Policing beyond Sydney 14 *1788-1833 *1833-1862
Summary 22
SECTION II: 1862 - 1915 23
Introduction 23
Chapter 1 * Background 24
Chapter 2 * Policing Sydney 30
Chapter 3 * Policing the frontier 32
Summarv 36 SECTION III: 1915 - 1983 37
Introduction 37
Chapter 1 * Background 38
Chapter 2 * Policing 41
Summary 42
PART II: ACCOMMODATING THE POLICE 43
Introduction 43
Chapter 1 * Temporary quarters 44
Chapter 2 * The design of police buildings 50
Chapter 3 * The design of The Police Station 55
Chapter 4 * Accommodating police 59
Chapter 5 * Comparison with other government agencies 65
Summary 70
PART III: CASE STUDY- POLICING IN THE EASTERN SUBURBS 71
Introduction 71
Chapter 1 * Development of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney 74
Chapter 2 * Policing in the Eastern Suburbs 81 Chapter 3 * Darlinghurst Police Station 84 Chapter 4 * Rose Bay Police Station 86
Chapter 5 * Botany Police Station 89
Chapter 6 * Randwick Police Station 92
Chapter 7 * Paddington Police Station 94
Chapter 8 * Vaucluse Police Station 97 Chapter 9 * Mascot Police Station 98
Chapter 10 * Bondi Police Station 100
Chapter 11 * Daceyyille Police Station 102
General Conclusion 104 * Discussion of the Significance of Police Stations 104 * Further areas of study 106
Bibliography 107
Definitions of terms 110 --. , - ..---, /'- �
. ;
; I t •
from top: Moarna Police Station (n.d.), Bowral Police Station (c1886), Dapto Police Station (n.d.) Candidate's Statement I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment is made in the text.
Cornelius Breen O'DONNELL
page 1 Methodology There is not to my knowledge any literature which covers the same detail subject area as this document. Much of the information in this dissertation comes from Police Department Annual Reports, and from original correspondence in the Archives Office of New South Wales (AONSW). The author has inspected all of the buildings of the case study, and is familiar with a broad cross-section of police stations across the State.
It is hoped that this project may form the basis for the historical theme required under Section 170 of the Heritage Act, 1977-. Enquiries with the Department of Planning have revealed that the NSW Police Service is one of the few agencies which have commenced the preparation of a Heritage and Conservation Register ( as required under the Act). According to the Department of Planning, no other agency has yet prepared an historic theme.
page 2 Acknowledgments Acknowledgment is hereby given to the "Police Source Book" by Bruce Swanton, Garry Hannigan and David Biles, "Police Source Book 2" by Bruce Swanton and Garry Hannigan, and "Mounted Police in NSW" by John O'Sullivan, which form the basis for the text of the various chapters on 'Background' and 'Policing'.
Other documents extensively quoted from are a number of Conservation Reports forparticular properties prepared by various consultants for the NSW Police Service. These reports are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this document.
Thanks are due to a number of people and organisations for their assistance and encouragement in the preparation of this project:
Mr Robert Browne, Director of Police Properties, NSW Police Service; Mr Bob Irving for the conduct of the Master of the Built Environment course, and for his encouragement of this study; Mr Don Godden, my tutor, for his encouragement and criticism; and Mr Don Coleman (Public Works Department); Mr Stewart Sharp (CityRail); Mr Gary Tower (NSW Fire Brigades); Mr P Tonkin; Ms Mary McPherson (Department of School Education); Mr Lindsay Haraldson (Department of Courts Administration); Mr Caleb Williams (Police and Justice Museum); and the librarians of the Archives Office of New South Wales, the State Library of New South Wales, and the NSW Police Service.
Illustration credits Police and Justice Museum - Figures 4, 5(1ower), 6, 15, 17, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 61 Public Works Department - Figures 11, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 28, 30, 39, 40, 42, 44, 49, 54, 55, 57, 59, 62, 64 Department of School Education - Figure 38
page 3 Archives Office of NSW (AONSW) - Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 19, 20 Peter Tonkin - Figures 34 (AONSW), 35, 36, 37 Author - Figures 23, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 59, 61, 64, 66, 67 State Library of NSW - Figure 5 (upper) (Hood Collection) Perumal Murphy Wu, after Mitton, op cit - Figure 3 NSW Police Service - Figure 29 Jeans 1972, op cit - Figure 1, 2
page 4 Abstract This project was undertaken to identify any underlying theme or themes in the buildings used by the New South Wales Police.
Research revealed the poor status of the police of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Comparison with the development of the court system in the early days of the Colony led to the conclusion that The Court was the image of The Law in the Colony, and thus considerable efforts and expense were accepted in the construction of imposing Court Houses not only in Sydney, but throughout towns and the hinterlands of the developing state.
Police stations are generally a modest form of building. They are usually recognisable by a plan form of a residence with cell/s, with office accommodation supporting the police function. The amount of office accommodation is often a single room. In larger stations, and especially from the 1920's onwards, an increasing amount of office accommodation is provided. However, it is significant to the 'invisibility' of police stations that public space is absolutely minimal, a situation which continued until the current decade.
There are really only three distinctive police building types: The first two of these characterise the police role of detention of suspects and are, firstly the Watch-House (cell block), and its successors, used from the earliest days of the Colony. Cell and exercise yard blocks were also commonly attached, with exercise yards, to police station/residences. This generates the second distinctive form of police building. The majority of police stations still in use in New South Wales originated as this plan.
The shed-like Call Box, introduced in the 1930's as part of a new concept in policing, and used until the 1980's is the third distinctive form of police building.
page 5 PART I: POLICE AND POLICING SECTION I: 1788 - 1862
Introduction
From 1788, there were a number of approaches to policing New South Wales, with various schemes in place over the period to attempt to address the needs of the wide range of tasks, and more particularly, the large area covered by the small population. What was common amongst most of the earliest schemes was their limited effectiveness. This was due to a number of factors, but principally to the composition of the police forces. They were largely formed of unpaid or underpaid staff, often convicts. Added to these factors, the difficulty of policing such a widely scattered population meant that the reputation of the police was poor.
Until the Passage of the Police Regulation Act of 1862, there was no integrated police system forthe state, but instead a number of unco-ordinated, and sometimes antagonistic, forces.
In this Section, these various separate systems will be examined.
page 6 Chapter 1 * Background:
Policing as we know it is a relatively recent activity. Until the passage of the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 in England, partly due to sustained lobbying by Sir Robert Peel, policing had usually been an activity largely undertaken by the voluntary efforts of private citizens. Larger disturbances tended to be dealt with by government using military or para-military organisations. The draconian nature of laws reflected the low chances of detection and apprehension.
Peel developed the principles that police are citizens employed by their fellows to maintain laws the general community accepts. This is very different from the nature of a military or para-military organisation, compelling an unwilling populace into obedience.
The significance of this legislation is that it marks the origin of the modern concept of police. The key themes developed by Sir Robert Peel in London and which underpin the model for the New South Wales legislation are that police are the alternative to repression by military force, and because police don't have either the numbers or the fire-power to repress a population, enforcement of the law is dependant on public approval of police actions and behaviour. Police are identified as citizens paid by other citizens to undertake on a full-time basis those duties which are incumbent on all citizens (quoted in NSW Police Service c1981, p6-7).
Although local legislation modelled on the London law was passed in 1833, and put New South Wales' Police Forces on a legislative basis for the first time, the times of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Sydney and New South Wales are very much a tale of controlling the frontier, with a capital and a few settlements slowly emerging towards the end of that period, where an established population might begin to develop those notions of 'community' implicit in underpinning Peel's notion of the community-based police.
page 7 For an explanation of the difficulties encountered in NSW many factors must be taken into account. The chief factors included the following: the penal nature of the colony in its formative years; the disparity of men to women, which as late as 1839 stood at ten to one, "a condition of society not conducive to good order and morals" and the dispersion of population (O'Sullivan 1979, p46)
The migratory nature of the population, especially after the discovery of gold was also of some significance. This made it difficult for police to know with whom they had to contend. The unfenced nature of the colony, the inefficiency of the honorary magistrates and the way many of the well-off pastoralists taught their untutored stockmen to appropriate other people's cattle, also had their influence on the problems that stood in the way of proper police supervision of NSW.
The difficulties experienced by the NSW Police in controlling their area of operations cannot be put down to lack of resources. Although there were frequent complaints on these scores, an English study of 1846 put the ratio of police to population in three English counties as 1:1750, and expenditure per head as in the range of 5d to 1 ld. The corresponding figures for NSW at about this time were 1:381 and 2s to 11s/5d. This, however, does not necessarily indicate luxurious conditions, given the small but widely spread population, and the high cost of obtaining forage in new, far-flung settlements.
All those factors concerned the physical nature of the country and the nature of the society in and among which the police were to work. So far as police themselves were concerned two factors stood out: the necessity in the early years of using convicts as police and the long continued existence of unco ordinated, separate and sometimes antagonistic police forces, which gave a criminal virtual immunity once he left the district in which he had committed the crime.
page 8 Charles Lockhart, an early student of police in NSW, wrote: "The office of constable was literally a refuge for the destitute " (O'Sullivan 1979, p47). In 1830 the constable received lower wages than the labourer and though he could supplement his pay by a share of fines, the pay did little to attract the best; nor did the use of convicts advance the status of police. With this beginning it is not surprising that as late as 1850 the head of the Sydney police described his men as "radically bad material" (O'Sullivan 1979, p47).
By 1846, there were still a few formerconvicts employed as police officers and a considerable turnover of staff was still evident:- between January 1844 and the end of June 1847 out of an establishment of about 100 members, there were 82 dismissals, mostly for drunkenness, 83 resignations and 5 deaths- a total of 170 mutations.
In addition to the police in the towns and settlements were the various groups instituted to protect settlers. These included Military Mounted Police, Water Police, Border Police, Native Police, and Gold Police.
page 9 Chapter 2 * Policing in Sydney
*1788-1833 The majority of persons put ashore at Sydney Cove in the weeks following 26th January, 1788 were convicts under sentence. The military declined to accept the role expected of them in maintaining public order and, two and a half weeks after the First Fleet's arrival, Governor Phillip appointed a constable from among the ranks of the free settlers. The military had not only failed to prevent nocturnal thieving from the vegetable gardens ( the survival of which was critical in the settlement becoming self-sufficient), they were sometimes the culprits. Six marines were hanged for theft (NSW Police Department 1987, pl).
About August, 1789, Phillip appointed a Night Watch patrol consisting of 12 of the best behaved convicts. Rapid turnover in personnel resulted in the rapid deterioration of the highly satisfactory initial results of the innovation, and, in the longer term, the Watch's performance seems to have been limited. The settlement was divided into four districts, with three watchmen assigned to each. One of the three watchmen was made responsible for the other two, and a Principal Watchman was appointed from the twelve.
Faithful performance of duty was rewarded with early emancipation. Watchmen received accommodation, rations and clothing only and were subordinate to the Deputy Judge Advocate, who was the chairman of the Sydney bench.
As a matter of practice, the Watch was controlled during its formative years by the Provost Marshal who acted as the Deputy Judge Advocate's personal assistant in matters pertaining to law and order. The office of Provost Marshal was part of the civil, as distinct from military, establishment. Judicial control of the police remained until the reorganisation of the Police Force under the Police Regulation Act of 1862.
page 10 Governor Hunter attempted to upgrade Sydney's police in 1796 by insisting on improved performance and adherence to regulations as well as introducing elected freemen Constables among the ranks of the convict Watchmen and Constables. Elected Constables operated at night in company with regular officers. Their duty mostly involved sitting in Watch Houses, thereby hopefully reducing abuses practiced by regular officers, such as releasing arrested persons without proceeding to a charge and extorting money from prisoners. Out on their beats, the Constables' main duty was to call the time hourly throughout the night as best they could, a vestige of the English system of the curfew. The �lected constable system fell into disuse after about three years.
It was not until Surgeon D'Arcy Wentworth devised a new Sydney police scheme for Governor Macquarie in 1810 that the second major reform of Sydney's police was attempted, with a body of full-time Constables being formed. This Sydney police force, operating under the direction of a magistrate, was divided into five districts, each with a staff of seven officers, and each with a Watch House. The scheme bore similarities both to the contemporary situation at London's Bow Street police office and the recommendation of the London and Westminster Police Bill. The scheme commenced on 1st January 1811 and on 29th December 1811, Wentworth was formally nominated magistrate responsible for police; he was styled Superintendent of Police, in the sense of an appointment rather than a rank. The system, with Wentworth at its head, operated for almost a decade and a half. It was not until 1839 that the various Sydney Town Constables were headed by a full-time police official (Swanton, Hannigan and Biles n.d., p5).
By the end of Macquarie's reign, Sydney's police strength was 58 subordinate officers.
Commissioner Bigge recommended to the Home Government that a centralised police establishment be created but both Governors Bourke and Darling postponed implementation of such a scheme so that the
page 11 Superintendent of Police never commanded more than the Sydney police, although he was permitted to correspond directly with magistrates operating in the interior.
The first detective in New South Wales was Israel Chapman, a convict transported for highway robbery. Following employment as Constable and Principal Overseer at the Lumber Yard, and work at the Sydney Police, he was soon well-known to Sydney's underworld characters. He earned an Absolute Pardon in 1827, and was known for his ability to disguise himself, which enabled him to apprehend numerous offenders (NSW Police Force c1979, pl 7).
A distinct Water Police commenced in Sydney in 1830, and existed as a separate organisation until 1850, although from time to time during its existence control of it was vested in the Police Magistrate, and at other times, its own Water Police Magistrate (Swanton and Page, p380).
*1833-1862 Sydney's population increased steadily during the early nineteenth century: from 10,815 in 1828 it had reached 35,358 by 1846, and to 56,394 by 1861. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, it boomed, to be discussed later herein.
The passage of the Sydney Police Act of 1833 empowered Justices of the Peace to act as Police Magistrates and to appoint and control the Police. Although still comprising many convict and emancipist officers, Sydney's police force had begun to develop more professionally at this time, even though still under the command of a magistrate.
In 1842, Sydney was incorporated as a city and policing was one of the functions taken over by the city. However, they soon found that while the government was agreeable to ratepayers financially supporting police services,
page 12 it was not prepared to let the Council control the management and operation of the force. This unhappy arrangement only lasted a couple of years before lapsing.
Spurred on by wild New Year rioting in Sydney in 1850, efforts were made to consolidate all police bodies in the Middle District of New South Wales (that is, what was to become New South Wales after Queensland and Victoria were separated). On 1st October 1850, the Police Regulation Act 1850 was passed. This placed the police of the entire colony under the control of an Inspector General of Police, under whom was to be a Superintendent of Police for Sydney, five Provincial Inspectors plus subordinate ranks. The new organisation was similar to the Royal Irish Constabulary. Judicial and administrative functions of the chief of police were finally severed and John McLerie, former adjutant and paymaster of the Mounted Police, was appointed Superintendent of Sydney's police.
It was learned in 1852 that the British Government had disallowed the Police Regulation Act of 1850 and the Inspector-General's domain shrank to the County of Cumberland plus the Mounted Police.
page 13 Chapter 3 * Policing beyond Sydney
*1788-1833 As time passed and areas surrounding Sydney were explored and then settled Constables, some of them freemen, were appointed in outlying regions. In larger towns, Constables were appointed who operated 24 hours a day. In rural areas of New South Wales, Constables were appointed by local Justices and from 1810 onward remained accountable to the particular bench by which they were appointed.
People lived outside the boundaries of the town long before the outer districts became 'suburban'; in the 1790's parcels of land were granted for settlement on the North Shore, and at Homebush, Concord and Five Dock; in 1810, during his official tour of the settled districts, Governor Macquarie inspected agricultural settlements at Banks Town, Field of Mars (now Epping-Ryde), and Concord.
In the 1830's, Sydney started to develop beyond the confines of the city, with fine villas, principally of government officials, being erected in Woolloomooloo. The 1830s were a boom period, with many estates beyond reach of actual settlement subdivided, their ill-aligned road patterns still in evidence in areas such as Drummoyne, where in 1844 land at Hen and Chicken Bay, was advertised (with typical real estate hyperbole) as 'suburban'. (Department of Planning, n.d. c1992, pl.7). By 1851 Balmain, Glebe, Paddington and Redfern had populations of more than 1,000; lesser numbers lived at Camperdown, Canterbury, Chippendale and St Leonards (now North Sydney) (Russell 1975, pvii).
The favourable reports of early explorers of the country beyond the Great Dividing Range encouraged interest in settlement in the interior. Pastures in the main Cumberland district had become depleted after several years of drought and pestilence. At first Governor Macquarie was reluctant to allow expansion of settlement beyond the mountains, fearing a loss of control over
page 14 the population. In 1820 he allowed settlers to use the inland plains to graze their stock. This was a temporary relaxation to alleviate the burden on pasture on the Cumberland plain. No individual title to the new land was issued. Grazing rights were available to all settlers with livestock ( JJ Auchmuty, "1810-1830", in FK Crowley, editor, A New History of Australia, Melbourne, Heinemann, 1974, cited in Perumal Murphy Wu 1993, pp45-47).
From the 1820's settlers and their flocks began to push westward, despite the efforts of successive Governors to prevent the spread of settlement. In 1826 and 1829, Governor Darling issued regulations which effectively defined the boundaries of the Colony. Darling's regulations established the "Limits of Location". The Colony was surveyed and divided into nineteen counties, which became known as the "Settled Districts". The Limits of Location are shown in Figure 1. Beyond the limits were the unsettled areas. These were unsurveyed and settlement was forbidden. The land could not be occupied or used for grazing.
The government, however, did not have the resources to enforce the boundaries or assert authority in the unsettled districts. Settlers 'squatted' and established large pastoral stations, particularly near the larger rivers.
Confronted by the inevitable, the government began to charge a modest annual fee of £10 for squatting rights (F Crowley, "A Border Police Force Established" in A Documentary History of Australia, Vol II. West Melbourne, 1980 cited in Perumal Murphy Wu 1993, pll). In 1839 Governor Gipps introduced "An Act to restrain the unauthorised occupation of Crown Lands and to provide for the expenses of the Border Police". This measure entailed an annual fee for each head of livestock pastured on Crown land (L Mitton A History of Grenfell and the Weddin Shire. Grenfell. Weddin Shire Council, 1988. p3-5 cited in Perumal Murphy Wu 1993, pll-12).
By 1840 stations were scattered from the hinterland of Moreton Bay to Port Phillip and the South Australian border. In that immense area some 7800
page 15 � -d...,,., ii \ll
Pol ice Districts - August, 1840
- Police District Boundaries e Pol ice District Centres
Generalised slopes more than 8 ° D
0 20 40 miles
Figure 2: Distribution of alienated land in the Settled Districts, 1834. Police Districts within the limits are shown. The dark areas represent .settlements, and the dark circles represent the centres of the police districts (Jeans 1972, Fig 23). Europeans, mostly men, looked after about 1,250,000 sheep and about 400,000 cattle (O'Sullivan 1979, p35).
One of the great grievances among artisans, labourers, ticket-of-leave men etc who roamed the colony during the 1820's and 1830's was that if picked up in the interior, they were forced to walk all the way to Sydney, often tied to a trooper's stirrup iron, to appear before Captain Rossi, the Superintendent of Police, who was the official identifier of such persons. If innocent, the suspects were then released in Sydney and had, should they wish to return to the interior, to walk all the way back (O'Sullivan 1979, p16).
THE MILITARY MOUNTED POLICE In January, 1825 there were a number of meetings of magistrates in Sydney concerned with the subject of crime and the police the magistrates reported that the police system in the rural districts was ".. .insufficient in its principle, and inadequate in its effects" (quoted in O'Sullivan 1979, pl-2). The magistrates suggested a number of reforms, including the establishment of mounted police.
Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane had already written to London on 18 June 1824 seeking approval for such a force. The Governor saw such a force as desirable for general police work, though the immediate problem that prompted his request had been a series of 'outrages' by Aborigines in the Bathurst district. These had been serious enough to lead to the declaration of martial law in the area and, though the Aborigines soon made peace, incidents had occurred that indicated the need for a better-disciplined force than was to be found in the available police (O'Sullivan 1979, p2)
The first part of the colony to see the new force was the Bathurst district (O'Sullivan 1979, pl-5).
The Military Mounted Police, which only operated within the 'Boundaries of Location', existed from 1825 to 1850. Although called police, it is more
page 16 accurately regarded as a military or para-military organisation. Because of the absence of any suitable class of men in the Colony from which recruits could be attracted, the men needed were taken from the only source that could supply men of the calibre required: the infantry regiment of the British army currently serving in the Colony. At its zenith in 1839, the force comprised 166 officers, military volunteers, mostly infantrymen with equestrian experience.
The Military Mounted Police were soldiers, still subject to military discipline, and required to discharge their police duties satisfactorily to qualify for their military pension upon discharge. They were better trained and better equipped than their civilian counterparts. Settlers considered that one Military Mounted Police was worth five of the convict border police (O'Sullivan 1979, p23).
From the beginning the mounted police served as a transitory force. Country centres destined to become important enough to warrant a permanent police establishment usually passed through a three stage evolutionary process. Initially they received the attentions of itinerant mounted police patrols which put in an appearance about once a month. The patrol would contain all the essentials of what passed for justice. The officer was a magistrate and among the party would be a convict scourger, responsible for delivering then and there any sentence of lashing imposed by the court.
As a settlement grew it would attract, if it were large enough, its own permanent police detachment. Thus Mudgee, which had only had itinerant police patrols for years, was significant enough by 1835 to have its own police.
However even when a civil police apparatus was established in a well-settled district the military mounted police still played a vital part in maintaining security. In June 1842, the civil police in Goulburn, a relatively important centre even at that time, consisted of a chief constable, a district constable and eleven constables, together with two lock-up keepers and a scourger. The armaments of this force consisted of twelve cut-down muskets, only eight of
page 17 which were serviceable. Ammunition consisted of eighty cartridges and twenty-five flints. By December the cartridges were down to thirty and the flints to ten. Obviously such threadbare groups of civil police would have presented little opposition to the perceived risk from any concerted convict uprisings (O'Sullivan 1979, p22).
page 18 *1833-1862 Police districts for much of the Middle District of New South Wales (that is, what was to become New South Wales after Queensland and Victoria were separated) were promulgated in 1835 and by 1851 totalled 50; 26 of these Districts were located beyond the boundaries of formal settlement, evidence of the rapidity of the spread of settlement (Figure 2).
In 1844, there were 32 mounted police stations throughout the colony. The roads from Sydney to these centres were patrolled by the Military Mounted Police. By 1849, the decision had been made to do away with the Force and, at the end of 1850, it was formally disbanded. During its earlier and more energetic years they played an important role in combating outlaws and Aboriginals in the interior in addition to keeping main routes reasonably safe for travellers.
Major centres were Goulburn, Bathurst and Maitland.
To cope with problems occurring beyond the Boundaries of Location, a small Border Police body was raised in 1839 but was disbanded in 1846 following criticism from squatters.
Conditions of service in the Border Police were spartan. To begin with, the convict policemen were not paid. They were fed, and uniformed, but for more intangible benefits they had to rely on the official promise that good service would secure them early release. They were not provided with barracks but had to build themselves huts. For weapons each man was issued with a 'cut down musquette', a modified musket that would put them at a considerable disadvantage against the military mounted police in the event of their forgetting which side of the law they were on.(O'Sullivan 1979, p36)
A Native Police body was established in 1846, and also operated beyond the Boundaries of Location, mostly beyond the Dumaresq River and was eventually taken over by the Queensland Government. It continued as a
page 19 The nindc&n coun•iu and limit• ;i la Figure 1: The Nineteen Counties and the Limits of Location. In 1829 the Limits could be only approximately fixed, and surveying did not allow a precise demarcation until 1835 when the counties were proclaimed (Jeans 1972, Fig 18). discrete police body until the turn of the century. In 1850, with the abolition of the Military Mounted Police, the Mounted Road Patrol was established. Initially the body was set up to patrol the Great Western Road between Parramatta and Bathurst. But, by 1852, the patrol had been extended to the Southern Road, between Sydney and Goulburn. This body achieved a substantial reputation for effectiveness and remained in existence until the 1862 consolidation. THE GOLD POLICE Discovery of gold in 1851 gave new impetus to the movement of the population to the interior, and the need arose for protection of travellers, and gold shipments, from crime perpetrated by runaway convicts, and conflicts between new settlers and Aborigines. A Chief Gold Commissioner was appointed with authority to form a body of mounted police for service on the goldfields. Chief Gold Commissioner Hardy started with a force of 12 men drawn mostly from the old Military Mounted Police. The force made its first appearance at Ophir in June 1851. Ophir, some 30 km north of Orange, was the first gold field in Australia. In 1849, W T Smith, a Sydney jeweller, had tried to draw official attention to the gold he found but officialdom was not yet interested. In 1851 the situation changed. A Californian-style gold rush seemed attractive to an impoverished government and a reward was offered to the first person to discover a payable gold field. On 12 February 1851, a recent returned Californian digger, Edward Hargreaves, found traces of gold in Radigan's Gully off Lewis Ponds Creek. By early May the Ophir [Biblical reference to King Solomon's gold] gold rush was under way. Other fields would soon overshadow Ophir in size and richness. page 20 The exact number of diggers at Ophir is not known. At its height in mid 1851 there may have been close to 2000 diggers. However, the highest number recorded for the issue of monthly miner's licences was only 446, in July 1851. Ophir was the first field to experience both the licence system and a system of licence evasion. As the police worked their way along the valley checking licences, a raven's cry would warn unlicensed diggers to pick up their cradles and scatter (McLachlan 1993, p19). Visitors to the field wrote of the constant din of the cradles by day ( except on Sundays) and the glow of the camp fires through the hills at night. A small settlement developed with hotels, stores, blacksmiths and because of the liquor laws, a great many illegal sly grog shops. There was even a visiting black and white minstrel show. Once it became apparent that the diggers had accepted the arrival of the law with reasonably good grace (and some even expressed satisfaction that at last the field was receiving the attention of the authorities), more troopers arrived to build and staff a government camp, as the cluster of police huts, courts and other government buildings were called. In the initial stages especially, such camps were fairly crude. Chief Gold Commissioner Hardy's residence and office, for example, was a tent with a carpet spread over sheets of bark. A table was set in the tent opening for the transacting of official business. At the front of the tent a blazing fire of logs was kept up, for this was the middle of winter in a very cold part of the colony. Later a more substantial hut was built for the Commissioner from slabs and bark (O'Sullivan 1979, p63). As the goldfields increased in number other Commissioners were appointed, each with a small detachment of Gold Police. The force never grew to any size and when the focus of gold seeking shifted to the Victorian fields it grew even smaller. In 1859 its remaining members were assigned to the road patrols. page 21 Summary The period 1788- 1862 saw various units and systems of policing established by government to meet emerging needs. British practices formed the models for the legislation, the structures, and the uniforms. The period was characterised by an often amateur result, due principally to the use of convicts as police at no or minimal rates of pay. Police were not a highly regarded group. The environment in which they were attempting to operate was also rapidly changing, and physically demanding. page 22 SECTION II: 1862 · 1915 Introduction Wild riots at Lambing Flat goldfield (now Young) in December 1860 taxed the government's law enforcement capacity to the limit and rekindled the government's determination to consolidate police services. The passing of the Police Regulation Act 1862 achieved that end. The present Police Service dates from that time. The Chief of Sydney's Police Force, John McLerie, was appointed Inspector General of Police. The second half of the nineteenth century was a period of enormous and rapid change, as the wealth of the Colony increased from gold and other primary produce, the population expanded rapidly, and many of the elements of modern communications technology were introduced. All of these profoundly affected the work of the police. This part examines this period where the foundations of the modern police were laid, literally as well as metaphorically. page 23 Chapter 1 * Background: The growth of Sydney, and New South Wales The one vital factor underlying all of the history of Sydney in particular and New South Wales in general in the second half of the nineteenth century was population increase. To illustrate the magnitude of the change, in the mid 1850's Sydney's population could be counted in the tens of thousands (54,000); forty years later this had approached half a million. By 1890, Sydney was one of the world's great metropolitan centres, and a magnet for economic activity within the state, with the majority of manufacturing and transportation serving it (Kelly 1978, p7). Manufacturing gravitated to Sydney where the large and concentrated population offered a large market that could be served cheaply. As the port of entry for overseas vessels and hub of the transport system, manufacturers could also most easily serve the non-metropolitan market by locating in Sydney. Thus the dominance of Sydney had a cumulative effect in that this steady emergence of manufacturing firms, together with the growth of port and shipping facilities, created conditions favourable to the establishment of new firms benefiting from industrial linkages (Jeans and Spearritt 1980, p299). Until the building of railways, the expansion of Sydney was limited by the high cost of travel in horse-drawn vehicles and by the time taken to walk to work. Downtown Sydney attracted most of the office, shop and workshop activities. The well-to-do tended to occupy the more remote suburbs and the working class the terrace houses near the city's centre. Completion of the railway line between Sydney and Parramatta in the 1850s enabled people to live further from their places of work in Sydney, and real estate developers laid out subdivisions on the suburban passenger route. Thus a built-up area emerged, stretching westwards towards Parramatta. Southwards there was expansion into new industrial areas towards Waterloo, and new residential suburbs and resort villages 'in the country' to the east, notably at Waverley. (Jeans and page 24 Spearritt 1980, p302) Population growth in the metropolitan area quickened after 1881, adding 260,000 more people by 1901. The 1880s saw the building of a tramway network through the growing eastern suburbs of Sydney, to Marrickville, and through Waterloo to the shores of Botany Bay. Overview of Policing Within this boom, policing was relatively stable. The legislation of 1862 remained in place, with an overhaul in 1899, which nonetheless did not change the fundamentals. Therefore, while policing numbers were growing to keep pace with population shifts, and while new units and systems were established over the period, the structural framework of the system remained relatively constant, particularly compared to the chaotic pre-1862 situation. Detectives With the formation of the New South Wales Police Department in 1862, a Detectives Force was established as part of the Foot Police. This group of thirteen were mostly involved in tracing missing persons, usually at the written request of relatives from England. Many of these evolved into murder investigations, prospectors being killed in the sparsely settled outback or on the gold-fields. Detectives were despatched to the outback to support the mounted troopers in their searches for the bushrangers who thrived in the Colonies in the 1860's and 1870's. In November, 1879, the Detectives of the New South Wales Police Department were formed into a separate Branch, the Criminal Investigation Branch (C.I.B.). The C.I.B. comprised a Detective Inspector and seventeen men, a greater portion of whom came from England in 1855 as a result of the recruiting drive to fill positions left vacant by staff abandoning their positions to try for their fortunes on the gold fields. page 25 According to Police Rules, Detective Constables stationed away from Sydney were to correspond directly with the Inspector-General, but were otherwise under the orders of the Officer in Charge of the District, Station or Division where they were. Detectives in Sydney were under the control of the Detective Inspector (NSW Police Force c1979, p46). Detectives remained a small force until the current century and highly centralised until the current decade. In 1929, the police force consisted of 3,500 personnel and the Criminal Investigation Branch consisted of only 40 detectives, supplemented by 120 plain clothes police attached to divisional stations in Sydney (Mitchell 1929, p484). Scientific The first of the scientific services was the Fingerprint Branch, which was formed in 1903, as part of Detectives. Identifications by fingerprint quickly increased from 209 in the first year of operation, to 1065 in 1909, and passed the 2000 mark, to 2162 in 1914. Staff were based at the Redfern Police Complex. Electric Telegraph and Telephone The Annual Report of 1878 reports that the various Metropolitan Police Stations have recently been connected by telegraph wire- a convenience which the Inspector-General anticipated " ... will prove advantageous in securing prompt transmission of information and save a good deal of time hitherto occupied by constables conveying messages &c from one place to another."(p38) Between March, 1862 and June, 1872 the telegraph increased from 36 Stations in the whole Colony, and only 1,616 miles of wire to a total of 87 stations and 5,517 miles, with " ...an immediate prospect of the most remote Districts, such as Bourke, being brought into communication with the Metropolis. The advantage thus accruing to the Police can hardly be over estimated. We are thereby enabled to receive and instantly circulate reports page 26 of crime and descriptions of offenders, besides facilitating the operations of the Police, and preventing much unnecessary travelling" (NSW Police Department 1872, p3). By 1890, it was being reported that " ... the facility with which police can now be moved from one post to another by railway, telegraph lines being also available in every direction, afford material aids to promptitude in concentrating police wherever required on emergency. The use of the telephone for police purposes has been made more generally available in the city and suburbs during the year. Besides the twenty-five instruments at police stations, the telephones of the Fire Brigade Department are all available to the police, and, in addition, no less than 139 instruments in convenient situations, belonging to private citizens, have been kindly placed at my disposal for use when required. A list of the same has been printed and issued to each member of the force in the district." (NSW Police Department 1891, p2) Improvements in technology do not appear to have made great changes in the way police conducted their operations, except that the Annual Report for 1871 (p3) notes that the spread of the railway had enabled some rationalisation of police stations formerly established along major routes to guard the movement of 'prisoners and treasure', by using a special carriage, on a plan proposed by the Inspector-General," ... combining the security of the largest number of prisoners with the smallest number of Police as an escort." The increased productivity of staff offered opportunities to re-deploy them to meet other needs: "The extension of the railway lines has lessened the duties of the police in regard to gold and other escorts, also in the transmission of prisoners; but the rapid growth of settlement throughout the interior, and increase of population, have created a demand for additional police protection to a far greater extent than the savings in the respects page 27 / ., / / // ·, ,. '1/ indicated above."(NSW Police Department 1885, pl) It was not only police who were able to make use of the technological improvements of the end of the nineteenth century. The 1895 Annual Report highlights this by noting the assistance New South Wales police receive from "the other Colonies", on the basis that "the means of inter-communication being now so constant, and the cost of passages so low, criminals are ever ready to take advantage of a change of scene for their operations, and without constant assistance willingly rendered throughout the colonies, the task of the Police in coping with crime and criminals would be almost hopeless."(NSW Police Department 1896, p3). This echoes the pre-1850 situation where criminals often escaped capture by escaping to the next district, which was a separate jurisdiction. Transport The horse remained the dominant form of transport throughout the nineteenth century, both in the city and throughout the Colony, but bicycles were trialled in 1896 and were considered " ... extremely useful in enabling the Police to cover a long route in the suburbs and country towns, for rapidity in the pursuit of offenders, and for non-commissioned officers inspecting beats. Lest too much be read into this comment, the Report also states that "Under no circumstances, however, can bicycles replace horses to any considerable extent in the performance of police duties during the year." (NSW Police Department 1897, p3) Agents of Government Police were called upon to fill numerous other roles, often on the basis that they are the major, if not sole, representative of government in a place. The Annual Report of 1885 lists twenty-four such roles. Some are expected, associated with the administration of justice, such as Acting Clerks of Petty Sessions, Agents for the Curator of Intestate Estates and Collectors of Jury Lists, but there are included numerous other roles including: Inspectors of Slaughter-houses page 28 Collectors of Crop and Stock Returns, Mills, Manufactories, Schools, etc Inquiry Agents for the Lunacy Department Inspectors of Distilleries Notice servers under Rabbit Act Agents for the Aborigines Protectorate Board Receipt and Disbursements of Moneys under the Deserted Wives and Children Act (NSW Police Department 1885-1886, p3-4) page 29 Chapter 2 * Policing Sydney The pace and scale of the demographic change which occurred in Sydney in the second half of the nineteenth century affected not only the city but its burgeoning suburbs. In 1850, Paddington had been a village, remote from the life of the newly incorporated City of Sydney. Three thousand eight hundred houses were built in Paddington in the period 1860 to 1890 - an average of 2½ houses completed each week over the whole thirty year period. (Kelly 1978, p4) The Sydney suburb of Burwood was first given a permanent police presence in 1882. At that time, it was a sub-station within the Newtown Police District, and the first officer stationed there occupied two rooms in a small building adjacent to the Burwood Railway Station. Within two years, rapid development of roads and housing saw the previously sparsely settled suburbs around Strathfield and Ashfield fill. The strength of the sub-station was increased to 4 Constables, providing day and night patrol services, aided by a single bicycle and the railway link between the suburbs. (Hoban 1993, p29) In the latter nineteenth century, the drift of population, particularly of the young, from the country to the city began for employment. The Inspector-General of Police voiced his concerns as (self-appointed) moral guardian in the Annual Reports of 1883 and 1884 by stating the need to increase police numbers " ... to meet urgent requirements on the railway works and elsewhere in the interior, as well as in the suburbs of Sydney, where increased protection is at least equally desirable ... young persons of both sexes can obtain employment in factories and other large establishments where they can earn high wages, and have abundant leisure with little or no restraint. The cases of juvenile immorality and depravity which frequently come under public notice are most appalling ... " (NSW Police Department 1883, p2). page 30 ..,. ,,,,,...,4 Drunkenness provided the majority of police work. A German traveller, Freidrich Gerstaeker, who visited Sydney in the early 1850s was struck by the number of dram shops [bars] and grog-shops, writing: "drunken· men and women you meet nearly everywhere"·(Ru ssell 1975, page xi). Proud residents of Sydney were quick to counter such tales, as John Fowles did in his book on Sydney in 1848, quoting from Count P E De Strzelecki who wrote that in Sydney he found " ... a decency and a quiet which I have never witnessed in any other of the ports of the United Kingdom. No drunkenness, no sailors' quarrels, no appearance of prostitution" (Fowles, 1973, p27). In 1884, in the Metropolitan District, 23,458 persons were taken into custody. Of these, 13,925 were for drunkenness (NSW Police Department 1884, p2). In the 1884 Annual Report (p2), the Commissioner expresses his belief in the need " ... to suppress disorderly conduct which prevails amongst an idle, dissolute and lawless class in the community." He states that he has impressed upon his officers the need to thoroughly investigate " ... the conditions in which the youth of both sexes are living, in order that, if practicable, a greater number of those who are being nurtured in vice may be withdrawn from contamination and reclaimed by the discipline and training of the Industrial Schools or Reformatories." page 31 Chapter 3 * Policing the frontier Bush-rangers were very active during the 1860's, much to the detriment of the public esteem of the newly-established Police Force. This generation of bush rangers were not the escaped convicts in a foreign land of a previous generation, but rather Currency Lads, born in the Colony and knowing the bush well, so that they could successfully survive in the wild, and escape capture. In the 1872 NSW Police Department report on ten years of the operation of the Police Regulation Act, the Inspector-General also points to the fact that many of the police appointed under the Act were new to the Colony, " ... and, unfortunately, viewed with no friendly eye by those in the community to whom they should have naturally looked for sympathy, if not assistance and support" (NSW Police Department 1872, p3). The Sydney Morning Herald never ceased urging its theory of the cause: the defeat of the police at Lambing Flat (now Young), editorialising that " ... from this time crime took a new flight. The police were denounced in the most coarse and vehement language as poltroons, as cowards, and even as murderers. It was inculcated that it was a proper thing to put them on the wrong scent, to thwart them in the execution of their duty, and to shelter as much as could be done safely, the perpetrators of outrage" ( quoted in O'Sullivan 1979, p75). Another popular choice as a cause were the selectors, people who had taken up small holdings in the country and lived a poverty-stricken life, often barely within the law. Despite the poor public standing of the police, as the limits of settlement expanded, the populace sought a police presence into these fledgling settlements, and, by 1872, the Inspector-General was able to report the warmth of the assistance and support received from the public at large, once they learned to know and trust the new officers as efficient (NSW Police Department 1872, p3). page 32 Policing was the government act1v1ty which accompanied the first wave of settlement, as noted above in the establishment of the Gold Police at Ophir. Although there was pressure for increased police population in settled areas, it was understood that the greatest need was in frontier areas: "Many of the applications for additional police protection have been from country villages, where the presence of a constable would be found advantageous to the residents to preserve good order in minor matters, but where there is little or no crime of a serious kind. Police Stations are however far more required in remote Districts sparsely populated, at considerable distances from existing Police Stations and where serious crime is prevalent" (NSW Police Department 1883, p2). To establish stations " ... to afford protection in Rural Districts as the Country became settled and the population increased," or to provide for newly developed Gold Fields and Railway works, generally meant the renting of premises, and the provision of forage, so that policing in newly settled areas was more costly than in established Districts (NSW Police Department 1872, pl). The spread of settlement was so rapid that from 32 stations in 1844, the number increased to 161 police stations throughout the Co�ony (which included Queensland and Victoria) by 1855, increasing by 80 to 241 by 1865, and to 297 by 1876. With a total of only 969 police in 1876, the majority of stations were staffed by only 1 or 2 officers [which is still the case today]. In a report from the Inspector-General to Parliament on the working of the Police Regulation Act, he states that the seventy additional stations established between 1862 and 1872 were set up " ... chiefly to afford protection in Rural Districts as the country became settled and the population increased, or to provide for newly developed Gold Fields." (NSW Police Department 1872, pl) page 33 The process of the settlement and later consolidation of a gold site, namely Grenfell, is documented in a Conservation Report of Grenfell Police Station (Perumal Murphy Wu 1993, p13-17). In 1866, gold was discovered in what was to become Grenfell in south-western New South Wales. Within three months of the discovery, a settlement of over 5,000 people had grown up around Emu Creek, the site of the discovery. In February 1867 the first gold escort left via Cobb and Co mail coach (Mitton 1988, p24 cited in Perumal Murphy Wu 1993). By 1868 the Grenfell reefing district was the highest yielding gold field in the state. At the time, it was estimated that 10,000 men were working various diggings in the area. The highest yields were recorded in 1867 and 1868, and it remained the most important gold field in New South Wales until 1871. Yields declined dramatically during the 1870's and miners moved on to new fields. By 1876 gold production in the area had all but ceased ( Mitton 1988, p12-20 cited in op cit). During the gold rush Grenfell developed rapidly into a prosperous town. The first arrivals lived in tents, or erected bark huts on the diggings. These gradually gave way to more permanent homes. Stores and businesses were established along the banks of the creek. Within six months of the discovery of gold, 27 hotel licences had been issued. The first banks opened in 1866, and a post office was established in 1867. During 1867, the community established a school and a hospital. Four denominations had built churches (Mitton 1988, p23 cited in op cit) Within a matter of weeks of the discovery of gold a police force consisting of one sergeant and seven constables arrived at the new goldfield (Mitton 1988, p24 cited in op cit). Like the other early arrivals, they lived under canvas and were obliged to detain prisoners by chaining them to a tree. The police contingent had expanded to seventeen by the time a court of Petty Sessions was proclaimed in the new town of Grenfell, in January, 1867. (Bridges 1986, page 34 p131 cited in Perumal Murphy Wu 1993) The Grenfell Police District is first listed in the returns of the Inspector General of Police in 1869. The police strength consisted of a mounted sub inspector, three mounted constables, one senior sergeant and five foot constables (Popinjay Publications, Distribution of the NSW Police Force, 1863-1881, Woden, ACT. 1988 cited in Perumal Murphy Wu 1993). This substantial presence reflected the rush of people to the gold field. The establishment remained unchanged until 1872, at which time the staff of ten was reduced to five lesser ranking officers. By 1881 the District was manned by a mounted senior constable, a mounted constable and two foot constables. (Popinjay op cit cited in Perumal Murphy Wu) The earliest police building recorded was a "logs gaol or dungeon", built of squared hardwood logs. (Figure 3) In 1877, a permanent Lock-up and Officer-in-Charge residence was erected. page 35 Figure 3: Grenfell "logs goal or dungeon", constructed 1867 (after Mitton) Summary The passage of the Police Regulation Act of 1862 provided the basis for the police system of today. The second half of the nineteenth century was a period of massive growth in the Colony, which saw it transformed from a collection of towns and settlements to a prosperous State. page 36 SECTION III: 1915 - 1983 Introduction Women police, motor vehicles, mobile radio, scientific police work - all start at about the time of the First World War. The �o World Wars caused great changes in the whole of society, with evident impacts on policing, aided by the innovations listed above. There were massive social changes again in the 1960s. These changes in culture were not necessarily met with changes in the system of police structure or practice, a particular cause for conflict in the 1960s and more recently. It is significant that there was no over-turning of building design and/or the building stock, to meet the demands of the new century. Police continued, and largely continue, to operate from buildings erected in the late nineteenth century, or from buildings built more recently, but still essentially to patterns formed in that earlier period. In this Section, police in the twentieth century will be examined. page 37 1/, .. , Chapter 1 * Background Overview of Policing War time conditions severely changed metropolitan life, with marked increases in crime, vice and welfare problems. The organisational responses to these included the establishment of the Drug Squad, the Consorting Squad and the creation of a female police unit. The years between the two world wars were traumatic for society, and for its police. By 1920, sly grogging, illegal gaming and prostitution began to emerge as major problems. The Inspector-General of the time, James Mitchell, formed a Drug Squad in 1927, following an extensive overseas trip. The 1920s and the early 1930s were the era of the police agents and under cover police officers, who gained reputations as masters of disguise. Swanton argues (p388) that the seeds of the wide-spread post World War II corruption of the police force were sown in the black market rackets, which proliferated after the War. The 1960s were a decade of great change for society. Internally, police were in ferment over industrial issues, such as paid overtime, while they were also involved in constant well-publicised battles in the street, defending the conservative side of a major cultural shift. It was not until 1965 that female police officers were accorded regular as opposed to 'special officer' status. In 1984, John Avery was appointed Commissioner of Police. A major purge of corruption, and a complete re-structure of Police began, in order to re acquaint the organisation with Sir Robert Peel's principles, enunciated in 1829. page 38 Motor Vehicles It was not until 1915 and World War I that the police service began to expand and specialise. In the years prior to World War I, motor vehicles began appearing in significant numbers in the streets of major towns but it was not until 1914 that the police obtained its first vehicles, two motor cycles, although it had operated government vehicles for several years earlier. "These [ motor cycles] have been found very effective for the regulation of traffic. There is also a motor cycle in use at Condobolin for general police work. From the stand-point of economy and utility they have proved very satisfactory and their use will be extended as funds permit" (NSW Police Department 1916, p7). That purchase started the decline of the department's mounted branch which, to that time, had retained dominance, much to the annoyance of the foot police. World War I economies prevented rapid growth of the department's transport fleet and, even by the mid 1920's, only 13 four wheeled vehicles were held by police, and police stations and officers were still classified as "mounted" or "foot". The Annual Report for 1920 lists 7 motor cars and 33 motor-cycles in use. All but 4 vehicles, all motor-cycles, were located in the Sydney metropolitan area (Figure 4). Numbers doubled from 66 in 1929 to 140 in 1939. Divisional patrol cars were introduced in Sydney in 1926, with nine vehicles being assigned to the metropolis's principal stations. The number had doubled by 1930, and were mostly used for general patrol duties. In 1930 the Metropolitan Superintendent proudly reported that divisional cars " ... enabled police to rush to the scene of reported disorders or crime and effect arrests before offenders could escape" (Police Department 1930, p6). The availability of motor vehicles to police started in 1915, (supplementing further bicycles in stations such as Wentworth Falls, Bankstown, Yanco, Kurri Kurri, Hornsby, Hunter's Hill, Guildford, Port Kembla, Hay, and Katoomba). page 39 Figure 4: (above) Mossgiel Police Station, near Ivanhoe, n.d. (c1915) (below) Parramatta Police Station(?), n.d. ( c1950) Some years later radio revolutionised police mobility and communications. These two innovations, together with the introduction of the telephone, did more to change police organisation and operational procedure than any other factors. Radio Following experimentation by Victoria Police with mobile radio in 1923, the NSW Police Department initiated wireless telephone in 1924 (Figure 5) and the four (later five) Criminal Investigation Branch (C.I.B.) Patrol cars were soon wireless equipped. In May 1934 a Police Wireless Broadcasting Station was established at the Redfern Police Complex and by 1937 the Police Radio Telephone System commenced operations with 14 cars and 2 water police launches being brought into contact with the Wireless Station (NSW Police Department 1987, p7). Victoria and New South Wales were among the first police departments in the world to utilise mobile radio communications (Swanton, Hannigan and Biles n.d., p8). Computers The NSW Police became the first police in Australasia to obtain a computer in 1971. One celebrated early use of this computer was its highlighting of the inconsistency between published (manually compiled) crime statistics and the truth, and led to the notorious illegal dismissal of Detective Sergeant (First Class) Phillip Arantz who was forcibly institutionalised as insane in an attempt to discredit the correct figures he had released. page 40 Figure 5: (above) Commissi_oner Childs at the experimental radio installation, c1920 · (Hood Collection, State Library of NSW) (below) Radio Room, Redfern, 1930's Chapter 2 * Policing By 1932, there were 8 women special constables, whose duties were " .. .largely of a social character, particularly in· connection with young girls and women who frequent places of resort (Figure 6). Dance halls, public parks, railway stations, sea-side resorts and other places at which people assemble are often visited by the Women Special Constables and in appropriate cases warnings are given by them to females in regard to their conduct ... They also succeeded in placing a number of girls in suitable homes or institutions and obviated the necessity for Court proceedings against the girls concerned" (NSW Police Department 1932, p3). Women police continued to be 'special' constables until 1965, when they were integrated into the system as full constables. The Depression often put the police in opposition to large numbers of the community. The Police Department Annual Report of 1929-30 documents police responses to industrial disputes concerning timber yards in the Sydney Metropolitan area, and mass picketing on the northern coal-fields, particularly at Rothbury (near Cessnock) where despite the fact that " ... police carried out [their duties] with the utmost tact and with the use of no more force than was absolutely necessary for their own protection and for the preservation of law and order ... a number of [the picketers] receiving gun-shot wounds", one of which was fatal (NSW Police Department 1930, p5). As well, country police had an additional task being placed upon them, viz. the processing of food relief applications. The move was prompted mainly by government sentiments of economy, although it was considered that local police were able to distinguish between cases of need and those not in need. In the cities, police were obliged to evict persons from dwellings. Both these responsibilities led to bad publicity and attacks upon police. A serious attack upon police officers at the food relief depot in Bulli in 1931 resulted from client dissatisfaction with relief measures. In Sydney, celebrated encounters between police and tenants refusing to be evicted occurred, also in 1931, at Bankstown and Newtown (Swanton and Hannigan n.d. p386). page 41 -�:: .:I - Figure 6: Women Police, c 1940 Summary The twentieth century, so far, has seen policing following changes in society by developing more specialisation within its organisation and by an increasing use of technology. The role of police has not changed in fact, but only in the last decade have police been reminded of their Charter, which is the principles established by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. page 42 PART II: ACCOMMODATING THE POLICE Introduction Police accommodation wa� basic, especially in the early days of settlements. As settlements consolidated, permanent accommodation was usually built. Police buildings are a modest range of buildings. In this Part, three strands of the history of police buildings are explored. The first of these involves the provision of temporary space for the police who formed part of the first wave of settlement. The second chapter examines the nature of the design of police stations. The third charts the adequacy of the accommodation provided for police. The final chapter in this Part briefly examines the practices of a number of other government agencies in providing housing for their staff. page 43 Chapter 1 * Temporary quarters Police were the first wave of government into new settlements. To establish police in new settlements, either police camped while slab or other buildings were constructed, or space was rented in whatever might be available in a settlement. A letter dated 12th September, 1862 from the Superintendent of the North West District in Tamworth to the Inspector-General relates his efforts in renting accommodation at Narrabri, where he was unable to find space within the town, but did manage to rent a Cottage, Kitchen and Stables 1 ½ miles from the township, on the opposite side of the river to the township, but with a boat provided during floods to cross to the town. The Superintendent also noted that the Innkeeper " ... has in the expectation of Petty Sessions being established at Narrabri, erected in connexion with his home a large room in which the Court may very conveniently be held" and he enclosed plans for wooden buildings proposed to be erected on the reserve for public buildings in the town (AONSW 2/620). In a separate note the proposed buildings at Narrabri are described as follows: "Consisting of Sub-Inspector's Quarters £600 Quarters for Sergeant and men 700 Detached kitchen for officer, 2 attached kitchens for sgt and men 200 and stable for 6 horses 300 Lock-up with 3 cells 300" (AONSW 2/620) It has been described above in Part I how the Gold Police at Ophir were accommodated under canvas until slab quarters were built. A serious proposal was made to use tents generally to provide short-term accommodation in the gold fields and at railway camps. It was not well page 44 received by the Inspector-General who wrote: " .. .I may here give my opinion that it (tentage] is altogether unsuitable except for very temporary purposes being too insecure and in this climate not fit for men to live in permanently who have valuable arms and other Government property to preserve from injury by weather and moreover a strong and serviceable tent would cost nearly as much as a movable wooden building." (Inspector-General to Principal Under Secretary 31/12/1863 in AONSW 2/620) The constant pressure for police protection and the concomitant expense of providing buildings, often for the short periods of activity associated with gold diggings and railway works, led to alternatives being considered, particularly where permanent buildings were considered inadvisable. The Inspector General, in a letter to the Principal Under Secretary suggested the use of pre fabricated timber buildings such as he had seen in use in Victoria for stables and Lock-ups, perhaps with the modification that " ... some portion at least of the woodwork might be more cheaply supplied and prepared on the spot instead on being sent from Sydney to Distant parts of the Colony" (Letter dated 31/12/1863 in AONSW 2/620). The Inspector-General's proposal to use prefabricated buildings was not considered feasible: "The Police buildings hitherto erected have in the most cases been the most inexpensive that could be devised to afford the necessary amount of accommodation and the Plan if adapted for a private dwelling and might be turned to that purpose when no longer required for police purposes" (Note initialled W.C.(?) dated 6/1/1864 in AONSW 2/620). In correspondence between the Inspector-General and the Under Secretary, it is suggested that in the erection of cottages for Police purposes, consideration should be given in their planning that police uses might be temporary and that page 45 it would assist in their disposal to consider their future use as " ...residences or shops by persons of moderate means- this latter purpose might be easily anticipated" (Note in margin of letter dated 31/12/1863 at AONSW 2/620). This statement is a pointer to the essentially domestic nature of police station design. Temporary and Expedient Solutions To meet the ever-expanding and often temporary needs for accommodating police, re-use of buildings was then as now pursued, so that the Inspector General sought iron buildings erected at George's Head as barracks to be removed and re-erected as quarters for the metropolitan police (Letter to Colonial Secretary 2/5/1855 in AONSW 2/620), and also in 1860 sought the disused toll-house at Glebe to station a Constable there (Inspector-General to Chief Commissioner of Internal Communication 14/6/1860 in AONSW 2/620). Because of the need to quickly establish a presence in new settlements, it was common practice to resort to rental or temporary accommodation until proper facilities could eventually be provided. "Sir, Application having been made for police protection at Ashford I have the honor to inform you that I have been able to make arrangements for stationing police at that place and I have hired a hut and stable for their accommodation. As a lock-up will be required (and also I presume a Court House) I have the honor to request that the Public Works Department may be moved to take the requisite steps in the matter- funds being I believe available." In a move typical of the economy with which police facilities have been [ and are] provided, at a cost of £5 bars were installed in the windows of the building occupied by police in lieu of constructing the proposed building/s. page 46 (Inspector-General to Under Secretary 5/1/1864 in AONSW 2/577) Construction Techniques Traditional vernacular patterns and techniques were followed, as well researched and documented by others. The better quarters and Lock-ups were usually built of sawn timbers, and stables of slabs, although there are numerous reports of slab accommodation, especially in the first stages of settlement, and as typically described in this tender for a patrol barracks and stables at Bowenfells (Figure 7): Whole Building 45 ft by 13- Made of Slabs let into Sleepers 12 inch square well raised by a Stone Foundation. Sleepers to be dovetailed all Posts to be 6 inch square- to be 8ft from floor to ceiling. The roof to be composed of sawn timber and shingled 5 inch weather. To be floored and skirted with 1 inch boards. To be lathed and plastered ceiling and walls. 2 coats the walls coloured. 4 ledge doors bead and rabbited with fastenings completed. 6 pair sashes 12 lights 10x8 glazed doors windows and skirting painted 2 coats. Verandah to Barracks 5 ft wide Shingled and floored posts to be square, the whole of sawn timber. Front of barracks to be lathed plastered and stucco'd. Remainder to be painted and whitewashed (Tender by William Stanbury n.d. in AONSW 2/644). As the limits of settlement expanded, the problems of building experienced by other settlers also plagued police. In a letter from the Police Magistrate at Fort Bourke, dated 5th June 1862, he reports the results of his investigations in the few days since he arrived in the area " ...they [materials] are very scant. .. There is no stone of any kind excepting at Oxley's Tableland some twenty miles distant .. .! think that material must be lost sight of as the distance is one obstacle and the want of workmen another. page 47 V F '=-�.___L ,,/ -:/.= A'._,.,,,�oh4 . � ,c<,._h ' J. �--6L. ,c,_� /L;, c-L ��L-d__ /f:�-�-�-.-:-·L /? . . .. 1 .e/y._�--"-- � ��/-. /4� ;£��- i L TS -/� � ·- 4�:� z���---�aZ__ �-- -� �---��L�---���--� � ·.· · .. �- ·�·.�L /4 �· �f/J,J-/1:� �:'->�f:,��r:--:--r--....:... · ·· ., •It. ...... _ . , ...... -· . ,, .. .. ,:, . Figure 7: Tender for proposed barracks at Bowenfells (AONSW Colonial Architects correspondence 2/644) "Of timber there is really only one sort and that is "Red Gum" and that will not split, therefore a split building is out of the question. The only way of using it is by sawing. There is a building in course of erection in which they have uprights of 6x6 grooved in which are placed horizontal slabs of 4x2 and this appears to be the best mode of adopting. "Shingles are split from the same timber. I hope the character of the climate will not be overlooked in the preparation of the plan and specification. It ought to be well ventilated and a verandah all round is essential." (Letter to Inspector-General 5/6/1862 in AONSW 2/620) Building Failures Correspondence to the Colonial Architect is full of reports of the deterioration of buildings such as these by the 1850's: "Unless something is done immediately to Penrith, Weatherboard [now Springwood], Blackheath, Hartley and Bathurst, the men and horses will be roofless during the winter, the roofs of Penrith, Weatherboard and Blackheath, stables as you may now say off and every month the delay repairing them will greatly increase the cost. .. but which from the want of persons competent and willing to undertake the work it was not during the past year possible to apply [for funds]."(Inspector General to Colonial Secretary 18/3/1853 at AONSW 2/644) " ... the buildings occupied by the Police in Cassilis are not govt property, but are rented as Barracks from Mr Piper, and altho' quite unfit for the purpose, suitable premises are not to be obtained in Cassilis. As stated in a former report... the stable has fallen to the ground, and after every heavy fall of rain the men's quarters are inundated. At Murrurundi...the lock-up is unfit in every particular. It is not only unsafe for the custody of prisoners but it is not fit for a constable to live in. It is such a state of dilapidation that any attempt to repair it would only be a waste of money" (Superintendent West Maitland to Inspector-General 2/2/1865 at AONSW 2/644). page 48 ... the accommodation at present [at Araluen] consisting of a mere hovel without windows, and otherwise not weatherproof... "(lnspector General to Colonial Architect 17/8/1865 in AONSW 2/577) page 49 Chapter 2 * The design of police buildings The Early Police Buildings The first police buildings were the Watch Houses, which were erected one to each district in Sydney. These particular structures have not been researched as part of this study. These early Watch Houses were complemented by the police courts, presided over by the magistrate who was often also in charge of the police of the area. In Sydney John Fowles describes Greenway's Police Office [Court], probably the most substantial police station of its time, in his "Sydney in 1848", as follows: "the old police office was the building now used as the General Post Office, the present one not having been appropriated as such until about the year 1830. The [current] Police Office... was erected for a Market House, from the design of Mr Greenaway, and as far as its exterior is concerned, is certainly creditable to the Colony. The Portico on the south side or front, with four Grecian pillars supporting a pediment and roof, forms the entrance, with doors leading into the Courts on either side. The internal arrangements however, are both unsightly and incommodious and do anything but realise the anticipations formed by the external appearance of the building." (Fowles 1848, p57-58) page 50 Watch Houses The earliest police establishments were the Watch Houses and small Lock ups. O'Sullivan (p22) quotes from correspondence in which the lock-up at a Mounted Police Barracks is described as being formed by sinking huge logs perpendicularly in the ground. Rough hewn sleepers formed a floor while large shingles formed the roof. A heavy door, liberally studded with spikes, completed the structure. There were no windows, ventilation being provided by the gaps between the logs. To prevent escape, the prisoners were chained to the logs. The same principles can be seen in Mortimer Lewis's design for a temporary gaol, built of logs (Figure 8). The design of these remained constant for decades, as shown by the sketches of "Lock-ups built at Campbelltown, Appin and Bargo" in 1837 (Figure 9), and a description from 1864 of a 'lock-up' at Merriwa as consisting of two cells 10 feet by 12 feet and a small central receiving room 8 feet by 10 feet (Superintendent West Maitland to Inspector-General 25/5/1864 in AONSW 2/644 ). This is similar to the design in 1863 by the Acting Colonial Architect for a Watch House at Corowa (Figure 10). page 51 ... _., �- t .. _,.__ ....;...... � - --��· ':-i�_;�------. ______···--··------.· · .. ______.. ______, _____ .... 1 I . . __ .. . � t',. . .--·- -· ------�- ---- �,--'-'· _:___: . ______. ____ .·-""'- --- -· ------. ------' ,. -�---·-··-. -. --·----- .,. -- - --·-·-__ -··____ _ ·- ,, __._...,:___.:. ···-c�_ .�------�:,:___ ._·_�-:...::Ji:,,., ... :.. / ·.:...1f_::....�.- . I Figure 8: Design for a Temporary Gaol Mortimer Lewis, Colonial Architect, 1837 (AONSW X693) ·,i. .: ;: .. ·.J -· / . 1··. __. .______._· - -.-:----. --·- / ___ _ _--·, ---.· . -··· . ····· .. ------. ------/ . ------,._ .. -- _____ . i,'(� � _·.. 12 .·,. ·------�--···------. .••.. � -----· .-r·--. ··--·---- .,_ .. : -. "·-·- . ·... .,..-_ @ ______,,--;- j _.. ·-.-'-_...... _ ---. ------�- ----�- ,- ··, / .. ---- .. ·-: •I .. · __ ·... --·--·-· .. -- --···-· . ------·-. . . -=---- . -··- . ; ·..,_ . .... '.... I;;-,. :2 . ,., . 6 -� -1'· ·s . ··-�.:: · I , . -·.I . I ,i - �--1 .. :j d ·, I .,,,. _. ,,,. ,. . I ·-•C -••• ·-- i .: •.-,.-·d-:..::;,�. I ____"7.•/ .. . ,;_,,i. - -··· /; - �7. ·- . I . . ·. ; . ·1. . '· I iI �� ·. r:· - . - . ···-- a �:. ' -�?_.'.. _.'t• ====...... ,u . � 1 ·- -····-c.. -···· ··· lb-,i I . , I Figure 9: "Lock-Up Houses erected at Campbelltown, Appin & Bargo",designed by Mortimer Lewis, 1837, (AONSW X693) . . ::r ·. ..,!.:. . ·: .. •· ..• � i ;;'j!iJ . . ·:. ,... �--�. : . ,i ..., ... . . . - .·,•: ·.•· I{]: . : �� � �jl'>'!f;/\'f':''7:� ..:',-;;• � h\· I hJ{] J� .. 'l! .:. ·:' Figure 10: "Watch House proposed to be erected at Corowa", estimated cost £360, (signed) James Barnet, Acting Colonial Architect, 30 March, 1863 (AONSW 2/644) Barracks The convicts who formed the border patrol had to build their own accommodation. Barracks were, however, provided for the mounted police. Often the tide of settlement forced the mounted police out of barracks that had seen long service. By 1833 the spread of settlement had put Maitland in the more settled extremity of the division's area of responsibility rather than at its centre. However, though the necessity of a move from Maitland was agreed on by all involved, and though there was agreement that Jerry's Plains would be a suitable site for a new barracks, the establishment of new barracks proved difficult to achieve. To begin with, the tender put in when a decision was first taken quoted a sum upwards of £1400. The matter was quickly dropped and it was decided to erect temporary barracks of a less substantial nature than originally contemplated, because this would eliminate one of the higher costs in the private tender, namely the hauling of timber some sixteen kilometres to the site. Instead use would b� made of the timber and bark near to hand. However once again delay occurred. This time, the convict gangs which were to provide the labour were needed to help get the harvests in. Finally a plan was drawn up providing for the use of such timber and bark as could be obtained on the site. There was to be an officer's house with a verandah, bedroom, sitting-room and servants room; a large building for the troopers with smaller rooms separated off at each end for a sergeant's room and a married trooper's room and outside, a cook house. A lock-up was provided for and a stable twenty-four metres long was to be erected with the open side facing north. Mangers and racks were to be built while four fenced paddocks were to be provided. The labour force consisted of twenty picked convicts with an overseer (O'Sullivan 1979, p23-24). Barracks continued to be erected after the restructure of police by the passage of the Police Regulation Act of 1862. Barracks were erected at page 52 Camden, 1878 (Figure 11), Newcastle, c1880 (Figures 12 and 15), Morpeth [East Maitland], c1878 (Figure 13) and Bathurst, 1892 (Figure 14 and 15). Camden and Morpeth are single storey brick buildings, Newcastle is two storey, but all are generally similar in plan. The plans of Newcastle and Morpeth are identical in outline and form, in the shape of a 'H'. Camden is similar, but extended in the cross leg of the 'H' by one room. This plan form gives the buildings an indented verandah, or in the case of Morpeth, an Italianate colonnade. While Camden and Morpeth consist of generally square rooms (about 4 metres a side), variously identified as Bedrooms and Mess Rooms, Newcastle is distinctive in containing three large, double-square dormitories for single men, similar to those provided at Murwillumbah (Figure 24). Bathurst Police Barracks, vacated by police in the 1930s and now occupied by the Bathurst City Bowling Club, is the largest of the group above. Bathurst was the first substantial inland settlement, having been designated by Governor Macquarie in 1815. The discovery of gold near Bathurst at Ophir meant there was a great amount of traffic on the roads to and from Bathurst, and a large and transitory population. Bathurst Police Barracks is a single storey masonry building, designed as a large rectangle, featuring a roof with gables and cross gables, and an encircling verandah. The building contained 5 double bedrooms for officers and 2 bedrooms for non-commissioned officers, in addition to a Mess Room, Day Room, etc. The separate kitchen block also contained a room for the Mess Man [Mess Room Attendant], and a room for the black Tracker. page 53 ----·------..,,. ------·---,-.==::::;;====;-;::==;;==� ! �� ·qo�� [:l f l /" I . -----.-.,.,�---, CE.I..!.. CEL .. t.. �r# ;;fo,0,- /. /"''"" ·� ,7;0.i:,,.,,, �,.� ,,� ;.,,.,,,.,.,: -·�':i!..Q.Ct�·E. yAllD 'b.£0 .4M. e,£0 12.00,ff. /!JlD Jl,l#. ,2 0 0,11 · 6,:0 ,2QO,H ·.Mew E A F--f .. pc.103fa ..:.. -/, .. ::.. C.A' 1�1D E. N pOL!C£ J TA/!OAI ·: l'R.Ol'Oj.£ 0 . ,{'{if.[}' ' 4i/. 0/\I f ArVD A [LOI/ I OAlf " <2M .EN DeO S"CNel) S',t.,f .[CALE. Ya' I' o" �:I · �- Ci{J-ls� :,, o.:_J� c:;011!,IJ,t.,•MF.A.JT 44CNI /.t.C,T, . .ZO•. -+". -,.9. j;f ' c.f- • '*" Figure 11: Camden Police Station, 1878 (PWD) l �crr11c .. cc. ,.,..,,.,. f'c•cr,, s...... � .. •· ---·- -- NEWCASTLE: POLICE BARRACKS. Yw,.,. .. � .. •ca, c. •• r...... "" .. .-, .. r.-.. ,,..-. r.. ,t, .. �· ... ---= =---=.=:_ ��--=---=-=-�--== . __-�-::... Noll:TH £:LE'°"TIQN '1 JlJIS[ I S1:c:T10N AA . ------@;ID ------.. -- - � - ,. I,i I ------i JII . ��--:.__ -_· __. ..:L�i j floor �AN : ;, _.,; I j \ --,rffi{'ltr".r""1 I !.ft �·- I! .-.. ·-l, ·"'II'·'"""· .. -,·!_ ..·: ·; - . 11 . ····-�1· ·,) --� ...... 1 , 1,,--·--·- ,.,-. �-iir· ·- .,·,·· . . . ..,_ l 1i L.. i : ! j. • ,_J,j r :-i-,r-1 f""""-·/ Lil_L• - .. r- -1 ; , . r. • i :::: �1 -�·"- _.,.._, ,,._ • -·� -�: ,i : Jil ··. .. . I -·---l .t -· ...... -... :·-.. . ��1!!'I! 1.! _.,.:: : fr:. :...... _ ..•i, -···----·�-. . i 'i -tr L.=. ' ; ' -� li�'""-==. �i -- �u,,. . w...._..,. eow..,. ,.,..,,c .. • "'"'""'n..,"...cc--...� l"'_,, ...... ' l--�-.. •• �-. --- \h,.-;"--:,�, -t-•• E�·�=�.'W "( eo. .. -.. ,1o_ .. ,1..�.·'�"lll.-lt1:a :.;. .... ,,-..,.....i:. Figure 12: Newcastle Police Barracks, n.d., c1880_•_••s_,_._.o_••_?_c_ (PWD)..... "" l\nc ...... ,_...... ,.. ..,.--c;...... L/ a ...... •· Fo .... """""'"°'"..,.,.• f•&• .. ,,. ,,, MORPE:TH POLICE: BARRACKS. 'WY•,,• P.,.&11, ..,;,...... H,a. 9,..••ol'I' -·-� 'I (NO �U.VATION c::'i:::::=31::::B . I ;I. 5.tcTION E,F :. ,-,I._ :::c:::=:::::!::J•i [LtV,'\TIOH OF Kirc:11t:NS l� Sccr10Nllf> c ..."""'TION Df' Srll"&i.r SECTION CQ ,r.,,.., rr.u� .4,,,oll Hlltl'IJ '--•'� :,,..,�.....,, ..... N,_,..,,,,.,...,w,,,,., • . .,n...,,.. �PCfllfftltf-• , .,..,..,.� (,,,.,, :.M,,�-, �- Figure 13: Morpeth Police Barracks, c1878 (PWD) \�.:::;::: .. BACK ELICYATION Rool' ""'-""' •.,... sc...... �rflONT [LE.VATtON •: I I ' -.. . 4:. PLAN :1 � ifl.E.Ll:VATION• 11!:C.TION Vlo•o @ tlA"!• ...... h .. £1.tv'ATION .,' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' [L.EVATION .0 '' ', ' .lj,.. ' .l _L ·., ', · ' '- · ··-----r -f------�---1 r- ,;,:��---�-- �-.,. · ·-+- . .,,' / I / _ .. ______,, j ,' .;.' _,,,------.;.,,.. '•';; = � =::.:======ir=:::;:=��'1===i"'1 /I I I j_ I I ·,I I I " " I 31C.TioN Of KITCHF'N "-jt-� t .... ,... I .. 1. •• ,. •• J I ia.-· .. ···L I i ! -----,I I I . ··-/ I -�1-- ( ,' • > ·,. ·! v.... ��.,. r-- I' �/" ------l'IIJC:';a'�----�=--==��� - -===- ,.6:::==:::.l,____ ..., •.---�------·· ____ 1:!1- ______• ------ Figure 14: Bathurst Police Barracks, 1892 (PWD) Figure 15: (above) Bathurst Police Barracks, 1892. (photo n.d.) (below) Newcastle Police Barracks, c1880. (photo n.d.) ; Call Boxes In the 1930's, the introduction of call boxes radically changed the way police were housed. The 1929-30 Annual Report notes that approval had been given to trial the system, modelled "(p5)... upon lines similar to those followed in several cities in England". Whether improved accessibility and responsiveness or reduction of accommodation problems was the main motivator of the introduction is not recorded. The system was seen as increasing mobility and responsiveness. It was reported that the system "has met with considerable success in other countries and enables the maximum amount of police protection to be afforded to localities where the expense of the establishment or erection of permanent police stations is not justified, and saves the time which would otherwise be taken up by police parading to and from stations before proceeding on duty or in connection with their meal hours. The system also ensures that at all times a telephone is available to the public whereby the nearest established station can be communicated with immediately, and a first-aid outfit is also available at each call-box for use in case of emergency."(NSW Police Department 1933, p5) The call boxes were not entirely without aesthetic considerations, with the Commissioner of Police, Mr Childs, declaring that "... there would be no clashing between the colour scheme of the police boxes and their surroundings. Each box in the city and suburbs will be painted yellow and black, which colours have been used for traffic purposes, but boxes will not be indicated by yellow and black bands where this colour scheme would appear incongruous. In such cases, the boxes will be painted to harmonise with their surroundings" (SMH 9/2/1933, p5, col e). page 54 Chapter 3 * The design of The Police Station Introduction Although as early as 1800, there · were 150 people on the civil service establishment, developing a basic system of public works, it is from Lachlan Macquarie's term as Governor from 1810 to 1821 that a program of public works in Australia can properly be dated (Coltheart 1991, p21-22). Despite various turmoils in the organisation of public buildings, by 1859, the Colony had a basic system of infrastructure, and "there were imposing public buildings in Sydney and Newcastle, and court houses dotted bush roads and city streets" (Coltheart 1991, p25). It has been noted how police established a presence from the earliest days of a settlement. But court houses dotted bush roads. The court house was the Image of The Law. As Peter Bridges (1986, pll) writes "The law was often dispensed in a harsh and oppressive fashion.. .ln remote and thinly settled country districts court houses were at first the only seats of authority; the magistrates and the police were the instruments through which the power of the central government were exercised and authority imposed on a scattered and sometimes unco-operative population." The Police Station and The Court House Peter Bridges documents the development of Court Houses as a distinctive style of building, which he credits to the regime of Mortimer Lewis as Colonial Architect. (Bridges and McDonald 1988, p19). In his "Historic Court Houses of New South Wales", Bridges writes " .. .from the 1840's the court .houses of the State were clear architectural symbols of authority; in later times they were demonstrations of affluence (pll)... Mortimer Lewis's Darlinghurst building can be seen as a milestone in the history of the evolution of court houses... and established a firm convention that these buildings should be seen to have some significant role as reminders page55 of the authority and power of the law ... [lt] was a deliberate expression of authority." (p31) Vernon's Darlinghurst Police Station (see below), which adjoins the aforementioned Court House, is lauded for being "... unpretentious, approachable, almost domestic" (Bradley and Smith 1980, p49). Kissing Point Watch House [now Ryde Police Station] was built in 1837 (Figures 16 and 17), and is the longest continually occupied police station in Australia. It is a building of substance, a simple stone rectangle with a pedimented gable in the Old Colonial Grecian style. While formal and substantial, it does not have the same language of a public building as do most court houses. It has no portico or other device to emphasise its role as a public building. Its front door is simply cut into the end wall, with no attempt to create a public space. The design features niches on either side of the entrance door, in the manner of gun slots. The one on the right hand side of the building may in fact have served this purpose, but only a detailed investigation of the fabric may confirm this. The design for this building is included in a portfolio by Mortimer Lewis in the Archives Office of New South Wales. This portfolio also includes designs for a number of court houses, such as Berrima (Figure 18). There can be no mistaking Berrima for other than a major public building. Mortimer Lewis's design for Penrith Court House (Figure 19) in the same portfolio is for a modest court house. It is, however, no less grand than the design for a substantial (by police terms) Watch House at Bungonia (Figure 20). The two buildings are very similar in their forms but quite different in their language. The use of a verandah gives Penrith Court House an unusally domestic appearance for a court house. Bungonia Watch House appears as forbidding as Kissing Point (Ryde). Even modest court houses such as Penrith (Figure 19), in Peter Bridges' words (p53) " ...produce an impact. .. they are proclamations of the English law page 56 .... :. .-. ... .. :-... . , .-:"· .. ·- ---.. --.-----.-- -··: ..... - ·/ . ._. _;,,,,;, 'T". ._,_. ..� .. ,· -. ·-·- l!on -,;:". ;.d- _81 . .:r';j.;- 1 �c5.. .5Z?_1 � n l-_ Y>'9•l·elt·. E._4;J:Je-1 "' · J -·-:-·· .. ... _.,.__ .... - - ·-·.--,..--:...... - ··-·----- .·.• ------,· , ... . .·-· .. , ;··: :...... :.. •.· ··-. . - ·---··.- ..... ··---.- · ··..;- ..•,,._ .. ·- .. - .... . / - ..... -;:::;,.--· .. :· .. ' -·· . ,..... ---�- .. -· ·-.·: I- . -·-· ..... - " /I ..._..,, ... - ---·-···· -··· ---'----�---+-:--!-- . -·-··.--·---'"- ·-- -··· . ----� - Figure 16: Design for Watch Houses at Concord and Kissing Point (now Ryde). Mortimer Lewis, 1837. (AONSW X693) --- '• --. .. " .· .· Figure 17: Ryde Police Station: The oldest continually occupied Police Station in Australia, photo n.d. c1900? · . .. . .··.-1 . ·..;_... . • ··!. . - ._ .....,!:· .,._. .;,·. ·'."= : .... . ;--: '..,'4'· ...... : . .. I . .�:-: '-·- .····. -.-- . . ·- ·. ·•. .·:r. ... . -·--· .....�.·- ··· ...... C.'t,dJe.r .. __ : ,•!.. : :.... · ..· o·n ···: �- . .., tj; r$11� . . · D .. � :.-·.... ; -·- -:-:::::."·, . .. ' ·.• _ ...... •' --·-· ,) .· · .. _.:_ ,... _____ . · ·: :_ . ·:·r=.-;.._·,,...- - • - · c::=c.=.5:.-:,.,...,.....--:1 --=·=··-[:··· ::::···..:..·:-�-:_ �- i:·;n ::', .;. . . -····- -·-··-. ------=-:...-'--I-�- . . . . · . ---�. . �. .. ..:..... -. . ; '\.., , ...... ."• r - · ·i,.,, ... ·,..-- . :,: · ,. ,, �- , .. ---·-· - -:· · ..-� _ .. Figure 18: Court House at Berrima. Mortimer Lewis, 1837 (AONSW X693) ...... ·...--.- -•.. , C, . .'..L· �------·, ,., .. �u..r.� ·- �. : j. •... .;,...._. -. . - ...;• .. · : .. :.,.: .. --- .. - / r •.•-::.. -· - -·-· �-_,:_ :.d:.-- .• :: >'- _·:•· - . - - --· - ·;- __ -� = =,···�·. '. - - = - - .... i · 1 : ...... � , = --- \ ...... - ' : . ;• : ·. ... ·1 .. �. - -··-· ,.,... .· __ _ .- .� -----�-··.--- -�.. , . - ,.,· .. . •.. -· ·,····-·· ··---··--- ..... ,...... '- ...... -·- . .... _ ,• ., --- .. •,_,,. .. ·, \ ...... " ) '"/�· · .. ·, J• .•• ·,: - ·-. ..;,...... __ . ·-· ____ ·--··---·--·-···______· ... ··· ·····.--... -.... ···-··. 1 .. ------·. ···--�- /II. i.,i". ... .,.. #• _ ...... ______._ ...i.. ____ 1 ,__...1 ______j . '· . __ ,., Fig 19: Penrith Court House, Mortimer Lewis, 1837 (AONSW X693) ·� . .,.. :.�---:--.:,_.::--:;z.___ �:··. �-- 1. • ...." .•. . /---...:...: ·OD ,··. - ---··· .. ,..__w_•• •••• ·-· --- __ .t. •• ----· .- ....,. .. ". - ... . -- .. - :;. .� .. --- __ ... -- > -�·- \ ·.. · -:..-:·.. · �-.. ---":---��-1--:-:---'-,:::----f��-;::::====��---- ..·-·" ·� ... ----···-- ,--"---�--4-�r-l!LA l-r.Ji�· ··" .... · v=u-··. ,i ;-·-· . l;;;;iJ;rJ/,�: .JP ,,_,"?H f�.,..J'r,,r;,?,.r ...... 2,�JP�,;,.· . -�- :; \, -.. __ .... 1'. '· .. � ·- ...... ' -. ·�. ::. i' :· .. ./;.,, l ,,,,...,:r,,? ;. - -m, 1.' ·--�- ...... ::- ---.--...... -...... '.I,',. ·-....::.:....:.··"· ...... \ ' .. Fig 20: Bungonia Watch House. Mortimer Lewis, 1837 (AONSW X693) in an alien pioneer landscape." Regardless of their size, court houses aim to achieve a presence by their external form, and their internal space and its arrangement aim to fulfil a didactic function. "These [court] buildings tend to reflect, in their architectural character, the social character of the districts in which they were located. Thus, in Glebe and Paddington, suburbs with a fair sprinkling of middle-class residents, the court houses were small buildings which fitted with their residential surroundings. In the industrial suburbs of Redfern, Balmain, and Newtown, on the other hand, the court houses were massive and obviously intended to impress a dominating image on the neighbourhood" (Bridges 1986, p46). The dominant/ submissive relationship of court houses and police stations is well illustrated by considering Newtown Court House (1885), one of the first of the suburban Court Houses. It is a monumental building in a distinctive Egyptian-inspired style. It features a grand staircase fronting Australia Street, which gives access to the courts (Figures 21 and 23). The original Newtown Police Station, which formed part of the complex, is accessed from Eliza Street, a small street at the rear, practically a lane (Figures 22 and 23). The station consisted of a Charge Room, an Officers Room, and five cells, with two bedrooms as support accommodation. Design elements of 'the police station' There are three design components of a police station, for most of the period covered by this study, although not all necessarily appear in all police buildings. The elements are firstly residential accommodation, ranging from a single room, through to barracks, houses and residential clusters (Figure 24 ). The second component is 'the police office', which was in fact a charge room, as shown in the interior photograph of Darlinghurst Police Station, taken about page 57 x�:\.V COCRT HocsE i•-. :;,cA.i.t '\, ,·-� 1 ... l1...U !U 9 , ... 1 .� -;.,..c. "C1- •--·-- y .. 1;.. :,,, -3:,, _i ,•••• ·--··------•·,N• • •-·•------.,. """!I ....Jl• ''''' ' .··/�J:.�---:_ t;: ...'O'N'Of�11&fi.·::...... �. T- ��_:;�����-���.;, ��£�'.��- .,, C'OII\,.... ':ri , :�:·t • ' .• -= .. i;-, ,.-/ ,,' \ ..., ""�...... oc..�, ... J _.' Figure 21: Newtown Court House, elevation to Australia St - .\ L\VTO\V�- -- �l:\V COURT l-IUUSE-- ' ," ·, 0 ,, ' , ' .. ' � - . ,, ./ - ,Ll.l."\:-\TIOX -'lb EI.ILA. STRUT- .... ,· ,. --- - _,,,, __ -·.,.,, ,.•.·/./..-· .. ' '. ' ... . .,.... t/''' ,, . ,, �. PC38B/fo 1\:4000 ., . ... I, ____ .,_. __ ., .... Fig 22: Newtown Police Station, elevation to Eliza St Figure 23: (top) Newtown Court House. The entrance in Australia Street. (bottom) Newtown Police Station. The entrance in Eliza Street Figure 24: Murwillumbah Police Buildings, 1912 (photos n.d.) (top, from left) Charge Room; Police Office; Lock-up Keeper's Quarters; (bottom, from left) Single men's Quarters; Sergeants Quarters about 1900 (Figure 25). The third defining component of a police station was cells for holding prisoners. (Instances are recorded of police encampments where prisoners were detained by being chained to a tree. This study is not overly concerned with that.) In many instances, the cell, often of timber, even of slabs, stood at the rear of the police residence/office (Figure 26). Equally, in many other instances, the cell block was integrated with the residence, forming a Lock-up, numbers of which are found throughout the state. The Watch House is an example of a cell facility. The photograph of Porter's Retreat Police Station (Figure 27) from the collection of the Police and Justice Museum clearly illustrates the looseness of the concept of a 'Police Station'. It is a simple, vernacular cottage, on an open site, and possibly with a separate timber cell, similar to those shown at Mongarlowe and Girilambone Police Stations (Figure 26). A great number of police stations are quality small houses, but houses nonetheless, with one room set aside for policing. 'Lock-ups' featured, in addition, cells and an exercise yard. Alternatively, police occupied rooms inconspicuously tucked away around the back of the Court House. It is clear that the police were meant to be visible on the street, and the public was not intended to visit the police station- except those who were on the wrong side of the law. It was the court house which impressed its presence upon and subdued the populace. Constancy in the design of Police Stations A comparison of police stations built a quarter of a century apart, namely Ashfield (1885)(Figures 28 and 29), and Auburn (1909)(Figure 30) shows that, apart from stylistic and sanitation changes, there is little difference in the designs, most notably in the way the public is effectively excluded from the buildings- the front door is as likely as not to open into the charge room. The populace only visited the police station when they themselves were in trouble. page 58 Figure 25: Interior of Darlinghurst Police Station, n.d. ( c1900) Figure 26: (above) cell at Mongarlowe Police Station, n.d. (below) cell at Giralambone Police Station, n.d. Figure 27: Porter's Retreat (30km south of Oberon) Police Station, n.d. z � 'I 'f-'..· (A�·fl. < l--·) \ , . ..(r ' .. "'·-·�·- -;-;- . ! :::1 1 I ..... i·· . ,. :w�·. i:_·� � - -·- b,.__ .. I :: l. . I " t1 ...... JI ·o% .. IIt \ � OI I C) C'\ ii J I :i I u t'. I a... \,, �• l . ,,, � ,' �- wJ -.. ,_�-��J�. ;\ I I� \ ' I � I ! } j J Gi \I II ,., ,. u .j i g 0 :1 Ill -� .,!: � 1ml] .,,, ... , ., ,,:•, .,,. �- ,, ,.,, ;,� ,. � :! . •':, ,,,,, •r; ,, " '·',, 0 :;{ 1 2 · .. L .k .,.. 1- . "!. !I ; "· Cl 0 ,J .. ...!� .. :,,:,.. :,·� ...... z ) . I 0 2 , 0 - u ... :'" : I ··-· ...... , l �;:":.�--� 1 il !:! ·r Figure 28: Ashfield Lock-up, 1885 A typical building of the period, it consisted of a four-room cottage with a separate cell block. The building was extended, and the residence was converted to office accommodation in 1953. Figure 29: Ashfield Police Station (Photo 1917) r ----·- -'- ..,..... -.� ... -· ,; ....., 0 , ___ ...... _ I ..... < Figure 30: Auburn Police Station, 1909 Essentially the same plan as Ashfield, but built 25 years after it. Chapter 4 * Accommodating police The explosive growth through the second half of the nineteenth century, with the demand it generated for police protection, created a huge need for accommodation. In a letter to the Principal Under-Secretary dated 25th July, 1862, the newly-appointed Inspector-General calculates that there is an urgent demand for forty new Mounted Police stations- these were the usual provision to new areas. These stations, to accommodate not more than three officers each would cost £12,000 for the forty stations, and that sum would only provide "common slab quarters", used for the argument on the assumption that government would be "indisposed to [meet] the cost of erecting permanent police buildings of a durable description ( although I am convinced that such buildings are more economical in the end)" (AONSW 2/620). Adding the costs of forage, additional rentals, and the establishment of as yet unforeseen buildings in new Gold Fields (Figure 31 ), the Inspector-General sought the allocation of a further £20,000, in addition to the £10,000 already provided, and committed. The Inspector-General reported that buildings were one of the most pressing requirements left unsupplied, incurring the expenditure of about £2500 per annum for rentals of Police Buildings, and this " ... mostly extravagantly dear and altogether unsuited for the purpose, and I estimate the above expenditure as about 10 percent on the outlay required to erect premises of a suitable character" (NSW Police Department 1872, p4). With the prosperity which followed the decades after the discovery of gold in the 1850's, a boom in the provision of public buildings reached across the metropolitan area and into country towns. During James Barnet's tenure as (Acting) Colonial Architect (1862-)1865-1890, some 155 police stations were built, 96 of which are still in use. Seventy-eight (78) police stations (new or additions to earlier buildings) attributed to Walter Liberty Vernon during his tenure of the post of Colonial Architect are still in use. page 59 Figure 31: Winding Creek Police Station, 1896 The decades immediately following the 1860's saw continued growth in the police presence throughout the Colony, with each year's NSW Police Department's Annual Report documenting a dozen or more new stations each year, so that by 1876 there were 297 stations. By 1882, there were 382 stations in total. There are currently more than 470 stations across the state. Ten years after writing that buildings were one of the most pressing requirements, the Inspector-General was able to report in the following manner: "Barracks, watch-houses and other buildings required by the Department have been liberally provided and I doubt if there is a country in the world where more suitable police stations have been erected. They are uniformly kept in excellent order, and the adjacent reserves well cultivated, and planted with trees and shrubs." (Annual Report, 1882, p2) Even in the midst of this fulsome praise and the expenditure which had been incurred by government in providing infrastructure throughout the state, standard of the building stock varied greatly as evidenced by comparing the photographs taken in 1896 of Mandurama Police Station, consisting of Troopers' Quarters, Stables and Barracks (Figure 32), and those of Murwillumbah Police Buildings, noted earlier (Figure 24 ). Annual Reports continued their praise of police accommodation: "As regards provision for police stations buildings, barracks, lock-ups, and other departmental matters, I believe New South Wales to be in advance of all other places" (NSW Police Department 1894, p3). Year after year following, there are extensive lists of new premises and alterations to existing ones. However, following the Great War, the Annual Report departs from a simple list of projects attended to as in previous years, and the Inspector-General notes " ... the state of disrepair into which existing page 60 ' I l Figure 32: Mandurama Police Station. Established 1892. (top) Trooper's Quarters; (middle) Cell; (bottom) Stables. Photos n.d. buildings are falling, and the additional expenditure which is each year being involved by reason of the fact that rented premises have to be secured in centres where new buildings and sites for Police purposes are required, or where the existing Policequildings are no longer habitable ...£142,000 would be required to secure new buildings and sites and effect additions and repairs." During the preceding financial year, only £12,367 was spent to meet those requirements. (NSW Police Department 1919, p6-7) The 1919 Annual Report continues the argument (p6-7), highlighting that it had become necessary "... owing to the bad condition of the Government premises, to replace married constables in charge by single men or to vacate the building and temporarily rent private premises." It was estimated that "at least £150,000 would be necessary to satisfactorily meet the whole of the requirements of the Department in respect of providing suitable Police sites and premises" (NSW Police Department 1920, p6-7). A year later, the estimated backlog had been revised to £200,000 (NSW Police Department 1921, p7). The quote above underlines that police stations were still largely residential buildings. The 1921 Annual Report re-iterates the case as follows: "(p6) ...the Department has again been forced to replace married constables by single men, and in some cases even to vacate Government quarters and close the Station. In some places the Police are actually living in tents." The suggestion from the 1860's that Police could live in tents had finally been effected. The 1931 Annual Report lists the introduction of 8 call boxes in the Darlinghurst area for a trial, but also draws attention to the need for "new police buildings ... throughout the State, both to replace existing premises dilapidated and out of date and to reduce expenditure in the rental of premises for police purposes. Sites for the erection of police stations... [ are] page 61 still required at many places" (p6-7). Despite an unenthusiastic local reception, the system of call boxes was extended throughout the �ydney metropolitan area and to Newcastle. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 1933 (29/7/1933, p18 col f)that in a. newly created division taking in Sydney's northern suburbs, 29 call-boxes were intended, and that they would be an 'aid to the public': "... the telephone in the boxes could be used by the public without fee. All a person had to do was to enter a call box and lift the telephone receiver. A constable at Hornsby, or the sub-stations at Ryde or Chatswood, would answer at once. In cases of urgency a fast police car would be on the spot in less time than it took the village policeman to pull on his boots. "If an ambulance, a fire brigade, doctor or nurse was needed, a call through the box would receive immediate attention. If a person was ill, and a relative in another suburb was needed, the police would get in touch with the person needed. "The police are your friends", concluded Sgt Dole. The effect of the proposed extension of the call box system was that " ... except in a few instances, sites previously desired for the erection of police stations in the Metropolitan District are no longer necessary" (NSW Police Department 1932, p7). By the end of 1937, 111 Call boxes were in use throughout the Metropolitan area, in addition to their use being extended to Newcastle (21 call boxes) and Orange (NSW Police Department 1939, p22-24). This number comprised both the distinctive free-standing, timber (usually) huts (Figure 33), as well as police stations which were downgraded. Amongst this latter category were Annandale (1908) and Hunter's Hill (1915?) police stations, which ceased operation, except as Call Boxes, perhaps with an attached residence. page 62 Figure 33: A typical Call Box. Most were constructed in weatherboard and painted in stripes .. (Photo n.d.) Numerous other stations were used as Call boxes overnight. Other stations were closed, such as Eastwood, with the introduction of the new Hornsby division (see above)(SMH 22/8/1933 plO col c). However, by 1950, Eastwood appears in departmental correspondence as requiring a new site so that a Police Station can be established, argued on the basis of the rapid expansion of suburbia in that area then (Inspector, Hornsby Police Station to Metropolitan Superintendent 22/11/1950 in AONSW 3/2365). Call boxes were still being built as late as 1960, by which time some were permanently staffed and were effectively full police stations. The 1960 Annual Report records that at 31st December, 1960 there were 505 police stations, including 15 which were permanently staffed boxes. The generally modest scale of police accommodation ( even to current date) is well illustrated in Police Department correspondence which records two priorities for the 1960/61 year: "A suitable site is being sought for the erection of a Call Box at Beverly Hills and until this is obtained it appears nothing can be done to relieve the present position, where the Police Office, which is on the back verandah of Senior Constable --'s home is most inadequate. Present premises [at Revesby] consist of a converted garage at the home of [the] Officer in Charge of Revesby. I am of the opinion that the requirements of this District warrant the erection of a Police Station to be manned on a 24-hours a day basis (Superintendent No2 Sub-District to Metropolitan Superintendent 12/1/1960 in AONSW GRRl0/2313). The original residential purpose of most Police accommodation, and the poor overall standard of such accommodation is highlighted by the following quotes from Police Department correspondence of 1950 (AONSW 3/2365): "Mungindi P/S The Constable is compelled to live, eat and sleep in one room, with a page 63 total lack of comfort or convenience and privacy ... the Departmental vehicle is housed in a tumbledown stable building which has been converted to a garage by local Police, and which may fall down at any time."(30/11/50) "Casino P/S At the present time, nine men are endeavouring to work in one room, which was at one time the single men's barrack room."(1/12/50) page 64 Chapter 5 * Comparison with other government agencies Introduction Accommodating staff has to varying degrees been a policy for the various public service providers, and especially where the services were being pushed to the frontiers of settlement. While many other government services, and other organisations, provided residential accommodation as an enticement to staff, or to ensure that the service could be provided, with policing the provision of a house was often the essence of the service, at least until the early decades of this century, to ensure that police lived in their patrols, as it has already been discussed that police station generally are buildings of low 'visibility'. From a brief check with the various government departments and of other available documentation, it appears that little work has been done in examining housing associated with government services. The comments below must therefore be regarded as preliminary. page 65 Schools Governor Phillip set aside 200 acres near each town for the support of a schoolmaster, but since there were no school-masters to be employed, the grants were not taken _up (Tonkin 1974, p7). The first schools were established by the churches, and early attempts to establish government schools were strongly opposed by the respective church hierarchies. On the instruction of Governor Gipps, the Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis, designed a "standard" National School (Figure 34). Lewis's design was for a two department school with a teacher's residence. Separate school rooms are provided for boys and girls, and each school-room, 18ft (5.5m) by 40ft (12.2m), could have accommodated up to 100 children. None appears to have been built, and the design is best regarded as an 'ideal' rather than representative of the reality of Australian education at the time (Tonkin 1975, p13-15). The residential component of the building is a four-room cottage, a pattern which appears repeatedly, including Marrickville National School (Figure 35), 1864, designed by Henry Robertson, and Botany Public School, 1868. Hunter's Hill Public School (Figure 36), 1868-9 features a variation on this pattern, with the school master's residence designed in an L-shape abutting the school-room. Despite the minor differences between these designs there are a number of common points. The design of the school-room is based on the use of Monitors (senior students) and later trainee teachers to assist the single teacher in dealing with up to 100 pupils of a wide range of ages. Figure 37 shows the system in an English school in 1874. The residences are solid, plain and substantial houses of the period, comprising two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, and almost always, a separate sitting room. A notable exception to this rule is another standard design, from the Board of National Education Regulations, 1853 (Figure 38), where the residence consists of only a single bedroom and a parlour, attached to a school for 72 students. It is not known whether any schools were built, or page 66 · 7 rr• IE -, NATIO�AI.. SCHOOL ••• ILt..AWARllA . YAS., 4 CAMP&LETOWH. L._ --.-- 01 10 0 Figure 34: Design for a National School for Illawarra, Yass and Campbelltown. Mortimer Lewis, 1837. (A0693-4, in Tonkin op. cit.) +- " I t I --1 I k.i�� 1'.1etle. oo\N\ �- I � �ie,vsl e,s.jc{e.-,c.e, l 4-o )( 18 I :&. I hvivi�� ()ed..� tT ... + \\ + �--- WI. I Figure 35: Marrickville National School, 1864. (top) photograph dated c1870 (bottom) Plan of the Marrickville school. The arrangement of the residence is conjecture. Portion shown in outline only has been demolished.(Tonkin) I -...,· -N Of d PUBLIC SCHOOL .... TEACHtn RlSIOENCI. I -1 HUNM HILL _L .. ACC.OMMOOATION JI.NIGi!: itUl'II.S II& '""ANT& 41 Cl.Al& "OOM ... DV1'�•,f'I.MO'IIDt' i!! ••1•MA&,& . ------· SI DI. H.C.TION• C.0. _.,. * . -¥. Erm' . ---.:..:::..:._ ·c: ...:. Figure 36: Hunter's Hill Public School and Teacher's Residence, 1868-69. (Tonkin) Figure 37: An 1874 illustration of an English pupil-teacher class. The division of the two groups by partitions, as shown here, was not a feature of NSW schools, but the overall schoolroom arrangement is identical.(Tonkin) No 2 . . ,.. ·.:· ': . ��--� . .---· .1� :_., _.. - . :.• · ·. }�{.----, ,----· :':·�- - .-:·:· :.•.".:· Pa1·lou.r ..L 14 .... 14 - - D-0 .n-G - n - o 1-G U-0 4�-G x 18-0 12 high. Lo'bby �: .Lobby 8 - 6 \ 8 .. 6 A School for 72 Boys and Girls, in 4 Classes; withnClass room having o. Go.Bery c3.po.ble o.f conto.ining two of the Classes: Figure 38: from Board of National Education regulations, 1853 what the intended use of this design was. Courts Lower courts were origina!ly Police Courts, so the presiding Magistrate was an appointed police officer, for whom no residential accommodation was provided by the Courts authorities. Judges for higher level Courts were generally on a circuit through country towns, and so would be accommodated in hotels during their circuits. Residential accommodation was not provided in Sydney, except in the very earliest days of the Colony. So-called Vested Residences were provided for the Clerks of Petty Sessions, but there does not appear to be a clear pattern. There were approximately twelve Vested Residences, e.g. Bombala, Holbrook. Larger Court complexes had Court Keeper's [caretakers] cottages, and these continued to be provided until the mid-1970's. Fire Brigade Early fire stations were volunteer, until the formation of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. The period 1886 to 1911 saw the construction of the original city network of Fire Brigade stations at Marrickville, (the second) George Street West, Headquarters (Castlereagh Street), Circular Quay, Pyrmont, Darlinghurst, and also Redfern, Newtown and Balmain. Substantial residential accommodation is a common feature of the first six of this group, with apartments for the officer and all the staff, and single men's rooms. Redfern, Newtown and Balmain were built as volunteer stations, and accordingly provide low levels of residential accommodation. The apartments page 67 generally provide from two to four bedrooms, while the Superintendent's Quarters at the Headquarters Station in Castlereagh contain five bedrooms. There is also a hierarchy in living accommodation, with senior ranks' quarters having sitting rooms while lower ranks' accommodation lack this feature. Until 1928, staff were required to live within the station, under strict discipline which limited their movements off the premises. In 1928, a new administrative system, the two platoon system, was introduced, which gave firemen the freedom to live anywhere within their fire district. Areas were (and are) still provided in fire stations for crew rest, particularly for night shifts. A similar approach was the principal argument for a barracks in the City, built as Central Police Station. In the years before the project was approved, the principal argument advanced in its favour was " ... that there will always be a force available at a moment's notice in case of emergency."(Police Department 1892-3, p3) The result was also economical, lodging an average of fifty single Constables there at a saving of £900 per annum of expenses which would otherwise have been paid. (Police Department 1894, p3). Railways Through the nineteenth century, as the railway network was extended throughout New South Wales, Station Masters were almost always provided with a residence. While these were often separated from the station buildings, there are a number of examples ( e.g. Fairfield, Marulan, Menangle, Orange) of the residence being combined with the station building. These are in both single and two storey configuration. Generally, Station Masters Residences were built in masonry in the nineteenth century, and in weatherboard in the twentieth century. The policy is unclear, but over time, the provision of residences became more and more general, extending from the Station Master to all senior platform staff. The town of Harden had 41 official residences for staff, and after World War II, the page 68 Railways Department built blocks of flats in Chullora to accommodate staff. Additionally, crossing attendants were provided with a house, which was always constructed in masonry, in the belief that masonry was the better material to resist structural movement, caused by the vibration of passing trains. page 69 Summary Police stations are a modest building type. The key elements of police stations were those involved with residential accommodation for the staff and for prisoner charging and holding. The Police Station took second place to the Court House as the physical expression of The Law in the community. While many other government services provided residential accommodation as an enticement to staff, or to ensure that the service could be provided, having police in residence was often the essence of the provision of the service. page 70 PART III: CASE STUDY Introduction Of the more than 470 police stations currently operational in New South Wales, more than 200 are items listed on the Preliminary Heritage and Conservation Register (Section 170 Register) of the New South Wales Police Service. It clearly exceeds the scope of this project to study each in any detail to illustrate the themes explored in the preceding Parts. The eastern suburbs of Sydney have been chosen for a Case Study. While none of the temporary buildings which were used in various locales are included in the eastern suburbs, these are rare throughout the state and in ruins where they remain at all. The police stations of the eastern suburbs of Sydney, both former and current, contain within their number many of the types of building used over the study period as police stations. The proposed study group is unique in the state in containing such a diversity of building types within a small area. The range studied in the eastern suburbs includes buildings from circa 1860 through to the early 1930's. Amongst them are both purpose built buildings and others adapted from other uses. Most of the buildings have been altered over their lives, illustrating changing staffing and organisational practices. Below is given a brief description of the buildings considered in the study herein. It is not possible at this stage to make definitive Statements of Cultural Significance based on the work in this study, and discussions of significance herein are considered by the author to be general statements only. Darlinghurst Police Station, which no longer functions as a police station, was page 71 originally a compact, two-storey building in the Federation Free Style, designed to give prominence to its siting on a wedge-shaped block, the point of which joins Taylor Square. Later additions have diminished the tower-like nature of the origin build_ing, but it is still a fine example of the work of W.L. Vernon, the Colonial Architect of the day. Rose Bay Police Station Constructed c1860, it was the gate-keeper's lodge to Woollahra House until 1929. The building was taken over by police to serve as a 'call-box', a new concept in policing. It has served since that time as Rose Bay Police Station. The building is a highly distinctive single storey, hexagonal rendered masonry building with a large central chimney. The original low pitched roof was covered by a pitched roof clad with Cordova tiles c.1930. It is notable, inter alia, as an example of the way the police have successfully adapted a range of existing buildings to serve as police stations. Botany Police Station is an unusual example in the Sydney metropolitan area of a small, vernacular building characteristic of the semi-rural area Botany was when the station was constructed in 1877. Randwick Police Station is a prime example, and a rare survivor, especially in the Sydney metropolitan area, of a suburban lock-up. Its form is residential, rather than in the nature of a public building, yet it is of high quality, and in the Victorian Italianate style. Its detailing is exuberant. It is generally intact, especially internally. Paddington Police Station The current police station is the second to serve the area. The first Paddington Police Station, constructed in 1871, is a small but substantial sandstone building, in the typical site development of police stations, with the appearance of a residence, but with attached cells, here in the form of a separate block. The second, and current, police station was constructed in 1888 as part of the Court House. Typical of arrangements when Police Stations and Court page 72 Houses share quarters, here the Court House is dominant and the police station is very much secondary. The original police station was in fact a single room, again a typical plan for the period. Police accommodation was substantially extended in i9o7, by the addition of a second storey. Vaucluse Police Station was built in the mid 1920's, and is noteworthy for its essential similarity with stations of fifty years earlier. It is a small, vernacular house with a secondary police station. Mascot Police Station was constructed in 1929. It is a plain, single storey manganese brick building with elements of nee-Georgian in its architecture. It is noteworthy that its site, although only one block back from a major thoroughfare, Gardener's Road, is nonetheless a quiet residential street. The bulk of the accommodation in the building was originally a residence, although the entrance to the police station is highlighted by a porch with sandstone trimmings. Bondi Police Station owes its origins to the Unemployment Relief Fund during the Depression. The building is in its form and style similar to many of its neighbours. Again, the police station is not a building designed to be seen, not a public building. It is essentially domestic, although on a slightly larger scale than its neighbours. What is somewhat unusual is that the building did not contain residential accommodation, even at the start, and it is clearly a twentieth century building in making provision for car parking. Daceyyille Police Station was built as part of the development of the Dacey Gardens Estate in 1912. Its form and style yet again echo its neighbours and its setting, and like most police stations throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century, most of its accommodation was residential, the police component being one office, in addition to a charge room and its attendant cells. page 73 Chapter 1 * The development of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney The eastern suburbs of Sydney include Sydney's first suburb and early industrial, and primary p�oduction sites, as well as popular recreational resorts and the more usually associated areas of prime residential values. First settlements By the 1820s, a civil establishment started to replace the military establishment in running the Colony. As the military came to Sydney on tours of duty, with expectations of a short stay, housing was provided for them within the town, and no exclusive area of substantial private housing had developed. Land to the east of the town, on Woolloomooloo Hill, which was to become Sydney's first suburb, provided the new group of leaders with an opportunity to be dissociated from the common townspeople, while still living near enough to the town to be able to commute on a daily basis. The land was elevated with pleasant views of the harbour and the Heads to the east, and of the town to the west. The land had generally been dismissed as unsuitable for agriculture, and was available by government grant. Thirteen nominees for grants were selected in 1828 for the fifteen allotments of between eight and ten acres which were available (under a system set up by the same group who would take them). The grants went to the heads of the civil service and other officials and one 'respectable' merchant. No wealthy emancipists, and none of the pastoral elite were favoured with a grant (Broadbent 1987, p12-17). Development of the eastern suburbs of Sydney Transportation, and water supply are the keys to the development of areas beyond the town. Until the building of the railways and the tramways, only the well-to-do could afford to live some distance from the city, as the cost of horse drawn transport was high. The working class generally lived within page 74 working distance of the city, or lived in largely self-contained communities. Between 1851 and 1871, Sydney's population increased from 54,000 to 138,000, and by 1881, to 250,000. · Over this period, the population of the eastern suburbs was similarly increasing, approximately doubling every ten years to 18,000 in 1891. Suburbs of the well-to-do The opening of a road to the Macquarie Light and a pilot station at Watson's Bay prompted settlement, albeit limited, at a number of places. By 1800, several large windmilJs were situated on the heights of Darlinghurst, which began suburban settlement in the late 1820s and 1830s. The gilt went off this fashionable suburb when Darlinghurst Gaol was built in 1841 (Pollan 1988, p78). After New South Head Road was built in 1831, timber cutters moved into the Darling Point area, felling many of the trees, and the land was subdivided. Most of the plots, covering nine to fifteen acres in this area, were taken up between 1833 and 1838. The water supply was always a problem in early Sydney, and in the long, hot summers, many people ran short. Darling Point was therefore favoured because it had two freshwater streams at the end of the point. (Pollan 1988, p79) The first house in the Vaucluse area was erected around 1795 by Sir Henry Brown Hayes, a transportee, who received 25 acres. Captain John Piper acquired the house in 1822, then taken over by William Charles Wentworth in 1827, and he lived there until 1853. Wentworth began subdivision of the land in 1838, and by 1915 almost all of the estate had been sold off. Simeon Pearce, a immigrant surveyor who purchased land in the Randwick area, campaigned for the construction of a road from the city to Coogee, which was achieved in 1853. The development of the road aided Pearce in his page 75 promotion of Randwick as a residential area for the elite. His vision of recreating his native English village in this unpromising setting were only partially realised, but he is given credit for establishing the locality as one of considerable status, and �everal substantial houses were built on Randwick Hill in the 1850s and 1860s. Despite its proximity to Sydney, the Randwick area was relatively late in developing. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps (later the Sydney Water Reserve and now Centennial Park) and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand across the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days, Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in an area now known as The Spot. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks. Most inhabitants were local quarry workers (Pollan 1988, p217-219). A semi-rural character persisted to about 1880, although there were already some substantial houses in the area. Pearce provided cottages for his workers on his own market gardens at present day Newmarket, originally known as "Struggletown". Suburbanisation of the area was brought about by the introduction of the tramway, which first ran to Randwick Racecourse in 1880, and to Belmore Road in 1881, and Coogee in 1883. Water, another early constraint, was reticulated in 1888 (Perumal Murphy Wu 1993, pll). In 1835, William Charles Wentworth bought 200 acres in Coogee. No further land was sold in the area until 1840, although the village was gazetted in 1838. page 76 By 1866, this largely agricultural and horticultural area had become popular for day trips and picnics. An aquarium was built in 1887, and the suburb continued as a fashionable beach resort through the 1920s and 1930s (Pollan 1988, p70). Industry in the eastern suburbs During the nineteenth century Botany was a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Sydney. The area was a source of fresh water, timber, lime, fresh vegetables, fish and oysters for the town [of Sydney] and a site for noxious industries. The foreshore was also used for recreation. The water resources of Botany attracted manufacturers very early. In 1815 Simeon Lord built a fulling mill and later erected a flour mill closer to the bay. Other manufacturing was established on the Lachlan stream and on the shores of the bay men obtained salt from evaporation and burnt oyster shells into lime. In 1856 Lord's mill closed when the government bought up much of his land and removed polluting uses to make way for the Botany water scheme. An engine pond was excavated (still exists within the confines of Sydney Airport) and an engine house provided to pump water to Paddington which then flowed through the city. In 1886 the Nepean replaced Botany as the source of Sydney's water and heavy water-using industries, such as wool scouring and tanning re-established at Botany as did other noxious industries. Though the town of Botany was formally marked out in 1841 the town developed in an informal way from a nucleus of buildings along Botany Road. Part of Lord's estate was subdivided in 1859 to become Booralee Township. At the northern end of the developing town was the Anglican church built in 1862, in the middle the school and school of arts (both 1867), and at the southern end the police station, built in 1877. This centre was re-inforced by the building of the tram line down Botany Road in 1882. The Botany Municipality was established in 1888 and the Council Chambers built in the page 77 centre of town in 1898. Woollalzra House was built in 1856. When the Cooper family, its owners, decided to return to aritain in 1861, they offered the building to the government as Government House for £25,000. The offer was declined, and the building was subsequently sold privately for £40,000. The house was demolished after a later sale on 8 March, 1929. (The gatehouse was acquired to serve as Rose Bay Police Station.) The area was mostly residential, but there were a few industries, such as the Adelaide brewery. Trams to Bondi via Bellevue Hill began to operate via Woollahra in 1914 (Pollan 1988, p274). Paddington was the first of the early suburbs which was not self-sufficient - its inhabitants, unlike those of Balmain or Newtown, where work was available in local industries, had to go away each day to their places of employment. The first house in the area, Juniper Hall, was built in 1822 for the emancipist merchant and distiller, Robert Cooper. The area developed after a road was constructed to link up with a pilot station that was to be built at Watson's Bay. The road had to follow a round about route through Paddington to bypass the 100 acre grant of land given to John Palmer, the settlement's commissary, who refused to allow people to cross his land. In addition, in 1818 a distillery had been built, and the carters travelled to the city by a long and winding route, trodden out by bullock teams as a rough track, along the route of the present Glenmore Road. For all this only a handful of workers lived in the area, until 1838 when it was decided to build a new military barracks in Paddington. The first houses in the suburb were built in 1840 to house workers on the barracks. Once the soldiers and their families moved in when the Barracks opened in 1848, . shopkeepers followed. Builders moved to the area and put up 3,800 houses between 1860 and 1890 (Pollan 1988, p195-196). page 78 The name Watson's Bay was in use by 1811. The area was settled early in the colony's history. The signal station at South Head was erected in 1790 and the first land grant being made in 1793, when Edward Laing received 20 acres in the Camp Cove area. _In 1801 Robert Watson was given land, on which he built a stone house, although the land was not formally granted. For many years Watson's Bay had only an isolated village of fishermen and harbour pilots, and it was not until the 1860s that the suburb began to develop slowly, although land values did not begin to rise until about 1900. Governor Macquarie's Journal for 4th September, 1821 reports a visit to Double Bay, and he wrote of his plan to establish botanic gardens. The land Macquarie had set aside for gardens was held by the government until 1834. It was then laid out as a village when New South Head Road was being constructed, and occupied by fishermen and gardeners (Pollan 1988, p85). Maroubra does not even appear on a map drawn in 1892 that showed the great progress Sydney had made in one hundred years of settlement. At that time very few visitors went there, and the small group of inhabitants were mostly employees of the wool scouring works established at the northern end of the bay in the 1870s. (Pollan 1988, p192) Modern developments In 1912 an acute shortage of housing in NSW, in particular for working class families, spurred the State Government to pass a Housing Act, and to set up a Housing Board. The Board busied itself with the "erection at Dacey Gardens [now Daceyville] of a modern suburb to show how workmen's homes should be built and grouped in order to provide pleasant and healthy suburbs." (Shaw 1962, p79) The original plan envisaged a garden suburb of some 336 acres containing nearly 15,000 cottages,at an average density of seven per acre. The housing estate was planned by Sir John Sulman, and the scrubby Crown Land that had been reserved as a water conservation site became Australia's first garden city page 79 experiment (Pollan 1988, p76-77). Sites were allocated for shopping centres, schools and technical colleges, public buildings, parks and playing fields (Shaw 1962, p80). Almost the whole of Bondi Beach and the adjacent land was included in a 200 acre grant to the early road builder, William Roberts, on 22 December, 1809. In 1856 the government acquired the beach and the foreshore for £4,500, and the rest of the land was subdivided and sold between 1879 and 1935. A residential area sprang up, with both permanent residents and holiday-makers coming to the suburb. Bondi Junction was earlier known as Tea Gardens after the Waverley Tea Gardens Hotel, built on land granted in 1854. The name was changed to Bondi Junction when the first trams began the trip from Darlinghurst to the Bondi area in 1881. An official post office was handling mail as early as 1858, and the first school opened in 1879. (Pollan 1988, p33) page 80 Chapter 2 * Policing in the Eastern Suburbs Origins of Policing in the Eastern Suburbs The Water Police had a station at Watson's Bay in the 1840's and this seems to have been the first police station in the area. The earliest published record of police stations is that contained in the Police Department Annual Report of 1865, which shows that one policeman was stationed at Watson's Bay and one at Rushcutter's Bay.(Jervis 1960, p128) Changes through the nineteenth century In 1863, there was one foot constable servicing Paddington, which was at that time an open paddock with 2800 residents. The first Annual Report of the NSW Police Department, which was published in 1865 shows 'D Division' with Constables at Watson's Bay, Paddington, Botany Bay, Coogee and Rushcutter's Bay, and a Constable and a Senior Constable at Waverley. The Head Station of the Division had a staff of 1 Senior Sergeant, 4 Sergeants, 4 Senior Constables, and 18 Constables. In 1866, there was an administrative re-organisation with the District corning under No 3 Head Station at Darlinghurst. In the years to 1875, there were slow but steady increases in the numbers stationed at the Head Station. In 1873, the Head Station was placed under the control of a mounted sub-inspector. In 1875, Constables were stationed at Double Bay and Woollahra. The ensuing years to 1885 saw Waverley take in responsibility for Bondi, with an increase of staffto 3, Randwick likewise take over Coogee Bay (staffof 3), and Woollahra grow to a staffof 9, under a Senior Sergeant. A new Darlinghurst Police Station was built at the turn of the century. page 81 By the turn of the century, the staff of Waverley and Bondi had grown to a total of 18, under the control of a Sergeant, compared to Paddington and Woollahra's total of 22. Tuentieth century changes In 1901 the Metropolitan Police Division was re-organised and Paddington was made Head Station of No 10 Division. Darlinghurst remained the Head Station of No 3 District, which was responsible for stations at Bourke Street, Cathedral Street and the Domain. In the trial of police boxes in 1932, the first two of these stations were closed, and converted to police boxes. Indeed, most of the 8 call-boxes erected as this trial were within the area controlled by Darlinghurst Police Station. The staff at No 10 Head Station at Paddington increased to such an extent that over-crowding was intense. There was now 1 sub-inspector, 1 sergeant 1st class, 1 sergeant 2nd class, 7 senior constables and 18 constables working within the two rooms which comprised the new station, and the older Watch House. The 1915 Annual Report shows Paddington No 10 Head Station with a staff totalling 53, with establishments of 22 at Waverley and Bondi, and 19 at Randwick and Coogee. Double Bay, Kensington, Long Bay, Little Coogee, Rose Bay, Rushcutter's Bay, Watson's Bay, Point Piper, and Bondi North are the other stations under Paddington, all with staffs of 1 or 2. The separate designation of "foot" and "mounted" shows up again in 1919, with Paddington having 2 Mounted inspectors 3rd class as their head. Police buildings in the Eastern Suburbs The earliest police building still known to exist today is Rose Bay Police Station, which is thought to have been constructed in the 1860s. The oldest purpose built police station remaining is the original Paddington Police Station, which was constructed in 1871. How the police stationed at Watson's page 82 Bay, Botany Bay, Coogee, Rushcutter's Bay and Waverley were housed is not known. Of the remaining police stations in the Eastern suburbs, Darlinghurst and Mascot are not in Police Service ownership any longer, and Vaucluse, Bondi and Randwick are lfkely to also be disposed of over the next few years. page 83 Chapter 3 * Darlinghurst Police Station The Annual Report for the Police Department for 1865 shows the head station for 'D' Division, with a complement of 27 staff (NSW Police Department 1865, p5). By 1866, this station is referred to as No 3 Head Station, a designation it retained. In 1898, a new police station was designed by the Colonial Architect, W. L. Vernon. Its form is probably unique amongst police stations in this state. Its site is a small wedge fronting Taylor Square, and the form of the building takes the Charge Room, which is the pivotal functional space of a police station, and makes it the fulcrum about which the building is organised (See Figure 39). The building is a strongly articulated brick building with rusticated stone arches and string courses in the Federation Free Style. As originally designed and constructed, the building is a skilfully composed piece of architecture, with a long single storey tail, a largely unpenetrated brick wall, balancing the two storey main part of the station. Despite its organisational status and substantial staffing, accommodation consisted of no more than one office (17 ft by 13 ft) for the officers and one for the 'men'. Staffing lists of 1899 show that the building had a staff of 1 mounted inspector, 1 mounted sub-inspector, 4 senior sergenats, 3 sergenats, 8 senior constables and 59 constables. The building contained nine cells (including one padded cell), a substantially higher number than in any other in the study group, which is related to the building's role in servicing the adjacent Darlinghurst Court House. The large, circular charge room is adjacent to the entry lobby, and features a telephone cupboard. Although in common with other large stations, such as Paddington (see below), Darlinghurst does not have a full residence, its upper storey page 84 �!' D �! l1 I D /! l 11 D li D �J ��Cl) D H 3 l D ' ::, I J d. ( 0 � 3 � 2 J -I0 (} �j �� 2 0 ; . • 1 :i i.:l J fl i } • J1 j • ' 0QJ I a. .0 � I;: " ' (/ -� a. � 0 l J (¢:ti Q. J n ' i J. n J. 0 :> I C , ,, 0 a ,L".- II I� -, J �i Figure 39: Darlinghurst Police Station, 1898 (PWD) contains four bedrooms. Three of these bedrooms occupy the upper part of the two storey drum at the focus of the composition, above the charge room. The two smaller ones, which had fireplaces, could only have accommodated 1 or 2 beds, and even the larger one is unlikely to have been able to hold more than 4 beds. Some time before 1949, a second storey was added above the cells (See Figure 40). This contained large offices for detectives and for general duties police. By 1949, further substantial additions were made to the building, so that it took on its current form. The bedrooms are by now designated as offices, and further offices and general facilities such as meal rooms were added. The addition featured a room for Women Police. The building no longer operates as a police station. Discussion of Significance Darlinghurst Police Station is an important work of the Colonial Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon and makes a substantial contribution to Taylor Square in Sydney. Despite numerous alterations and extensions, the original external form is still able to be read. The architecture of the building expresses the functioning of the station very graphically, by taking the core functional space and using it as the fulcrum of the design (Figure 41 ). It was a major station until its closure in 1987. Its planning, particularly before the first of the many additions were made, clearly illustrates the common elements of police stations, regardless of their size or status. The essence of the station is its charge room, larger than most, and probably unique in being circular. This station, like almost all others, is the sum of charge room, cells, and a very small amount of office space, despite a very large staff. page 85 ...... ,., .. ,.,, ..,."� , .. .� N .,, I. u,.,. ....YI. ,," ;; /:-. ! •. J c..!-.1',:,"'9tt t,, \, .,.!.;;a-"�f.. ,. • "J.r • 7-..-� I \. .. ::;. J'\• ., I '• W ' 'b •-�- \ ...; .. j' '\ .. :....,_....,..! I J z •1"'\...... -c ... 0. \ \ ... \ .. �! \ 0 \ ... �I • 0 .l, :It \\ • :, 11 4 0 ,:,.; ...0 ".. ., \\\ .. ., \ .. ? ·n a r, " "' Figure 40: Darlinghurst Police Station. Additions and Alterations, 1949. Ground floor plan (PWD) Figure 41: Darlinghurst Police Station. (top) from Forbes Street (bottom) from Taylor Square. Chapter 4 * Rose Bay Police Station (Howard 1990) Early policing According to Police Department Annual Reports, Rose Bay was established as a police station in 1887, with one constable stationed there. Staffing remained at this level until at least 1919, after which time Police Department Annual Reports cease to list staffing by station. A rented cottage at the corner of Newcastle Street and Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay served as Rose Bay Police Station until 1919. It was a three bedroom brick cottage with a "police office" 15' x 16'3". A cottage at 6 Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay was rented from 1919 as the Rose Bay Police Station until 1933 (NSW Police Service n.d., Properties Branch Card Index). Establishment of the present station Following demolition of Woollahra House in 1929, its former gate-house was taken over by the State Government and in 1933, was opened as the new police station. However, its original function was to serve as a 'call-box', not a lock-up or a full station (SMH 24/1/1933, pl2, col h). As early as 1949, according to Police Department records, the station was considered grossly over-crowded and a replacement considered 'urgent' and a 'high priority' (Superintendent to Metropolitan Superintendent in AONSW 3/2365) Description of the current building The Rose Bay Police Station is a small hexagonal building, prominently sited on New South Head Road (Figure 42). Its date of construction is unclear but is considered to be circa 1858. It is possible that the building may have been built a decade before this date and originally served as a toll-house on the road from Sydney. This possibility is based on the known existence of a hexagonal toll-house on King-Street, Newtown (Howard, R 1990, 4.2). The building is constructed of masonry, externally rendered and lined out like page 86 TIMBER. FIXTUIUJ ETC. SITE AREA OF 21-i PERCHES. .ENTI/AilCE C. ( �":l��ta�;;;=::l .(\t)/ / SITE P.L.AN $CAL£:- ON£ INCH • THIRTY FEET GR.OUND Pi.AN -· CH£CJ(£D .. ME.1.$11,t.ED �OS£ .SAY POI.IC£ STATION PREPARED & DIUWN '5>' I�. 7. 67. oer. .st:.r. J/.,. ,'<,G.aAOWN CNR. NEW SOUTH HEAD R.D. & WUNIJJ.J.A RD., ROSE BAY. C. /. dllANC'>i. ZO. 7, 67. S'CAI.Z .'• ONE INCH £011.\LS EIGHr FEEr. Figure 42: Rose Bay Police Station (Plan drawn in 1975. Public Works Department.) ashlar. Apart from its hexagonal shape, it was distinctive for its parapet which concealed a low-pitched roof, and a prominent, large central chimney (Figure 43). At approximately the time the building was taken over by the government, a second ro9f was pitched over the existing, and sheeted with Spanish Cordova tiles. A further distinctive feature of the building is its habitable full basement, considered unusual in a building of this type (Howard, R 1991, 5.3). One of the three porches of the original building was extended and enclosed in the late nineteenth century, and about 1933 another of the arms of the building was extended to provide a square room of reasonable proportions- all the other spaces in the building, except the nineteenth century extended porch are small pentagons. In the later twentieth century the building was extended along its eastern side, providing one additional room as well as toilets and showers. The original form of the building is still clear; however, over time many of the original arched openings have been either filled in or removed to provide access to the various extensions. The extant building then was not built as a police station, and was little altered until recently to serve as a police station. Discussion of Significance The significance of the building has many aspects. A number of these relate to its distinctive architectural style and association with the former Woollahra House, possible pre-dating of that building as a Toll-House, and also possible association with the Masons. Clear evidence of numerous alterations over time is also considered significant. Its significance as a Police Station is that it illustrates the wide-spread adaptive page 87 Figure 43: Rose Bay Police Station (top) View from the corner of Wunulla Road and New South Head Road. Note the distinctive form of the building, including the central chimney. (bottom) At foreground right and the flatroofed section along the left are later extensions to the original lodge re-use by the Police Department of extant structures, even from the early days of the Colony ( and a tradition which continues). It is noteworthy that Police occupation of the building resulted in fact in little change in the extent of the building, evidence of the . modest functional needs of the operating police station. It is significant that the first use of the building was as a call-box, and that it replaced a residence which served as the former police station, evidence of a substantial re-focus in the 1930's on the delivery strategy for policing services. page 88 Chapter 5 * Botany Police Station (Public Works 1991) Policing in Botany The Jubilee History of Botany states that the first constable at Botany was a Constable Rush. It dates his presence as from 1869, but according to Police Annual Reports, Botany Bay was attended from 1865. He was located in premises at the rear of the present station. Land was acquired for the construction of a building in 1871 and the present building was constructed in 1877. In 1906, under the Colonial Architect, W.L. Vernon, it was extended at the rear by the construction of a residence. Description of the building The original police station was a small four-room cottage constructed of brick in an english bond pattern, and featuring a stone base-course and stone quoins to the verandah corn_ers, in the Victorian Italianate style. No original drawings of the building have been located. Based on drawings of other stations of the period, it is possible that the front right-hand room, entered through the front door was the charge room, and the room opening offit the quarters for the constable stationed there. The rear two rooms were cells. The drawing of 1906, at which time the residence was constructed, shows a free-standing kitchen block, noted as "present Kitchen" at the rear of the original building (Figure 44). When the residence was added, the front room of the original building presumed to have been used as a bedroom until then, would have been freed for official use of the staff stationed there, which consisted of a sergeant and at least 5 constables. The low profile of the hipped roof of the original station is achieved by the use of a hipped roof which is U in plan. The whole roof is covered in slate, including the internal faces of the return hips. Plain terracotta cappings are now used. The residence, including the original Kitchen block, also has a full slate roof, with lead cappings. page 89 . . ,I ·i j\ � ' ;" � 0 I::" n.. • I '"; ·,.," Figure 44: Botany Police Station. Drawing of the 1906 residential extension. (PWD drawing) The 1877 building and the Kitchen block feature twelve-pane double hung window sashes. The residence addition features casement windows to the bay window in the Living Room, and double hung windows with a six-pane upper sash and a single pane to the lower sash. Its one internal non-cell door is a four panel door, similar to those used in the extension. It is not clear whether this door is a replacement or original. The front door to the station is a replacement, with vertical boarding, and containing an inset cupboard for a telephone for after-hours contact with the police. It is assumed that the door was installed some time before 1933, at the time of the extension of the 'call-box' concept throughout the metropolitan area. The cell doors are heavy boarded timber, unlike the more commonly seen steel plate doors (Figure 45-46). Joinery throughout the buildings is almost intact and in fair c�ndition (Figure 47). The main bedroom of the residence retains its fireplace, while the Living Room retains not only its fireplace, but the built-in cupboard beside it. In recent years, Botany became a part of Mascot patrol, and its staff was re located there, leaving a residual of 1 or 2. In 1992, Mascot Police Station itself (see below) as a result of continued over-crowding, was closed and the staff re-located back to a temporary station constructed in the grounds of Botany Police Station. The residence at the rear of Botany Police Station continued to be occupied by a police officer until 1991. Discussion of Significance The significance of Botany Police Station is that it is a rare example of a small semi-rural/ suburban police station of the period within the Sydney metropolitan area, and that it has been little altered over its 116 years of occupation (to 1993). It illustrates the early concepts of the lock-up ( cells plus a room for the keeper), and the modest extent of 'the police station' as a page 90 Figure 45: Botany Police Station (top) original station (1877) in foreground. 1906 residence at rear. (bottom left) unusual boarded door to former cell (bottom right) entrance door with inset telephone cupboard for after-hours contact Figure 46: Botany Police Station (top) from left: the 1906 residence; 1877 kitchen block; 1877 station. (bottom) residence in foreground with bow window to living room. verandah enclosure and window hood are original. Figure 47: Botany Police Station original fittings in former residence typology, namely The Charge Room. The residence extension in the early twentieth century illustrates the continuing nature of the police station as a building type which provided residential accommodation, a tradition which continues in the smaller non-metropolitan areas. page 91 Chapter 6 * Randwick Police Station (Perumal Murphy Wu 1993) Establishment of policing in the Randwick area The 1880's was a period of substantial growth for the Randwick Municipality and the police presence of one foot constable (from 1864 on) was overtaken by the need for a permanent new lock-up. Land was acquired for £590 and the new building was designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet in 1881. Tenders were called on 7 March 1882 and the builders Richardson and Anderson constructed the building at a cost of £1990. Description of the building The original building was an elevated single storey slate-roofed brick building in the Federation Freestyle. It comprised two bedrooms, kitchen, pantry, charge room and open verandahs in an L-shaped plan. An attached cell block at a lower level was connected to the charge room. Outbuildings in the rear yard included two earth closets, a stable for police hofses, and an underground water tank (Figure 48). Some time prior to 1901 the entire building was taken over as a police station, the charge room, station sergeant and mess room replacing the bedrooms and kitchen. In 1901, the former bedroom wing was extended by one room for plain clothes police (detectives), sympathetically designed in keeping with the original building (Figure 49). The basement was enclosed for fuel storage and additional toilet and a bathroom was added to the· rear verandah. Both front and rear verandahs were progressively enclosed for locker rooms and stores as the pressure for more space increased. A store and motor-cycle lean-to was added to the rear of the cell block as part of the 1901 additions. A small enclosure to the front verandah was used variously as an office and a bicycle store. Twentieth century changes Both the staffing and the work-load of the station grew rapidly following the two World Wars without a corresponding increase in accommodation. The page 92 ii I' ,1 N ,q-· ;1 .. \J •'.., .. �i Cl. J. 4 I ··-!--· I 'j"' I •• t'. ---- i .. -· .�.,,,.-· , ,.. f i • • • .J <( 2 .; ., • ! ' . "'0 ..J • ., j 2 0 ... . "X -� � •· Qz Iii,.. ·-c0: •• • 'It .. , { I i 'II .: l f J ·o � ! � ,• :'·t Figure 48: Randwick Police Station, 1882. (PWD drawing) < {-�:, r.?,. t U"\ z: 0 !- Cl <0 � :x::: u z:tf"l 3: 0 a i== z: 0 < C < a:: � re:: u u a.. � ::, < I uX: I 0 .....J ;;\•·le f"",. L------� Figure 49: Randwick Police Station. 1901 extension. (PWD drawing) larger room off the verandah became the charge room as the reception area for prisoners in the holding cells. In the 1940's the front verandah was fully enclosed to provide a room for traffic officers and an exhibit room. By 1977 station personnel had _completely outgrown the building and a new transportable building was placed in the yard to provide accommodation. Following the re-introduction in 1990 of the concept of foot patrols (now called 'beat police'), additional staff were assigned to Randwick, and a second temporary building was placed in the yard. By 1970 one of the two cells had been taken over as a stationery store. During the 1980's the one operational cell was de-commissioned as a result of rapidly changing departmental policies on the holding of prisoners as a result of increased media attention and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. State of the building The general form of the extended building remains intact except for some minor intrusions (Figure 50- 51). The building, though domestic in form, is impressive by virtue of its massive detailing of alternate sized quoins and voussoirs to the front window together with the decorative fretwork brackets supporting the eaves to each side of the pedimented gable. The interior is intact to the extent that internal masonry walls remain. However, much of the detail has been removed during the life of the building. Nonetheless, sufficient fabric remains to determine original detail and finishes (Figure 52). Discussion of Significance The significance of the building is that it is a prime example, and a rare survivor, especially in the Sydney metropolitan area, of a suburban lock-up. Its form is residential, rather than in the nature of a public building, yet its detailing is extravagant in scale. It is generally intact. page 93 ,, >' ::; cccc -:'.'"' ';1 �;:� :�F�:� �� �, ,._:.:,.... ,,,". �1 Figure 50: Randwick Police Station. (top) View from Coogee Bay Road. (bottom) The gable features the words "Lock Up" in raised letterin�:w Figure 51: Randwick Police Station (left) The 1901 extension for plain clothes police (detectives) (right) The front verandah. The brickwork clearly shows the line of previous enclosure and also the outline of the original window. Figure 52: Randwick Police Station (left) original fittings in the 1882 building. (right) The former cells in the mid distance and the 1901 extension at right. Chapter 7 * Paddington Police Station (Moore 1992) The first Paddington Police Station In 1871 a Watch House was erected in Point Piper Road (now Jersey Road). Built of stone and brick with a slate roof (Figure 53). The building still stands, at 238 Jersey Road, Woollahra. It is a substantial cottage in early Victorian style. Originally four rooms, with a cell block at the rear, it was substantially altered in 1911, at a cost of £329. It is described thus in undated cards assumed to describe the altered building thus: "One story building, 4 rooms stone, remainder brick on stone foundation, with slate roof. Containing 4 rooms, Kitchen etc. viz. Sitting Room 11'6"x12'10"; 1 bedroom 11'10"x12'10"; 1 do 9'1l"x11'4";Kitchen ll'lO"xll'lO"; Laundry 8'1"xll"(sic); bathroom 6'6""x10'1"; Pantry 4'x4'2"; shed made of wood and iron 8'9"x5'; watercloset."(NSW Police Service Properties Branch Card Index) The building of the present station In 1880, the Mayors of Woollahra, Paddington and Randwick travelled to Macquarie Street to press their claim for a Court House to be established to serve the eastern suburbs. Paddington Court House and Police Station was built as part of a wave of twenty-four Court Houses built over a period of a decade, as a result of a decision that metropolitan Sydney was to be provided with a regional, rather than a centralised system of justice. The building was designed by the Colonial Architect, James Barnet, and was completed in 1888. Following the construction of the new Court House and Police Station in the same street, the Watch House was converted to a police residence, possibly in 1911, and remained in such usage until 1961, when it was exchanged for a residence in Clovelly," ... the [Clovelly] area is much more suitable for a member of the Service and his family to live in than Paddington." (Metropolitan Superintendent to Commissioner 27/4/1960 in AONSW GRRl0/2313). page 94 Figure 53: (top) The original Paddington Police Station, 1871. Residence at left and former cell block at right. (bottom) Street elevation of the former Police Station • Policing in Paddington In 1901 the Metropolitan Police Division was re-organised and Paddington was made Head Station of No 10 Division. Its staff complement thereby increased to such an extent that over-crowding was intense. There was now 1 sub-inspector, 1 sergeant 1st class, 1 sergeant 2nd class, 7 senior constables and 18 constables working within the two rooms which comprised the new station, and the older Watch House. Once the new station opened, the role of the former Lock-up at 238 Jersey Road and the new station at the Court House is not known. Twentieth Century alterations to the building Accordingly, in 1907, a second floor was added to the new station, adding three rooms (Figure 54). The station thus consisted of the following spaces: [Downstairs] Chargeroom 21'6"x15'3"; Payroom 12'9"xll'; 3 cells and 2 exercise yards. [Upstairs] Sub-Inspector's Room 18'3"x12'9"; and 2 Offices each 13'3"xll', 1 of which was used by the sergeants. Some time before 1947, a substantial extension was made to the rear of the police station. It involved the construction of two offices and a kitchen over the existing cells, and an attached though separately accessed two storey residence. A drawing dated 1947 (Figure 55) shows both of these extensions. The residence has since been demolished, but the offices and meal room extension are still in use. Other changes made to the building are essentially minor- internal re arrangement of fittings in the Charge Room, additional toilets. Similar sorts of changes were made on the Court House half of the building by the Attorney General's Department. In 1990, the Police Service occupied the whole of the building as Paddington Police Station. Discussion of Significance Paddington Court House and Police Station, as identified by Peter Bridges in his "Historic Court Houses of New South Wales", is unique in that while it is clearly page 95 > � � .� � i B ..I -<\ I' ... .... £ L " - 0 ' 6 I- � L � 0 � � ""l. )( ci .< i i 0: l )( 0 I C) [t / ,:. ' �� �i 1... ;•£! .j >< ..... �. i !I0 ""' J J ;- Figure 54: Paddington Police Station. Drawing of 1907 first floor addition. (PWD drawing) ,, ... ,.u....o""" l'•ltll, "COtrolC•�T[ ,t· ..... •1o10 '"""""" tlll:CTIO Nl•r ;/ 1. "t ...... :. I �:--r::iI ..,. - "'•:rocr " c.ou",. 0 ...... o,,,cr I �Li ·��� LJ ,I I I! ·1..-� Figure 55: Paddington Police Station. Drawing dated 1947, showing meal room residential extensions. The residence has since been demolished (PWD) a substantial public building, it is architecturally modest (Figure 56). The neighbouring row of terrace houses was already in existence when the Court House was designed, and the area was predominantly middle class, so there was no requirement for a building to 'subdue' the populace. Moore (1992, plO) states that "there is no other public building of the period which so respects the streetscape of its precinct." The comments made of the 'new' Paddington Police Station and its architectural qualities would not be made of the 'old' Police Station, which is a cottage, and nothing more. No public presence, no public area. The significance of Paddington Police Station, quite apart from its architectural merit, as described by Peter Bridges' is as an example of a police station associated with a Court House. Typical of these situations, it is the Court House which is the focus, the police station serving a very secondary role in the composition. The extensions to the building over time are also significant in telling the story of the increasing staff and more important role of the station in the early years of the twentieth century, when it was made a head station. The accommodation is the original building was consistent with many of its contemporaries, consisting of a Charge Room, cells and little else. page 96 Figure 56: Paddington Police Station. The Jersey Road elevation. The entrance to the former Court house was in the centre of the portico. The original entrance to the police station was to the right of the portico. Chapter 6 * Vaucluse Police Station In 1928, a new police station was erected in Vaucluse. In principle, there is little difference between it and its predecessors of the previous 50 years. It is located on a suburban street, and consists of a residence with an attached station. The residence has prominence, with the street frontage. The station is at the rear of the residence (Figures 57- 58). Its planning is such that the principal entrance to the station leads to the Charge Room, off which open the cells. This retains the essential nature of the police station seen above in the interior shot of Darlinghurst Police Station, taken about 1900 (see Figure 25). The building itself is a manganese brick cottage in a symmetrical, neo-Georgian style of the period, designed in the office of Seymour Wells, Government Architect. The residence features a classically-inspired porch in rendered masonry. The entrance to the police station is very modest, being accessed from a verandah. The cells, now disused, feature sandstone trimmings around the doors, a standard detail, used at least into the 1930's. Discussion of Significance The significance of Vaucluse Police station is to show that the fundamentals of Police station design linger, in certain instances, until 'recent' times. These fundamentals include the lack of concern for the police station to be a community focus, the originally residential nature of many police stations, and the minimal public penetration into the building, evidenced by the entry door opening directly into the Charge Room. page 97 ------==�=��=�=�=�======------.----.------;·-�---=-:::;--=,--�---= \J 1.· � ·t-.� I.I _,: � '<:) ' . I' j ,.i O' I .w .. 1 I I I I l '--·- j "r':'!,,. I ; \." I. Figure 57: Vaucluse Police Station. Original plans, dated 1928. (PWD) \ ... _;�:,; ·�- :;)�) { · .··:,,_: Figure 58: Vaucluse Police Station. (top) The building in front is the former residence. The police station is reached down the driveway. The built-up area in front is not original. (bottom) The police station entrance, at the foot of the driveway. Chapter 7 * Mascot Police Station Mascot Police Station was designed in 1927, and opened in 1929. It is a single storey building with a hipped roof covered in terra-cotta Marseilles tiles. The building is constructed of manganese face bricks, and has brick corner pilasters, with a recessed brick course suggesting quoins. With its twelve-light double hung windows, it is clearly in the Georgian Revival style. As designed, the bulk of the accommodation was the residence which was integral with the building. The original police station component was entered through a porch finished with a sandstone parapet (Figures 59- 60). Typical of police stations throughout this study, the entrance door immediately gives onto the Charge Room . The balance of the original police station constituted of a small store room, and a Police Office, with eight lockers shown. The complex also includes three cells and exercise yard, and a garage and a motor cycle garage. Some time before 1967, the residence was taken over as police accommodation, providing a Detectives Office, an Officer in Charge Office, Traffic Room, Meal Room and Locker Room. The original Charge Room remained that, as well as being labelled 'Lobby'. Externally, the building is still largely in original condition, the visible exception being that the front verandah of the former residence was enclosed some time after 1967, in a sympathetic style and materials. Mascot Police Station was closed in 1991, and its staff transferred to a temporary station erected on the site at the rear of Botany Police Station (see above). Mascot Police Station has been sold, and consequently it has not been possible to make an internal inspection of the building. Discussion of Significance The significance of the building is that it demonstrates that well into the page 98 i 'IC!l..TN E..l..t.VAT!Ul i, - I \I q ·1 i: i I i I I j .i !I'. i' ---1 .L __ ----1 -: -8 ,t,,rl,,Q'IL:lo tn' rP"L l,Q,t,LQCf" .,.�YIC.L .It.MD LU-U..t..AC:.L i M A:;coT POLIC.!:. 3T�Tl() N · ··· .. .. pc 5 � . . , . ·� · · s 1 .,FL-•·-·------·_ .;.tl_. . _,. �_.- -j#at::1, ------·------·------···- ) Figure 59: Mascot Police Station. Original Plans, dated 1927. (PWD) Figure 60: Mascot Police Station. The entrance to the police station is designated by the porch decorated with sandstone trimmings. twentieth century, police stations were little different from their predecessors of fifty years before. Plain clothes police (detectives) were still largely centralised, communications technology had not in fact made differences in design, stations were still not regarded as buildings which had to be highly visible, nor very accommodating to the public. The bulk of their accommodation was originally residential, later to be taken over to serve administrative functions, as the nature of policing changed. page 99 Figure 61: North Bondi Police Station, attached to Paddington Police Station. Photograph dated 1915. The five room weather-board cottage was rented for £1-0-0 per week. Chapter 8 * Bondi Police Station Bondi Police Station was erected in 1931 from funds provided by the Unemployment Relief F�nd (NSW Police Department 1932, p6). Before the establishment of a station at Bondi, patrol of this area was the responsibility of a number of small stations, such as North Bondi Police Station, a rented cottage, as shown in a photograph from the collection of the Police and Justice Museum. (Figure 61) Bondi Police Station is a rectangular single storey building with a hipped roof with very shallow eaves. It is constructed of rendered masonry with minimum embellishment. It features neo-Georgian style twelve-pane double-hung windows, and a classically-inspired detailing around the entrance (Figures 62- 63). The building is designed with a central corridor, which runs the full length of the building. The cell complex is contained within the overall rectangular form. To allow the exercise yard open air, the plan form of the roof is in fact an 'O', with a smaller hip covering the cells on the perimeter wall. The spaces within the building, and their detailing is domestic. The building's plan layout is simple with the Charge Room at the point of entry. A number of offices are provided for officers, plain-clothes police (detectives), meals and muster (general assembly), evidence of a substantial station. Doors are four-panelled with a high waist, and the skirtings are deep sections and plain, in the manner of the period. Picture rails are used throughout. Ceilings are fibrous plaster, with exposed cover battens. Detailed cornices are used. The original building contained garaging for two vehicles, which was converted to office accommodation some time after 1967. Discussion of Significance The significance of the building is in its origin as a relief works during the Great Depression. The building is modest and unassuming both in its location, and in its form and detailing, again in part due no doubt to the nature of its funding, page 100 I-. I I ; I ,e �=:·.:I.., . . .. ,.. . :'.:J ' I.,. � ! ,, t F j' I I i l:: Figure 62: Bondi Police Station. Original plans, dated 1930. (PWD) ------" Figure 63: Bondi Police Station. The classically inspired detail around the entry is the sole external embellishment. External cement render is common in the station's neighbourhood. but certainly also attributable to the 'language' of police stations noted elsewhere. Its form and style are representative of the area and the period. page 101 Chapter 9 * Daceyvi11e police station In 1912 an acute shortage of housing in NSW, in particular for working class families, spurred the Stat� Government to pass a Housing Act, and to set up a Housing Board. The Board busied itself with the "erection at Dacey Gardens of a modern suburb to show how workmen's homes should be built and grouped in order to provide pleasant and healthy suburbs."(Shaw 1962, p79) The original plan envisaged a garden suburb of some 336 acres containing more than 1,400 dwellings at an average density of seven per acre. Sites were allocated for shopping centres, schools and technical colleges, public buildings, parks and playing fields. Nearby is the Daceyville Police Station, described (in 1962) as a "District HQ as you could not imagine a more peaceful and law abiding neighbourhood than Daceyville itself." (Shaw 1962, p80) The Police Station was built in 1917-1918 and is a two-storey building in the architectural vernacular typical of the period, and consistent with its neighbourhood, with " ...the simple charm of its narrow streets and small cottages", constructed of brick on rubble or stone foundations, with tile or slate roofs.(Shaw 1962, p80) The former Daceyville Police Station occupied slightly less than half the ground floor, the balance of the accommodation behind two discreet residences (Figure 64). The station is entered by a substantial porch, framed by a sandstone arch, with a stepped top, and a detailed key stone (Figure 65). The name Daceyville Police Station appeared on a separate sandstone panel at the parapet line (see also Mascot Police Station). The porch gave access both to the Charge Room, and the office. From the Charge Room, a large open air but roofed Exercise Yard gave access to three cells (Figure 66). The police station comprised two sets of living quarters, and the station itself consisted of a Charge Room, a Sergeant's Room, and three cells. page 102 -- n, I l( j f. ..; I'; . ci z r ., ., I z 0 § Ill I -I iI ' i' I � 1 i ... i .'..!, < ., <( ·! r'. z 0 J.I � ,.I Ill I I i' ·. z ' ·1i <{ i : I _, • ,ll Q. t 1; n: 'I 0 . ''i ,' , ILg, ·, ,._! ',· ,._,j'' ! ( .. ___1 .ti.. , .. :, � ' I I • Figure 64: Dacey Garden Suburb (Daceyville) Police Station. Original plans, dated 1917. (PWD) Figure 65: Daceyville Police Station. (top) exterior view. The station entrance is in the distance. (below left) Stair hall to the residences, showing original joinery. (below right) Station entrance Figure 66: Daceyville Police Station. (top) former exercise yard. The three cells are to the right of the photograph. (bottom) the former Charge Room, now converted to an office. The large fireplace formerly in the Charge Room has been removed, and the entrance door has been replaced with a modem door. Otherwise, the building is generally in good, original condition. The joinery is simple and substantial. Doors are high-waisted �ith a horizontal panel over two vertical panels. The stair, in the former residences hall has simply detailed balusters and newel. Discussion of Significance The significance of the building is as an example of a substantial police building which largely comprises residential accommodation. Operational space is limited to a Charge Room and one office. The presence of three cells is indicative of a substantial intended presence, and this serves to re-inforce the minimal amount of accommodation actually used for the staff of the Police Department, and the public. page 103 GENERAL CONCLUSION Discussion of the significance of police stations INTRODUCTION The notion of 'police' developed by Sir Robert Peel in the 1820's in Britain assumes a civilised society, as what underpins the notion is the expectation that most of the population are law-abiding. If this is not the case, the relatively small ratio of police to populace would not be able to deal with an insurrection. That is the role of an army. However, for the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth century, the role filled by the police in New South Wales was in some ways more akin to an army than a police force. The role they filled was that of guards in a frontier society. Police were protecting a small and scattered population and the thin but rapidly growing lines of communication and commerce in the Colony and, following the discovery of gold in the middle of the nineteenth century, were required to respond rapidly to substantial settlements literally springing up in remote locations. Virtually none of the earliest buildings used by Police exist, but from records and from later examples, we can form an idea of them. Later buildings, such as the ones considered in this study, were typically small, simple and economical. They demonstrate that although police were a vital part of the public service of the state ( and agent of government), they were not highly visible in their buildings. In this respect, police buildings were like the early school buildings briefly examined. They were utilitarian, and any embellishment was due to the prevailing architectural style or the inclination of the architect. It was not an explicit part of the brief to use the police station as a visible reminder of the law in a community. That constant reminder was served by the court houses throughout Sydney and the state. DISCUSSION OF GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE The police stations of New South Wales are tangible evidence of the growth and development of the State, and of the role of government, since the earliest days of the white settlement of the Colony. page 104 Part of the significance of the police stations of New South Wales is that they document the social context of police, as essential but not necessarily regarded as needing to be seen. The buildings themselves are in many cases architecturally significant; the work of the Colonial/ Government Architect of the day, they show changes in styles over time, and architectural methods of dealing with adding to and changing buildings to suit changing demands. In their forms, they show the work of police as being inextricably bound with the capture and detention of offenders, as it is generally the cells, either as discrete Watch Houses or complexes integrated into other buildings which differentiate police buildings from any other vernacular building of their time. The fact that most police buildings were originally designed as largely residences, for varying occupation patterns, and with minimal office type accommodation, further emphasises that the law-abiding populace could expect to encounter the police on the street, and did not expect to attend a police station. That was reserved for the non law-abiding, as commonly in the plans examined, the Charge Room either is the station or is very prominently near the front door. page 105 FURTHER AREAS OF STUDY Given the limits of this document, there remain a number of aspects of the housing of police activities over time which remain open to further detailed study. The first of these is an investigation of the buildings which were used in the earliest days of the settlemellt at Sydney Cove. References are made in the text to the arrangement of Watch houses over time, but no attempt has been made to find records of their design, construction and operation. This attitude has been taken because they have all long disappeared, and later examples of the Watch House are not only better documented, but still in evidence. Secondly, further study into the barracks used by the Mounted Police and other police units who operated beyond the settlements should be undertaken. As the thrust of this report is operational stations, head office administration, and training facilities have not been covered at all. Each of these offer the opportunity for further study. Similarly, centralised technology services, such as the Fingerprint, and later Scientific Services, and radio operations have been only very briefly referred to in this study. Finally, the individual stations of the Eastern Suburbs in the case study are worthy to varying degrees of individual Conservation Plans, where these have not already been undertaken. page 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY ASHTON, Paul. Outline History Report: · Police Depot/ Police Training Centre, Bourke Street, SunyHills. Prepared for Howard Tanner and Associates for the NSW Police Service. Sy�ney, April, 1989. Unpublished. AUCHMUTY, JJ, "1810-1830", in FK Crowley, editor, A New History of Australia, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1974. BRIDGES, Peter. Historic Court Houses of NSW. Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney, 1986. BRIDGES, Peter and McDONALD, Ian. James Bamet, Colonial Architect. Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney, 1988. BROADBENT, James. "The Push East: Wooloomooloo Hill, the First Suburb". Sydney: City of Suburbs. KELLY, Max ( editor). NSWUP in association with Sydney History Group, Sydney, 1987. COLTHEART, Lenore. A Guide to the History of the Public Works Department. PWD, Sydney, 1991 CROWLEY, F. "A Border Police Force Established" in A Documentary History ofAustralia, Vol II. West Melbourne, 1980. DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING. Draft State Heritage Inventory. Regional Histories: Volume 1. Department of Planning, Sydney, n.d. c1992 FOWLES, John. Sydney in 1848. Facsimile edition, Ure Smith in association with National Trust of Australia (NSW), Sydney, 1973. GODDEN MACKAY PTY LTD. The Headquarters Fire Station Conservation Plan. Prepared for the NSW Fire Brigades. Sydney, November, 1990. Unpublished. HOBAN, L.B. "Sen Const James Farrell - Burwood's First Guardian" in NSW Police News. August, Sydney, 1993 HOW ARD, Rod. Rose Bay Police Station: Draft Conservation Analysis Prepared for NSW Police Service, August, 1990. Unpublished. JEANS D N, SPEARRITT P. The Open-air Museum. Geo Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1980. JEANS D N. An Historical Geography of NSW to 1901. Reed Education, Sydney, 1972 JERVIS, James. The History of Woollahra. edited by Vince KELLY. page 107 Municipality of Woollahra, Sydney, 1960(?). KELLY, Max. A paddock Full of houses. Doak Press, Sydney, 1978. LEWIS, Mortimer. Folio of designs prepared by Mortimer Lewis during the Govemorship of Bourke, 1837. X693�4 and Reel 2660 (AONSW) McLACHLAN, Robin. The Original Goldfields. National Trust Magazine. Sydney, July 1993, p19. MITCHELL, James (Commissioner). "The NSW Police: A Retrospect". in The Police Joumal, July, 1929, London. MITTON, L. A History of Grenfell and the Weddin Shire. Grenfell. Weddin Shire Council, 1988. MOORE, Robert. Paddington Court House and Police Station: A Conservation Plan. Prepared for NSW Police Service. Sydney, 1992. Unpublished. MORONEY, Peter. "Walter Vernon: A Change of Style in Government Architecture" in Australian Art and Architecture: Essays presented to Bernard Smith. BRADLEY, Anthony and SMITH, Terry (editors). OUP, Melbourne, 1980. NSW COLONIAL ARCHITECT. Correspondence at 2/578, 2/633, 2/577, 2/620, 2/644, 2/624 (Archives Office of New South Wales) NSW POLICE SERVICE. Community Based Policing: Books 1 to 8 - Paper 1. NSW Police Service, Sydney, n.d. (c1981 ), p6-7. NSW POLICE DEPARTMENT. Annual Reports. 1865 to current date NSW POLICE DEPARTMENT. Police History in NSW: A Pictorial 125 years. NSW Police Department, Sydney, 1987 NSW POLICE DEPARTMENT. C.lB. Centenary: 1879- 1979. NSW Police Department, Sydney, n.d. ( c1979) NSW POLICE DEPARTMENT. 1960/61 building priorities in papers at AONSW GRR 10/2313 NSW POLICE FORCE. Centenary Brochure: NSW Police Force, 1862-1962. NSW Police Force, Sydney, n.d.(1962?) O'SULLIVAN, John. Mounted Police in NSW. Rigby, Adelaide, 1979. PERUMAL MURPHY WU PTY LTD. Conservation Repon for Randwick Police Station. Prepared for NSW Police Service, Sydney, 1993. Unpublished. POLLON, Frances. The book of Sydney suburbs. Angus and Robertson. Sydney. page 108 1988 PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT. Botany Police Station: Conservation Study. Prepared for NSW Police Service. Sydney, 1991. Unpublished Victorian and Edwardian Sydney from old photographs. RUSSELL, Eric (editor) .. John Ferguson, Sydney, 1975 SHAW, JH. "Dacey Garden Estate". Technology Magazine. UNSW, Sydney, December, 1962, p79-80. SWANTON, HANNIGAN and BILES. Police Source Book. Australian Institute of Criminology, A.C.T., n.d. SWANTON, B and PAGE, R.W. "New South Wales". Police Source Book 2. Swanton and Hannigan. Australian Institute of Criminology, A.C.T., n.d. SWANTON, Bruce. The Police of Sydney. 1788-1862. Australian Institute of Criminology in association with NSW Police Historical Society, n.d. SWANTON, Bruce. "Carter's Barracks: NSW Police Depot". in NSW Police News, Police Association of NSW, Sydney, January, 1981, p15-17, p44. WEBSTER, DP. Police and Early Settlers of the Pambula-Merimbula and Eden Districts of NSW. 1788-1901. Manuscript, 1988, Mitchell Library page 109 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS baluster a vertical post, of timber or metal, in a balustrade base course a distinctively styled part of a wall at and just above ground level. Usually applied only to masonry walls. Boundaries of Location Limits of settlement officially prescibed by the early Governors of New South Wales (root) cappings a waterproof covering at a change of plane in a roof casement a side hinged window sash Commissioner/ Inspector-General the officer in charge of the NSW Police from 1862. The term 'Commissioner' has been used since 1930. double-hung two vertically sliding window sashes eaves the lowest part of a roof, where it extends beyond the line of the wall below fret-work decorative timber or metal brackets etc, usually found on verandahs, along the underside of the leading edge gable the pointed section of a wall below the end of a sloping roof manganese (bricks) a dark colour, hard brick masonry brickwork or stonework musket, musquette a early non-repeating form of rifle, requiring loading for each shot neo-Georgian any revivalist version of the Georgian style of architecture, characterised by symmetrical construction, pitched roofs, and multi-paned windows. newel (post) the post at the top, bottom and change of direction of a stair balustrade pediment the triangular end of a gable roof quoins an outer corner of a wall, usually used to describe a brick or stone feature device on the corner sash a window light voussoirs an individual stone or brick in an arch, usually used to describe feature elements page 110