Australia
| Author | George Kurian |
| Pages | 164-172 |
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Official country name: Commonwealth of Australia
Capital: Canberra
Geographic description: Sixth-largest country in the world, encompassing the entire continent of Australia as well as islands, such as Tasmania; located in Oceania in the Southern Hemisphere
Population: 20,090,437 (est. 2005)
Police in Australia have their origins in the three major British settlement initiatives in New Holland: Sydney (New South Wales), 1788; Swan River (Western Australia), 1829; and Adelaide (South Australia), 1836. In all cases, the formation of police organizations was preceded by the appointment of individual constables who were mostly subordinate to magistrates and whose duties could be described only marginally as police work in the modern sense of the term. Such appointments bore close similarity to the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century practices in England.
First settlement, in 1788, occurred at Sydney Cove, where the great majority of settlers were English or Irish convicts. Thefts of precious food, several serious assaults and a generally low level of public behavior in the infant colony prompted the governor, Arthur Phillip, to appoint a night watch of 10 or 12 (historical records contain conflicting numbers) convict constables in 1789. Their main duty was to guard the rations of the colony stored in a central warehouse. These men, who received lodging, rations and clothing only, were made subordinate to the judge advocate and other military officers until the end of military rule in 1796. Although these first convict constables were referred to as "police" by the judge advocate at the time of their appointment in 1789, it is probable that they operated initially as night watch only.
As time went by and areas surrounding Sydney were explored and settled, more constables, many of them freemen, were appointed in the outlying regions. In the larger towns, full-time constables operated 24 hours a day. After the end of the military government in New South Wales, the Sydney town constables were placed under the first magistrate, who was also known as the superintendent of police. He was first and foremost a justice of the peace. For the next 20 years there were no further changes in police functions and organization because the town grew slowly. In 1811 there was a significant reorganization of the Sydney Police, although the various grades of constables remained subordinate to the first magistrate. The new governor, Lachlan Macquarie, established a full-scale police force under a superintendent
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of police and published regulations dividing the town into five districts, each with its own warehouse. A district constable was appointed, with six constables assisting him in each district, with a chief constable in overall command, subordinate to the superintendent of police. A Criminal Investigation Branch was developed in 1827. In 1833 an act of Parliament gave the governor the power to appoint two or more justices of the peace who would serve as police magistrates. In 1834 Colonel H. C. Wilson introduced the first beat system and was also responsible for the introduction of a uniform, a plain blue jacket with a badge and number. In the rural areas of New South Wales, constables were appointed by the local justices, and they remained accountable to the particular bench by which they were appointed.
Convict constables on the New South Wales model were appointed at Norfolk Island penal settlement in 1791 and at Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1804.
As the colony's population increased in the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, various security and administrative needs resulted in the creation of a number of discrete "police" bodies, for example, mounted patrol, water police, border police, native police, and gold police. Some of these were later disbanded, some combined with others, and some absorbed by other colonies. A similar situation occurred in Australia Felix, now known as the state of Victoria.
Following a wild New Year's rioting in Sydney in 1850, efforts were made to consolidate all police bodies in the area now known as New South Wales. These efforts were not entirely successful, and it was not until the 1861 communal rioting in Lambing Flat goldfields that the government was able to fully achieve its aim. In 1862 the present police department of New South Wales was created.
Victoria separated from New South Wales in 1851, achieving colonial status in the process. The Victorian colonial government inherited a fragmented collection of police bodies very similar to those of New South Wales. The new government consolidated its police services in 1853.
Queensland did not separate from New South Wales until 1859. At that time, New South Wales police, in particular the Native Police, had a general responsibility for policing the area despite the presence of local town and water police constables. An inspector general of police was appointed in 1860, but fragmentation of responsibility continued until 1864. Even then the native police retained a separate identity until disbanded in 1900.
In Tasmania, separate police bodies existed prior to 1857, when police services were reorganized. In 1804 the first chief constable was appointed, with three subordinate constables. In 1828 the state was divided into nine districts, each with a police magistrate, who was responsible to a chief police magistrate. Legislation passed in 1856 empowered municipalities to raise their own police forces. Twenty-one such forces were established over a period of years. In addition, a body known as the Colonial Police (later the Territorial Police) was created. The Territorial Police covered those areas not subject to municipal government. In 1899 the various police bodies were consolidated under a police commissioner, thus creating the present police department of Tasmania.
Following the commencement of the first civil settlement in Western Australia, in the Swan River Colony in 1829, a number of constables were appointed by the governor. They were freemen who plied their normal trade, acting in the office of constable only when necessary. By 1832, however, conflict between aborigines and settlers was so fierce that many settlers left the colony. Local constables continued to be appointed in both towns and rural areas, and they remained subordinate to the justices of the peace. Police numbers started to increase in 1849, in anticipation of the arrival of transported British convicts. In 1853 all police were placed under the authority of a superintendent. In 1861, following a thorough reorganization, the police department of Western Australia was created.
The colony of South Australia was first settled in 1836, and a number of freeman constables were appointed soon after landing. These men, who were subordinate to the justices of the peace, continued to work at their normal calling, exercising their police authority only when called upon to do so. Unfortunately, the new colony quickly attracted a large number of undesirables, many of whom were escaped convicts from areas to the east and from Van Diemen's Land. In 1838 a police force of 20 members was established, with colony-wide jurisdiction. The force had a chief officer who was answerable to a four-person commission, but in 1840 a member of the police commission was appointed as commissioner of police and the board was abolished. Thus, the police department of South Australia is the oldest surviving police force in Australia.
Between 1860 and 1910 the Northern Territory was governed by South Australia. From 1865 to 1869 a small body of constables was employed at Escape Cliffs, the scene of the territory's first major settlement attempt. These men, who performed many other tasks, such as caring for stock and exploring, were subordinate to the government resident. Escape Cliffs was abandoned in 1869 and its personnel dispersed. A detachment of South Australian Police arrived at Palmerston (now Darwin), the successor location to Escape Cliffs, in January 1870. South Australian Police personnel undertook the territory's policing needs for the next 40 years.
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Eventually, however, the South Australian government felt it could no longer bear the administrative costs involved, and the federal government assumed responsibility in January 1911 for the huge but sparsely populated region. A new police body, the Northern Territory Mounted Police, was formed. In 1926 the Northern Territory Police Force (the "Mounted" had by then been dropped from the title) was split into two, but in 1931 it was reconstituted.
Australian Police Forces by Year of Origin:
South Australia Police Force, 1838
Victoria Police Force, 1853
Western Australia Police Force, 1861
New South Wales Police Force, 1862
Queensland Police Force, 1864
Tasmania Police Force, 1899
Northern Territory Police...
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