It all began the same way that most Police Museums do… by an act of bureaucracy. On 27 November, 1893 Mr Finucane, Chief Clerk of the Queensland Police, signed a memorandum on behalf of Commissioner Seymour, which instructed all police officers to send in items of interest concerning crimes and suicides, that they might come across in the course of their duties. And so the Queensland Police “Museum” was born. While not really a proper museum to begin with it constituted, as much as we can discover, a glass cupboard and then a small room. The collection was designed to educate police officers about criminality.
In May 1895 the Police Museum collection was written up in the Brisbane Courier and described thus: … the exhibits in the museum, founded by Mr. Finucane, speaking of the seamy side of colonial life, are a painful reminder that criminal instincts, slumbering in the hearts of men, like extinct volcanoes, belch forth at times in full eruption…
The collection was by nature eclectic, and included some very gruesome things. The objects were initially housed at the Petrie Terrace Depot and police officers were required to see the display as part of their training. By 1930 the Museum was still located at Petrie Terrace Barracks. In 1934, a new appeal for objects was made by then Police Commissioner Mr Carroll.
The Museum was written about in several newspapers in the 1930s. In the Truth in September 1933 the article was titled as Brisbane Chamber of Horrors: Grisley Relics of Ghastly Crimes and summarised as … reminders of dark and dreadful deeds in the wild days when Queensland pioneers were waging a fierce and furious fight in the cause of justice lie there, amid dust and stillness and mutely bear witness to many a strange and terrible tale…
Remembering that the Police Museum was not open to the public, we were also described by the Sunday Mail in May 1936 as Queensland’s Black Museum and the article titled as Grim Relics of Early Crimes. Such newspapers are useful as the give us a window into what material was in the early collection and in most instances, what is no longer here.
On 13 July 1949 the collection was officially handed over into the care of Detective Constable Les Bardwell head of the Technical Section, Criminal Investigation Branch, at the old church building in George St and then the basement level of Morcome House across the road. Bardwell was keen to study, classify and set them up as museum pieces to join his already extensive firearm reference collection.
Bardwell also wanted to show off the collection and in September of 1949 requested the purchase of display cases to be used at the annual Royal National Exhibition. Displays were organised for this show every year and people still remember the Police Display as a room “stuffed with unusual objects”.
In February of 1978 Commissioner Lewis approved the formation of a Museum Committee which included members of the Public Relations Branch, CIB, Photographic Section and Commissioner’s Office. It was their job to sort through the collection and decide what was to be kept and displayed. On 20 May 1979 the “new” Police Museum opened. Located on the 7th floor of Forbes House in Makerston Street, it was not initially open to the public but group bookings were taken.
In 1980 the Museum was opened to the public on Wednesday afternoons and in 1981 Ross Chippindall, an assistant in the Media Liaison office was appointed as part-time Curator. Although Chippindall had no museum qualifications, he was an avid scrounger of collection material and a firearm enthusiast. By the end of 1982, 4000 people had passed through the doors and displays were being mounted at school fetes, and country shows.
In 1985, Sergeant 2/c Bob Good temporarily took over the running of the museum and over a year or so, managed to have the museum displays refurbished and a system in place for evaluating the collection material. In 1986 Gabrielle Flynn, with skills in historical research and education, was appointed as fulltime Curator and the Museum began opening for 5 and a half hours per week.
By the late 1980s plans were in place to build a new Police Headquarters in Roma Street which was to include a purpose built home for the Police Museum. The building, along with the new museum, opened in August 1990. The display area was divided into six colour-themed areas – Heritage; Crime; Technology; Developments; Murder! and Crisis. (The colour scheme even won two Dulux Colour Awards). The Curator, Gabrielle Flynn was kept busy with visiting school groups, designing photographic displays and answering historical enquiries. The Museum was now open every weekday.
Since 1997 when the current Curator was employed, staffing levels have grown to five; the Education Program thrives; more than 13000 visitors come into the museum every year and we have expanded our opening hours to include the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov).
Our Vision is to be an accessible and valued Museum of national standing, collecting and exploring Queensland’s policing history.
Our Mission is to enhance the public image of the Queensland Police Service and foster pride in its achievements in the wider community.
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This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM THE VAULT: Happy Birthday to Us – 119 years old today!” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode