Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former)

General

Also known as

Birdsville Courthouse; Birdsville Courthouse Complex; Birdsville Courthouse, Police Station and Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Types

Law/order, immigration, customs, quarantine: Courthouse—magistrates/court of petty sessions

Law/order, immigration, customs, quarantine: Lock-up

Law/order, immigration, customs, quarantine: Police station

Residential: Hut/shack/humpy

Themes

4.5 Working: Surviving as Indigenous people in a white-dominated economy

7.1 Maintaining order: Policing and maintaining law and order

Architects

Colonial Architect's Office

Department of Public Works

Construction periods

1890, Courthouse

1896, Police Quarters Extension

1948, Aboriginal Tracker's Hut

1958, Lock-up

Historical period

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

1940s–1960s Post-WWII

Style

Classicism

Location

Address

23 Macdonald Street, Birdsville

LGA

Diamantina Shire Council

Coordinates

-25.90038403, 139.34825347

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Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former), comprising the Courthouse (1890, with Police Quarters extension 1896), Lock-Up (1958), and Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut (1948), is important in demonstrating the establishment of pastoral occupation in the Diamantina district of far western Queensland in the late 19th century and Birdsville’s pre-Federation role as a border post. It is important in demonstrating the early establishment, evolution, and provision of a judicial system and police force within the region.

The form, materials, and fabrication technique of the Courthouse are important in illustrating building construction in remote areas of Queensland. It is part of the late 19th century earth and stone building tradition of central Australia and western Queensland.

The Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut (1948) is a rare surviving representative example of the standard accommodation provided for Aboriginal trackers in Queensland. It is important in demonstrating the crucial role Aboriginal trackers played in assisting in police work in Queensland, particularly remote areas of western and northern Queensland in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Criterion BThe place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland’s cultural heritage.

The Courthouse is a rare surviving 19th century stone building, a building material generally adopted throughout a large area of central Australia and western Queensland in the 19th century, but now rare. 

The Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut is exceptional as one of only three known surviving examples of this type of accommodation in Queensland provided for Aboriginal trackers by the Queensland Government between 1874 and the 1950s.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former) is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a justice complex established in the late 19th century in remote Queensland with evolving provision of justice services. Principal characteristics of this class of cultural place retained at Birdsville include: the Courthouse; Police Quarters; Lock-up; Aboriginal Tracker's Hut; and a site layout reflecting the hierarchy of justice administration during its operation.

The Courthouse is a highly intact example of a late 19th century courthouse in regional Queensland and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural place. This includes its: prominent central location in the town; design by the Department of Public Works (DPW); use of high quality materials and symmetry in plan and form; verandahs; and rooms laid out to closely reflect the court’s former functions.

The Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut is a rare surviving example of its class of cultural place, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the accommodation built for Aboriginal trackers in Queensland. This includes its: small size; lone room; low-set, gable-roofed form; timber-framed, single-skin construction clad externally; and bare interior amenity.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

The basic size, form, and materials of the Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, and its location isolated away from the other buildings evokes a strong response to the living and working conditions of Aboriginal trackers employed across Queensland in the mid-20th century.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

The Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former) has had a long association connection with the people of Birdsville and the surrounding Diamantina district, having served as the focus for the administration of justice and policing for almost 100 years (1890-1988).

History

The Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former), comprises a Courthouse (1890) with an extension for Police and Customs Quarters (1896), an Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut (1948) and a Lock-up (1958). Located within the small town of Birdsville, in far western Queensland, this judiciary complex was the administrative centre for police and border customs along a major stock route from 1890. The site remained in use until the 1980s, and in police ownership until 2021.

The area encompassing Birdsville (Wirrarri) and extending into what is now South Australia is part of the traditional land of the Wangkangurru and Yarluyandi (or Jeljendi) people. Life in the country, subject to cycles of drought and flood, was based around mikiri (desert wells) in the dry times, with travel when water was plentiful. The Wangkangurru and Yarlunyandi people hold knowledge of the mikiri and the Dreaming tracks that cross the desert, and retain connections and duties to care for country.[1]

Wirrarri was also a meeting place, exchange centre and distribution area for pituri, a hallucinogenic plant containing high levels of nicotine. The country between the Georgina and Mulligan rivers, just north of Wirrarri, was the primary source of pituri, which was used in hunting, ceremonies, and recreationally, and carried in traditional pituri bags.[2] This placed Wirrarri near the centre of an important trade route, with people travelling hundreds of kilometres to the area to exchange high quality stone axes from Cloncurry and Mount Isa, medicines, and seashells for pituri. The route was also important for social and ritual trade, where songs, ceremonies, and knowledge were exchanged.[3]

Non-Indigenous expeditions traversed the trade routes across the area that became the Diamantina district in the 1840s and early 1860s. European pastoralists took up large holdings in the semi-arid region from 1876, driving cattle along the traditional trade route. Roads were built on the trade routes, and homesteads and stockyards were often built on Aboriginal campsites.[4] By the late 1870s a store and hotel were reportedly erected at the site of the present town of Birdsville to serve passing travellers, teamsters and drovers, and the pastoral stations in the region. The site was located adjacent to a permanent waterhole on the Diamantina River.[5]

In 1881 a four square mile (1036ha) township reserve was gazetted on the Boundary and Boundary East runs on the Diamantina River.[6] The township, which became known as Birdsville, was officially surveyed in 1885.[7] Land sales in Birdsville town were held in 1886,[8] and the Diamantina Divisional Board was established and based in Birdsville.[9] By 1889 Birdsville boasted a population of 110, with two general stores, three hotels, two blacksmith shops, two bakers, a cordial manufacturer, bootmaker, saddler, auctioneer and commission agent, and a number of residences.[10] The town also managed to raise nearly £200 prize money for its inaugural race day in 1882, reflecting the success of the surrounding pastoral areas.[11]

Positioned halfway along the stock route which served stations between the Gulf of Carpentaria and Adelaide, Birdsville became an important marshalling point.[12] Drovers paused for refreshments or waited out poor weather while moving cattle south to Adelaide markets, as Afghan cameleers carried goods north from the Marree railway station in central South Australia to Birdsville, along what quickly became known as the Birdsville Track.[13] In 1883 a customs post was opened at Birdsville, the westernmost of 14 border posts established in Queensland before Federation to maintain tariff walls between the colonies.[14] Located just 11 kilometres north of the border with South Australia, along the busy stock route, the Birdsville post was an important administrative centre for border customs. A customs officer was officially appointed in 1885.[15]

Following violent clashes between Indigenous people and pastoralists in the region in the 1870s, the Queensland Government prioritised the establishment of a police force at the remote Birdsville settlement.[16] The first purpose-built police station and gaol was built in 1884, and a sergeant, two constables, and an Aboriginal tracker were despatched to Birdsville in September 1884.[17] A five-acre (2.02ha) police reserve at the western boundary of the town, surrounded by Macdonald, Adelaide and Graham Streets, was gazetted in December 1885.[18]

While crime levels in Birdsville were generally low, serious offenders like horse thieves had to be transported for trial to Winton, more than 600km away.[19] Civil matters and misdemeanours required attention at the nearest court of petty sessions, located more than 300km north in Boulia.[20] After complaints from residents,[21] the situation was partially resolved in 1884, when Birdsville was gazetted as a place where courts of petty sessions could be held. Police Sergeant McDonald was appointed as the acting court clerk.[22] A police magistrate was appointed in January 1885, and in later years the role was coupled with clerk of petty sessions or customs officer.[23]

The population of Birdsville peaked in 1895 at 220. Following Federation, the Birdsville customs depot was closed and the population slowly dwindled to approximately 50 throughout the 1950s. The livestock trade continued to be the primary industry of the town but in the last quarter of 20th century and with the growth in popularity of the Birdsville Races, tourism became the primary economic driver. In 2011 the population had risen to around 280, swelling to around 6000 for the 12 days of the racing carnival, but in 2016 the reported population had dropped to 140.[24]

Courthouse and Police Station (1890, 1896)

Despite the town’s small population and infrequent need for a court, the Queensland Government built a courthouse at Birdsville as a symbol of authority and to convey the sense that this small settlement on the edge of a vast inland desert was part of a civilised society.[25] When Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, it had only five courthouses: at Ipswich (QHR 600575), Gayndah, Dalby, Maryborough, and Rockhampton. The new Queensland Government prioritised construction of courthouses, erecting 145 across the colony over the following four decades. These buildings ranged from basic slab construction such as at Clermont (1861) to the substantial masonry Supreme Court in Brisbane (1877, not extant). In the late 1870s the Colonial Architect, Francis Drummond Greville Stanley developed a standard plan for courthouses that could be easily adapted for local circumstances.[26]

The period 1875-1890 was one of unparalleled activity in the construction of courthouses in Queensland. Eighty-five courthouses were erected, most of them timber buildings based on Stanley’s standard plan. Examples include courthouses at St Lawrence (1878, QHR 601152), Port Douglas (1879, QHR 600465), Nebo (1883), Croydon (1887, QHR 601153), Tambo (1888, QHR 600834), Cloncurry (1897, QHR 600415) and Childers (1897, QHR 600620). As Queensland experienced economic prosperity, specific designs were developed for new masonry court buildings in large centres, including Brisbane (1877), Toowoomba (1877, QHR 600848), Maryborough (1877, QHR 600714), Townsville (1876, QHR 600929), Bowen (1880, QHR 600044), Bundaberg (1882, QHR 601762), Charters Towers (1887, QHR 600403), Rockhampton (1887, QHR 600795) and Warwick (1887, QHR 600948).[27]

Tenders for Birdsville’s courthouse were invited in April 1888.[28] Initially the contract was awarded to Henry Walton, for £840,[29] but by mid-1889 Walton was unable to continue,[30] and James Wookey completed construction.[31] The courthouse was completed in 1890 at a total cost of £933. It was positioned at the north-eastern corner of the police reserve, adjacent to the existing police barracks. It was constructed to the standard plan, which provided a courtroom of 30ft x 18ft (9.1m x 5.4m) surrounded by verandahs on three sides. Two offices were located at the rear and had a separate rear verandah.[32] £14 was expended on courthouse furniture, though it had not arrived in the town by 1891.[33]

Unlike most of the standard plan courthouses, Birdsville’s was built of locally-quarried stone rather than timber, which was unavailable in the region. Distance and the lack of reliable access roads or a railway created prohibitively high transportation costs, so imported building materials were kept to a minimum.[34] Most of Birdsville’s buildings were constructed of local sandstone, a quarry having opened near the town in 1886. [35] Stone construction was generally adopted in the 19th century throughout a large area of central Australia including the northern parts of South Australia and the southern parts of the Northern Territory.[36] Surviving (or semi-extant) Queensland examples include Birdsville’s Royal Hotel (QHR 600459) and Birdsville Hotel (QHR 600461), Boulia Stone House (QHR 600039), Noccundra Hotel in Thargomindah (QHR 600361), and the Carcory Homestead ruin (QHR 600458).

By 1892, Birdsville’s ‘commodious courthouse’ was viewed by visitors as ‘the best building in town – stone walls, iron roof, and good floor of flooring boards.’[37] From the outset, the courthouse proved useful beyond its intended function: it was also used to conduct police business and to provide police accommodation, as the adjacent 1885 police barracks was in poor condition. In 1895 the Department of Public Works (DPW) prepared plans for the extension of the courthouse to provide living quarters for the police magistrate and sub-collector of customs, who were fulfilling dual roles as customs officer and clerk of petty sessions respectively. A stone extension was made off the northern side of the rear offices, accommodating two bedrooms and a timber-framed northern verandah. The existing rear offices were used as a dining room and sitting room, with minor reconfiguration of doors and windows. A timber-framed kitchen block was built in the rear yard nearby, connected to the rear verandah via a raised covered walkway.[38] Contractor Wookey was again engaged for the work, which cost £454 and was completed in 1896.[39] The site was later fenced in 1910-11.[40]

The grouping of the courthouse and police facilities followed a common practice in Queensland. Similar complexes were built at towns including Toowoomba, Croydon, Bundaberg, Ravenswood, Mount Morgan, and Roma. The co-location of police and court buildings had numerous advantages. It allowed the entire justice process from arrest to trial to be provided expediently on a single site, facilitated prisoner management for police, and kept alleged criminals from the public. Onsite, buildings and fencing were carefully arranged to separate police officers’ families from the prisoners’ pathway from lock-up to court, though due to the low crime rate, this proved largely unnecessary in Birdsville.[41]

Birdsville’s buildings were subject to storms and other climatic extremes experienced around the Simpson Desert. In 1900, the courthouse additions were reportedly ‘blown away’ in a wind storm; they were replaced later that year, and the walls were strengthened in 1909-10.[42] In 1904 the police barracks building was completely wrecked in storm, leaving the courthouse to take over the police function entirely.[43] In 1938, an earth tremor briefly shook the stone building, causing no damage but leaving a horse bell on the verandah ringing.[44] General repairs were undertaken to the courthouse in the 1900s and 1940s, both by the DPW and the Birdsville police officers.[45] Improvements were made between 1946 and 1951, including enclosing the rear verandah with weatherboards and casement windows (1951), demolishing the kitchen block at the rear, and adding a kitchen fitout to one of the rooms of the Police Quarters extension.[46] By 1948 a small extension had been made to the western side of the Police Quarters extension, which continued the northern verandah roof around on this side and was semi-enclosed. It later accommodated a laundry, bathroom, and WC.[47]

The courthouse continued in use through the 20th century as a combined police station, courthouse, and government office.[48] In the small remote town, with few other buildings and staff, the police undertook additional duties to provide a range of essential services, including agents for the Commonwealth and Clerk Savings banks, Irrigation Department, labour and social services, Stock Inspection, Aboriginal protection, and, following the opening of the Birdsville airstrip, Trans Australian Airlines.[49] The police also played a vital role for visitors. Travellers along the Birdsville Track were required to check in at the Birdsville police station, and the Birdsville police officer would travel into the desert to rescue those who did not turn up at the next checkpoint.[50] Additional police were also stationed at Birdsville during the annual races.

The courthouse was vacated in the 1980s, when a new police residence (1981) and new police station (1988) were built on the southern end of the police reserve.[51] Sessions of the Birdsville Magistrates Court were transferred to the Birdsville State School,[52] and the courthouse provided overflow accommodation for police officers during the week of the annual Birdsville races.[53]

Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut (1948)

Introduced to Queensland police stations from 1874, Aboriginal trackers were employed to find missing persons, trace criminals, and search for lost or stolen stock. They could trace paths indistinguishable to Europeans, providing vital services in remote and rural areas. Trackers also carried out tasks around the police station, including caring for police animals; the wives of married trackers undertook domestic work at the station. Trackers had become part of the police forces across Australia after first working for Europeans in the 1820s, and the skills of Queensland trackers were particularly renowned. By 1896, 112 trackers were employed across the colony, though numbers varied from year to year. The number of trackers employed by the Queensland Police peaked at 127 in 1900, had fallen to 68 by 1925, and to only 26 by 1952. The last tracker employed by the Queensland Police retired in 2014, ending the 140-year operation.[54]

An Aboriginal tracker was stationed at Birdsville with the initial contingent of police officers in 1884.[55] Over the following seven decades, between one and three trackers at a time were stationed at Birdsville. The Birdsville trackers undertook a range of tasks – one tracker was charged with the care of the station’s camels, which had arrived in 1886 – while their wives performed ‘domestic duties’ at the station.[56] The longest serving trackers, Tracker Billy (served 1885-1905) and Corporal Tommy (served 1905-1952), covered almost the duration of trackers stationed at Birdsville.[57]

As part of their employment, trackers were to be provided with wages, food, and accommodation. Wages were well below the average rate (and later well below the minimum wage), and food was supplied by the officer in charge of the station. Trackers’ wives, though expected to work, were not paid. The standard of accommodation provided varied, from a large brick building at Townsville, to bark huts or storage rooms within the police building. Generally, tracker accommodation was rudimentary and located away from the other police station buildings, reflecting the treatment and status of Aboriginal trackers in the police force. The DPW provided plans for tracker accommodation (called ‘huts’) at Burketown (c1906), Gilbert River (1908), Emerald (1917), Ingham (1927), Thursday Island (1928 and 1954), Toowoomba (1929), Almaden (1934), Cooktown (1935), and Mount Molloy (1936). None of these buildings are known to survive in 2022.[58]

From 1898 to 1948, the Birdsville trackers were accommodated within a rudimentary hut with mud and stone walls and a galvanised iron roof, located at the rear of the site on the Adelaide Street boundary. In 1948 this was replaced by a simple, timber-framed building, clad on its walls and roof with corrugated metal sheets. The building had a single room 16ft x 11ft (4.8m x 3.3m) with a 2.4m wide awning on the eastern side.[59] It was positioned away from the courthouse and lock-up, outside the fence that enclosed the police site.[60]

Corporal Tommy occupied the new building until his retirement in 1952, 47 years after his engagement with the Birdsville police. In his final year of employment he appeared in the documentary Back of Beyond, filmed in 1952 and released in 1954. [61] He was the last Birdsville tracker.[62]

The Birdsville tracker’s hut is a rare surviving example of accommodation provided for Aboriginal trackers employed by the Queensland Police. Other trackers’ huts extant in Queensland in 2022 include the tracker’s hut at Bedourie (QHR 650098), built in 1947 on the police reserve but later moved; and the Normanton trackers’ hut (unknown construction date), on the site of the Normanton Gaol (QHR 601501). The Bedourie hut, 200km north of Birdsville, is similar in form and materials to the Birdsville hut, while the Normanton hut is clad on its walls with timber.[63]

In December 1985, a severe storm badly damaged the Birdsville Aboriginal tracker's hut which, at the time, was being used for storage. The small structure lost sections of the wall and roof but these were reinstated.[64]

Lock-up (1958)

A lock-up had been provided at Birdsville from 1884, though was infrequently used due to the relatively low levels of crime in the area.[65] The original lock-up was replaced by a stone building in 1908.[66] By 1925 it was still standing, but was less than secure.[67] On 14 February 1954, the lock-up was demolished by a whirlwind. A replacement lock-up was ordered but not constructed until 1958. The new lock-up was a single-storey brick structure with a gable roof clad with corrugated iron. Similar to its predecessor, it accommodated a single cell with the addition of a storeroom sized to allow conversion to a second cell (which never eventuated), and garage, and a cell stockade under an awning along the eastern side. It was in use by 1959.[68]

In 1972 the lock-up was reported to be in poor condition. Major repairs and repainting were carried out to the police station, residence, and lock-up in 1974. This included adding electric lighting and a shower to the cell stockade to extend its useful life.[69]

Other structures on site

In 1959 an electricity generator and a septic system were installed. A small corrugated iron shed was built in the backyard to house the generator. These structures remain on site in 2022.[70]

21st century

The site was transferred to the Diamantina Shire Council in 2021. The former courthouse building was refurbished and converted to an educational tourist attraction. In 2022, the complex retains its Courthouse, Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, and Lock-up.[71]

Description

The Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former) comprises three modest buildings standing on a rectangular (3739m2) site near the centre of Birdsville, a small rural town in far western Queensland. The site is rectangular and flat, largely devoid of vegetation, and the complex is highly visible within the flat, semi-arid Birdsville terrain.

Features of Birdsville Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, Courthouse and Police Complex (former) of State-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Site Layout and Circulation, and Relationships Between Buildings;
• Courthouse (1890, and Police Quarters extension 1896);
• Lock-up (1958); and
• Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut (1948).

Site Layout and Circulation, and Relationships Between Buildings

The layout of the three buildings on the site and site circulation reflect late 19th to mid-20th century court and police operations and the status of these functions during the period. The Courthouse stands at the eastern end of the site, fronting east to Macdonald Street surrounded by a large, fenced, open yard. The Lock-up stands approximately 20m away from the rear (west) of the Courthouse at the western perimeter of the fenced yard, facing the Courthouse. The Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut stands west of the Lock-up, outside the fenced yard approximately 55m from the rear of the Courthouse and facing it.

The Courthouse is built of stone and is the principal building on the site. It is the largest and most prominent from the street, with public access into the front of the building (courtroom) via a short front yard and wide front verandah for public waiting. The Lock-up is a simple, freestanding, brick building at the rear of the yard, visible and accessible from the rear rooms of the courthouse across an open yard without crossing into the public circulation. The Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut is a small, freestanding, timber-framed building, rudimentary, lowest in architectural hierarchy, and furthest away. It stands in an open, arid field, outside the fenced yard, and its circulation path to the complex is not defined.   

Courthouse (1890, and Police Quarters extension 1896)

The Courthouse is a highly-intact, one-storey, stone building with a timber-framed hip roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. T-shaped in plan, the building comprises a long rectangular courtroom wing at the eastern end with timber-framed verandah on three sides, and a perpendicular rear wing (west) comprising two offices and rear verandah. The roof has lost its ventilation fleche and the rear verandah has been enclosed.

Extending off the northern end of the rear wing is the Police Quarters extension (1896), a small gable-roofed stone block of two bedrooms with a northern, timber-framed verandah.

On the western side of the Police Quarters extension is a timber-framed addition (by 1948), accommodating a laundry, bathroom, and toilet.

Features of the Courthouse of State-level cultural heritage significance include:

• 1890 Courthouse and 1896 Police Quarters extension;
• symmetrical T-shaped plan form and room layout of original courthouse comprising long front courtroom with surrounding verandah, and rear offices with rear verandah;
• separate entrances into building and courtroom reflecting former court function with separated circulation patterns – public circulation at east end from the street with wide waiting verandah, central front entrance door into courtroom, and front courtroom gallery area (separated from the courtroom proper by a low partition); side entrances from narrower side verandahs into courtroom toward the rear of the room for court attendants; and officials’ entrance into courtroom from rear offices via entrances in the west end of the room (the southern one of these two doors has been closed over as part of 1896 conversion);
• modifications made to 1890 courthouse in 1896 to accommodate Police Quarters, including: blocking up door into courtroom; cutting door between rear offices; cutting door into extension from rear offices; relocating single leaf doors from rear offices onto rear verandah into extension and replacing them with glazed French doors; and relocating window in northern wall of rear offices into eastern wall of extension;
• dressed stone exterior walls; elaborate metal wall vent grilles; plaster-lined stone internal walls;
• verandahs: timber posts and roof framing; timber board end valances; and unlined ceilings;
• timber-framed intersected hip and gable roof (continuous over verandahs); corrugated metal roof sheets; metal quad gutters; and round metal downpipes;
• iron bracing rods (c1910-11) tying the extension back to the courthouse;
• metal window hood of Police Quarters extension (1896), including cut (c1910-11) through metal to facilitate installation of tie rod;
• original floors (unsighted, likely timber-framed and board-lined);
• coved courtroom ceiling and exposed timber tie beams with stop chamfering (original timber boards likely survive behind later sheets-and-battens ceiling);
• joinery: timber-framed double-hung windows; low-waisted, panelled timber doors; glazed fanlights; moulded timber skirtings and architraves; timber dais and judge’s bench and its location centred at far (west) end of courtroom; timber glazed and panelled French doors;
• early and original door and window hardware, including rim locks and early window curtain rods and brackets;
• stone double chimney breast between rear offices; timber fire surrounds and mantle shelves; dressed stone chimney with simple moulding projecting through the roof centrally;
• timber board-lined ceilings (1890/1896, coved in former offices); and
• early furniture: iron beds, timber cupboards, tables, a concrete wash tub, and a timber filing cabinet.

Features of the Courthouse not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:

• post-1896 verandah enclosures and western extension off Police Quarters (by 1948);
• non-original concrete verandah floors (original likely timber-framed and board-lined);
• non-original ceilings, including flat sheet and batten-lined ceiling of courtroom and flat sheet lined ceiling in western room of Police Quarters extension (former kitchen) and verandahs;
• non-original flat sheet lined low partition in courtroom for public gallery;
• non-original doors, windows, and screens and non-original hardware;
• non-original paint on originally unpainted external stone walls;
• non-original kitchen fitout, including pantry;
• all modern electrical services, including air conditioning units and lights;
• modern floor coverings; and
• modern interpretation plaques.

Lock-up (1958)

The Lock-up is a small, separate, one-storey brick building standing behind (west of) the Courthouse. It is a slab-on-ground structure that accommodates one cell, a store, and garage.

Features of the Lock-up of State-level cultural heritage significance include:

• location relative to Courthouse;
• rectangular floor plan and gable roof form;
• original concrete floor, brick walls, and timber-framed roof clad with corrugated metal sheets;
• timber batten soffit lining;
• layout comprising cell, store (sized to be able to be converted to second cell – never eventuated), verandah (cell stockade with toilet), and garage;
• verandah cage and the verandah toilet enclosure with its small barred window;
• original cell door;
• blank side elevations; and
• small high-level louvre windows on rear (west) wall.

Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut (1948)

The Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut is a small, low-set, one-storey timber-framed structure with a hipped roof standing at a distance to the west of the other buildings.

Features of the Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut of State-level cultural heritage significance include:

• location relative to other buildings and fenced yard;
• timber framing and hipped roof continuous over lean-to front (east) awning;
• open-sided awning area supported on timber posts with a dirt floor;
• walls and roof clad with corrugated metal sheets;
• unglazed windows on its north and south walls;
• short timber stair to timber front door;
• interior layout of one small room with timber floor; and
• unlined ceiling.

References

 [1] Don Rowlands, Mike Smith, Ingereth Macfarlane, Duncan Wright and Max Tischler, ‘The lost oasis’: Archaeology of a “forgotten” mikiri well in the Simpson Desert’, Queensland Archaeological Research, Vol. 23, 2020, pp.1-7, at p.1; Ah Chee v State of South Australia [2014] FCA 1048, at [43]; Deborah Rose, ‘Social Life and Spiritual Beliefs of the Simpson Desert Peoples’, Making Connections: A journey along Central Australian Aboriginal trading routes, Brisbane: Arts Queensland in partnership with Heritage Unit, Northern Territory Department of Infrastructure, Planning & Environment, South Australian Tourism Commission, Indigenous Heritage Section, Australian Heritage Commission, 2004, pp.43-46, at pp.43-44.
[2] In 1893 William Finucane, a police administrator in Brisbane, wrote to police across the Queensland colony seeking Aboriginal objects for a police museum he was establishing in the city. Two years earlier he had received eight pituri bags, one described as being made of human hair. Finucane sold objects including four pituri bags to the British Museum in 1897 for £10. The museum still retains at least one bag. It is a ‘boat-shaped bag… tightly woven, of pale-coloured twine and coloured wool from Government blankets. The wool is dark blue and light blue in colour, & occurs in concentric circles. The largest circle is black & of human hair, with which the suspension cord is also partly woven’. Pituri bags were traditionally made of tightly-woven grass twine, often featuring different-coloured bands; materials like wool were introduced following non-indigenous occupation in the area. Hair, including human, could be used in tassel ties or stitching. The British Museum, ‘bag (pituri bag); stimulant/narcotic equipment’, Museum No. Oc1897, -.634, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc1897-634; Powerhouse Collection, ‘Pituri carrier’, Museum of Applied Art and Sciences, 2020, https://collection.maas.museum/object/19965, Luke Keogh, ‘Pituri bags’, Queensland Historical Atlas, 2010, https://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/pituri-bag; Eric Rolls, ‘No Fixed Address’, Quarterly Essay 24, https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/correspondence/correspondence-eric-rolls accessed 31 May 2022; Anne Best ‘Aboriginal Material Culture of the Wellesley Islands and Adjacent Mainland Coast, Gulf of Carpentaria: Social and Environmental Factors Affecting Variations in Style’, QAR [Queensland Archaeological Journal] Vol 15, 2012, pp.1-46, at p.8.
[3] Val Donovan and Colleen Wall, ‘Introduction’ and Isabel McBryde, ‘Landscapes of Exchange’, Making Connections, 2004, pp.1-2, 8-9; Trish FitzSimons, ‘Channel Country’, Queensland Historical Atlas, 2010 <qhatlas.com.au/content/channel-country>, accessed 26 March 2019); National Museum Australia, ‘Community Stories: Birdsville, Queensland’, https://www.nma.gov.au/learn/encounters-education/community-stories/birdsville, accessed 23 March 2020; ABC Hindsight, Along the Pituri Trail, broadcast 22 June 2008 (audio recording), National Native Title Register Details, SCD2014.005 – The Wangkangurru-Yarluyandi Native Title Claim, http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleRegisters/Pages/NNTR_details.aspx?NNTT_Fileno=SCD2014/005, accessed May 2022; Ah Chee v State of South Australia [2014] FCA 1048.
[4] Information supplied by Don Rowland, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Birdsville; Val Donovan and Colleen Wall, ‘Introduction’, and Peter Bell ‘Three Tracks Across the Desert’, Making Connections, 2004, pp.3 & 88.
[5] Centre for the Government of Queensland, ‘Queensland Places: Diamantina Shire’, 2015, https://queenslandplaces.com.au/diamantina-shire, accessed 7 April 2020; entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Birdsville Hotel [600461]; Thom Blake and Peter Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.5; Frances Gage McGinn, ‘Birdsville: A place to be remembered’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 1980, pp.119-120. The stock route was the main of several stock routes between the Channel Country and Adelaide, and linked to the Strzelecki Track in South Australia. The tracks were not formally gazetted but known to pastoralists: Historical Research Adelaide, Austral Archaeology, Lyn Leader-Elliott and Iris Iwanicki, Heritage of the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks: Part of the Far North & Far West Region (Region 13), Adelaide: South Australian Government, December 2002, p.50.
[6] Queensland Government Gazette, Vol. 29 No. 74, 5 November 1881, p.1065.
[7] Survey Plan RB17 (August 1885).
[8] Queensland Government Gazette, Vol. 37 No. 94, 14 November 1885, pp.1799-1800; Carolyn Nolan, Sand Hills and Channel Country, Bedourie: Diamantina Shire Council, 2003, p.71.
[9] Nolan, Sand Hills and Channel Country, 2003, p.73.
[10] Pugh’s Almanac for Queensland 1889, Directory of Country Towns, p.49; Peter Forrest, The “National Estate” in The Central West Region of Queensland: A report for the Co-ordinator General’s Department, Brisbane: National Trust of Queensland, 1976, p.37; Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 16 January 1889, p.3.
[11] Bendigo Advertiser, 29 January 1883, p.3; South Australian Register, 22 May 1884, p.2.
[12] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Customs House Museum [QHR600530]; Frances Gage McGinn, ‘Birdsville: A place to be remembered’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 1980, pp.123-4.
[13] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Bedourie Pisé House and Aboriginal Trackers Hut, [QHR650098]; Frances Gage McGinn, ‘Birdsville: A place to be remembered’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 1980, pp.123-4; South Australian Register, 1 April 1885, p.6.
[14] Brisbane Courier, 24 November 1883, p.6; South Australian Register, 22 May 1884, p.2; entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Customs House Museum, Goondiwindi [QHR600530]; Queensland Blue Books, 1885-1899.
[15] Nolan, Sand Hills and Channel Country, 2003, pp.69-72; Queensland State Archives Agency ID2178, Customs Office, Birdsville; Thom Blake and Peter Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.6.
[16] At least two major conflicts occurred in the Birdsville region in the 1870s: at Wombunderry Waterhole in 1872 (in which 100 people from the Kungkari language group were killed by the Native Mounted Police Force led by sub-inspector Gilmour) and Thundapurty Waterhole in 1876 (in which 42 people from the Karuwali language group were killed). Additionally, in March and April 1879, 56 people from the Pita Pita (Pitta Pitta) language group were killed on Annandale and Glengyle stations, west of Birdsville. Centre for 21st century humanities and the University of Newcastle, Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930, https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=681, 2019, accessed 20 March 2020.
[17] Brisbane Courier, 24 November 1883, p.6; Queenslander, 19 April 1884, p.607; Adelaide Observer, 4 October 1884, p.30.
[18] Queensland Government Gazette, Vol. 37 No. 126, 26 December 1885, p.2292; Survey Plan RB17 (1885).
[19] Adelaide Observer, 13 December 1884, p.35; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.7.
[20] Adelaide Observer, 13 December 1884, p.35. The most common crime in Birdsville was horse theft, with ten cases reported between 1892 and 1896: W Ross Johnston, The long blue line: a history of the Queensland Police, Bowen Hills: Boolarong Publications, 1992, p.52.
[21] Due to Birdsville’s isolation and poor communications links, the complaints were published in newspapers after the announcement of the appointment of the court and of the police sergeant as acting clerk of petty sessions (Adelaide Observer, 13 December 1884, p.35), though before the appointment of the police magistrate (Queensland Government Gazettes, Vol. 35 No. 77, 25 October 1884, p.1458 and Vol. 36 No. 10, 10 January 1885, p.107).
[22] The Week, 2 August 1884, p.8; Queensland Government Gazette Vol. 35 No. 12, 26 July 1884, p.368, and Vol. 35 No. 77, 25 October 1884, p.1458. Shortly before the appointment, a crime committed in Birdsville had been tried in Boulia. Witnesses had travelled 500 miles for the trial, and a police horse had been lost on the journey: Brisbane Courier, 30 October 1884, p.4.
[23] Queensland Government Gazette, Vol. 36 No. 10, 10 January 1885, p.107.
[24] Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘2016 Census QuickStats: Birdsville’, 2017, https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC30261, accessed 7 April 2020.
[25] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.7.
[26] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.24-5.
[27] Margaret Cook and Margaret Pullar, Police and Justice Study: A report for DERM, 2011, p.64; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.725.
[28] Brisbane Courier, 19 April 1888, p.6.
[29] Queenslander, 18 August 1888, p.285.
[30] Brisbane Courier, 10 June 1889, p.3.
[31] Department of Works, Annual Report for the year ending 31 December 1889 and Annual Report for the year ending 31 December 1890.
[32] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.7-9.
[33] South Australian Chronicle, 30 May 1891, p.7; Nolan, Sand Hills and Channel Country, 2003, p.75.
[34] Frances Gage McGinn, ‘Birdsville: A place to be remembered’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 1980, p.122; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.7-8.
[35] Australian Register, 8 January 1887, p.6.
[36] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.25.
[37] Port Augusta Dispatch, Newcastle and Flinders Chronicle, 22 July 1892, p.3.
[38] ‘Additions to P.M. and Sub-Collector of Customs Quarters Birdsville’, plan drawing, 1896, exploroz.com/forum/134200/sunday-history-photo—qld, accessed 28 April 2022.
[39] Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 8 October 1895, p.2. The additions appear to have been in lieu of a stone customs house and post office, for which tenders were called in February and March 1895 (e.g., Telegraph, 9 February 1895, p.5), but apparently not built.
[40] Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1911, Brisbane: Government Printer, p.19.
[41] Other courthouse and police complexes with three or more of these elements include Toowoomba [QHR 601710], Pomona [QHR 602515], Croydon [QHR 600437 and 601153], Bundaberg [QHR 601762], Birdsville [QHR 600460], Cleveland [QHR 601933], Mackay [QHR 600673], Ravenswood [QHR 601204], Roma [QHR 601285], Rosewood [QHR 601101], Yungaburra [QHR 600477], Warwick [QHR 600948], Irvinebank, and Howard. Cook and Pullar, Police and Justice Study, 2011, p.35; Gina McLellan, The Roma Court House and Police Precinct Conservation Study, thesis for degree of Bachelor of Architecture, 1992, p.48. Birdsville’s low crime rate was often referenced in newspapers, including the Courier Mail, 9 October 1954, p.7 and Canberra Times, 26 December 1994, p.2.
[42] Brisbane Courier, 5 February 1900, p.4; Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1900, Brisbane: Government Printer, 1901, p.12; and Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1910, Brisbane: Government Printer, 1911, p.18. The extent to which the stone Police Quarters addition was ‘blown away’ seems to have been limited to the roof, with some and damage to the verandah. The strengthening, repairing the connections between the 1890 courthouse building and its 1896 extension, was done by installing iron tie rods, made in South Australia and carried by camel to Birdsville: Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.10.
[43] The courthouse and school were the only buildings which survived the 1904 storm: Telegraph, 19 November 1904, p.11. Johnston, The long blue line, 1992, p.147.
[44] Telegraph, 19 April 1938, p.14; Townsville Daily Bulletin, 12 May 1938, p.2.
[45] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.10-11; Townsville Daily Bulletin, 15 May 1929, p.8.
[46] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.10-12. The Department of Works annual reports recorded expenditure of £1,281 (1946-47), £1,639 (1947-48), £1,060 (1950-51), and £1,129 (1951-52) on alterations, repairs, improvements and painting at the Birdsville Police Station: Department of Public Works, Annual Reports, Appendix IV, p.15 (1946-47), p.16 (1947-48), p.17 (1950-51) and p.15 (1951-52).
[47] Queensland State Archives, Item ID 308781, printed in Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.18.
[48] Queensland State Archives, Series ID 8843, Item ID 289894, Administration file, police.
[49] Courier Mail, 22 March 1952, p.3; Mimag (Mount Isa Mines Ltd), Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1960, p.5. A newspaper article in 1944 reported that the town’s residents did most of their banking in Marree, in South Australia, with the Commonwealth Savings Bank operating ad hoc for a visiting dignitary who required a ‘tenner’: Western Star and Roma Advertiser, 29 September 1944, p.4.
[50] Australian Women’s Weekly, 23 November 1977, p.37 and 1 December 1982, p.62.
[51] Courier Mail, 11 August 1988, p.2.
[52] ‘Classroom to become courtroom for Birdsville races’, ABC Premium News, 1 September 2006, p.1; Chrissy Arthur, ‘Birdsville punters arrive early for “Melbourne Cup of the outback”’, ABC Premium News, 6 September 2013; Queensland Courts, ‘Birdsville Courthouse’, https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/contacts/courthouses, February 2022, accessed 29 April 2022.
[53] Paul McMillen, ‘One Last Ride with the Australian Outback’s One-Man Police Force’, BuzzFeed News, 5 November 2015, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewmcmillen/the-constable-of-birdsville, accessed 14 April 2020.
[54] Dale Kerwin, ‘Aboriginal heroes: episodes in the colonial landscape’, Queensland Historical Atlas, 2010, https://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/aboriginal-heroes-episodes-colonial-landscape, accessed March 2019; Johnston, The long blue line, 1992, pp.89, 112 & 199; ‘Black Trackers’, The Illustrated Australian Encyclopaedia, 1925; Australian, 11 August 1825, p.3; Sydney Monitor, 6 September 1828, p.5; Peter Michael, "Hunt for missing miner Bruce Schuler ends era of trackers", news.com.au, News Limited, accessed 17 July 2012; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.16-17.
[55] Adelaide Observer, 4 October 1884, p.30.
[56] The camels were kept on a grassed area 18km from Birdsville: Johnston, The long blue line, 1992, p.37. In 1936 a Birdsville constable noted that Tommy’s wife Bulka did not perform any domestic duties at the station; in 1937 she was taken urgently to Cloncurry for medical treatment, and died of cancer in 1938. QSA Series ID 16865, Item ID 317685, Correspondence, police, transcribed Paul Mackett, 2001, http://www.cifhs.com/qldrecords/qldtrackers1.html accessed 19 March 2020.
[57] Pugh’s Queensland Almanac, 1888, Country Directory p.46 (three trackers); Pugh’s Queensland Almanac, 1889, Country Directory p.49; Pugh’s Queensland Almanac, 1888, Country Directory p.52 (two trackers); Queenslander, 6 August 1931, p.4 (two trackers by 1900).
[58] Johnston, The long blue line, 1992, pp.198-200; Queensland Police Museum Curator, pers. comm., 25 April 2019; entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Bedourie Pisé House and Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut, 650098. In 1937, a tracker’s hut was constructed at Croydon [QHR 601153] out of the former kitchen. It is unclear if this building still exists.
[59] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.17.
[60] The fence is visible in plans, including Queensland State Archives, Birdsville police station block plan, 1950s; Department of Public Works drawing for new cell block and septic system, 1958; and Department of Works, Birdsville Police Station site plan (DA 126-3), 1972 in Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.14, 18 & 19.
[61] Herald (Melbourne), 31 July 1954, p.27; National Film and Sound Archive, ‘Australian Screen: The Back of Beyond (1954), https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/back-of-beyond/, accessed 14 April 2020.
[62] QSA Series ID 16865, Item ID 317685, Correspondence, police, transcribed Paul Mackett, 2001, http://www.cifhs.com/qldrecords/qldtrackers1.html, accessed 19 March 2020; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, p.17.
[63] Entries on the Queensland Heritage Register, Bedourie Pisé House and Aboriginal Tracker’s Hut [QHR 650098] and Normanton Gaol [QHR 601501]; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.16-17.
[64] Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.17-18.
[65] Contractors Smith and Wookie were engaged building the police barracks and gaol in November 1883. The lock-up was in use by late 1884: Brisbane Courier, 24 November 1883, p.6; Adelaide Observer, 13 December 1884, p.35; South Australian Register, 28 January 1885, p.6.
[66] Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1908, Brisbane: Government Printer, 1908, p.15.
[67] By 1925 the stone walled building featured a galvanised iron door which was ‘anything but secure’: Queensland Police Museum image, Police Station and Court House, Birdsville, 1925, PM3686. Plaster was falling off the walls and stones from the wall could be removed by hand: Johnston, The long blue line, 1992, pp.39, 45 & 149; Blake and Marquis-Kyle, Birdsville Courthouse Conservation Management Plan, 2011, pp.14-16.
[68] Queensland State Archives, Series ID 8843, Item ID 289894, Birdsville Police Station Files. As the levels of crime in Birdsville remained low, the use of the lock-up remained limited. In 1960 police constable Eric Salmon offered the lock-up as accommodation for visitors to the town, though he was not taken up on the offer. Mimag, Vol. 13 No. 11, November 1960, p.5.
[69] Queensland State Archives, Series ID 39, Item IDs 362523 and 362524, Administration file, police, Birdsville.
[70] Queensland State Archives, Series ID 8843, Item ID 289894, Birdsville Police Station Files. In 1995 permission was given to the Solar Terrestrial Environment Laboratory at Nagoya University, Japan, to install scientific recording equipment in the lock-up.
[71] Certificate of title, 51240584 (Lot 1 SP314288); Queensland Department of Innovation and Tourism Industry Development, ‘Birdsville Court House Hologram’, July 2021, https://www.ditid.qld.gov.au/our-work/outback-tourism-infrastructure-fund/birdsville-court-house-hologram-project, accessed 29 April 2022; Derek Barry, ‘$7m in funding grants’, North West Star, 17 October 2018.

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