Policing the Southern Districts

During the penal period and early days in New South Wales, Goulburn was a garrison town. Early settlement doubtless had occurred in the district before the area was properly explored. Towards the latter part of the 1820s the Colonial Secretary and Surveyor-General were actively engaged in correspondence and development of the area.

On the 29th June 1829 the Surveyor-General communicated to the Colonial Secretary that the Governor had approved of the area to be known as the ‘Goulburn Plains’ and district of ‘Argyle’. Historical records show that Lieutenant McAlister was the Commander of the 2nd Division of the Mounted Police stationed at Goulburn Plains on 16th October 1830 by General Order of His Excellency, Governor Darling. From early 1830 to the latter part of the century, serving Police were mainly soldiers from English Regiments. The Police strength was shown as: Mounted Police – One Captain, One Sergeant, Fourteen Troopers and One Dismounted Trooper – Goulburn. Many of their day-to-day duties were associated with ‘summons-serving’, ‘loitering around hotels’, ‘impounding goats’ and ‘lagging drunkards to watch houses’.

Mounted Trooper Herbert Germer,
(c.1912) joined the New South Wales
Police Force on  1 June 1911 and
was transferred to Goulburn  as a
Mounted Trooper late in 1913
where he worked until 1915.



About the mid 1800s, armed robbers and bushrangers were active in the Goulburn, Breadalbane, Collector and Braidwood areas, and naturally the Police were encouraged to direct their efforts to the ‘protection of life and property’. 

Source: Souvenir Program - The NSW Police Academy Attestation Parade: Ceremony of Conferring the Freedom of the City of Goulburn on The NSW Police Academy and the Goulburn Police (23 April 1986).

Has anyone in your family history served in the NSW Police Force? Please share their memories.