Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former)

General

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Also known as

Rewan Horse Breeding Station (former); Rewan Police Horse Stud (former); Rewan Remount Breeding Station (former); Rewan Station

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

31 May 2019

Types

Law/Order, Immigration, Customs, Quarantine: Other - Law/Order, etc

Pastoralism: Other - Pastoralism

Residential: Cottage

Residential: Detached house

Themes

2.3 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Pastoral activities

7.1 Maintaining order: Policing and maintaining law and order

Builder

Queensland Police Service

Designer

Department of Public Works

Construction periods

1911, Commissioner's Cottage

1911, Stables

1918, Meat House

Historical period

1900–1914 Early 20th century

1914–1919 World War I

Location

Address

Rewan Road, Rewan

LGA

Central Highlands Regional Council

Coordinates

-24.95743463, 148.37400379

Significance

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

Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former) (1909-34), is important in demonstrating the Queensland Government’s policy of breeding horses, which were essential as transport, for the Queensland Police Force between 1904 and 1934. The place retains important surviving evidence of this rare police horse stud, which was constructed and maintained primarily by members of the Queensland Police Force, including: the former Stables (1911); the former Commissioner’s Cottage (1911); and a Meat House (1918).

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

As one of only two police horse studs established in Queensland, and the only one with surviving structures, the Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former) is a rare example of a function that has always been uncommon.

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former) has a special association with the Queensland Police Force, an important organisation in Queensland history since its establishment in 1863. The Queensland Police Force established the stud in 1909, built most of its structures, and conducted the stud for 25 years to breed, train and supply horses to the Queensland Police Force for police work throughout the state, at a time when horses were vital to policing.

History

Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former), located approximately 64km southwest of the town of Rolleston in the Springsure district of Central Queensland, was established as a police horse stud in 1909. Comprising 108,000 acres (43,706ha) at its largest, the reserve was home to up to 771 horses and up to 2850 cattle until its closure in 1934.[1] It retains former Stables (1911), the former Commissioner’s Cottage (1911) and a Meat House (1918) from its stud era. Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former) is the only remaining former police horse stud in Queensland. It is important in demonstrating the Queensland Government’s policy of breeding horses, which were essential as transport, for the Queensland Police Force between 1904 and 1934. It has a special association with the Queensland Police Force, an important organisation in Queensland history.

A police presence in the geographical area that became the Colony of Queensland began in 1843, not long after free settlement commenced in the Moreton Bay region. The Police Act 1863 created a centralised system under a Commissioner of Police, who controlled the Queensland Police Force (QPF) and the Native Police. The commissioner headed a hierarchy of inspectors and sub-inspectors who were in charge of sergeants and constables working in police districts throughout Queensland.[2]

Until the mid-20th century, horses were essential equipment for the QPF. From 1864 the care of police horses was regulated and any town with a police station also had a police horse paddock. The QPF also supplied horses for ceremonial occasions, such as the 1901 proclamation of the Commonwealth, the visit of Imperial troops in 1901 and the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1927; as well as for the Royal National Association show in Brisbane. Horses were purchased for the QPF by the commissioner or by inspectors for their own districts. The care and replacement of police mounts was a significant part of the police budget each year.[3]

Several factors provided the impetus for the Queensland Police Department to begin a horse breeding program. By 1904, Commissioner of Police, William Edward Parry-Okeden (Commissioner 1895-1905), was urging that the QPF breed its own horses to overcome the high cost of purchasing suitable ones. A good horse cost between £7 and £10. These horses were scarce due to stock losses during the Federation Drought (1898-1902); demand for horses during the Boer War (1899-1902); and because agents of the Indian, Japanese, Dutch and American armies were competing in the Australian market for remounts. Meanwhile, the QPF’s need for horses remained high, as a significant proportion of its horses were old and needed replacing. The QPF in 1904 numbered 888 men including trackers, and over 1000 horses.[4]

In 1904, the QPF commenced breeding remounts for its mounted police at Woodford, 79km north of Brisbane, using a 2130 acre (863ha) Reserve for a Police Paddock (formerly part of Durundur Station). Stallions were hired for stud work at Woodford between 1904 and 1908 for between £20 and £30 per stallion per year. Costs were kept down by growing feed on-site.[5]

When the Department of Public Lands wished to dispose of the reserve as Agricultural Farms and Perpetual Lease Selections, the QPF, under Commissioner William Geoffrey Cahill (Commissioner 1905-16), decided it would continue to breed its own remounts.[6] Efforts to secure another, larger site near Brisbane were unsuccessful, but a suitable location in Central Queensland was found.[7] In 1908, the Commissioner of Police announced he had obtained ‘a very fine reserve at Carnarvon (named ‘Rewan’) of 78,000 acres [31565ha], resumed from the Consuelo leasehold for the purpose of breeding police remounts’. Rewan Station, situated about 160 miles (257km) north of Roma and 95 miles (153km) south of Springsure, the nearest railway station, was proclaimed as a ‘reserve for stud farm for breeding police horses’ in April 1909. Additionally, Rewan was to operate as a police station, conducting patrols in the district.[8]

The nearest town to Rewan was Rolleston, established in 1862, at the crossing point on the Brown (later Comet) River that teamsters used when travelling between inland districts and Rockhampton. The town site was surveyed in 1865 and later named after Christopher Rolleston (1817-88), a local landholder.[9] A branch railway line to Springsure opened from Emerald in August 1887, improving transport to the district.[10] In the first two decades of the 20th century, the large pastoral leases in the Springsure district (within Bauhinia Shire from 1902) were resumed for closer settlement.[11]

Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station commenced in mid-1909 when the Woodford horses, together with all available mares owned by the QPF in the various police districts, were transferred there. These totalled 76 mares, 37 geldings and 24 foals. Three stallions were purchased: ‘Mack’ (£215), ‘Libertine’ (£157/10) and ‘Bonny Boy’ (£63). Another 35 mares were purchased from Jimbour and Salisbury Plains Stations, and breeding operations commenced in the 1909 breeding season.[12]

At the time of the QPF’s takeover of Rewan in mid-1909, some improvements were already on site. These included a 5-room, iron-bark slab stockman’s hut, suffering from white ant attack, and other out-house buildings, which were ‘rough and not considered of any value and should be pulled down’.[13] A good stockyard was sited on a sand ridge behind the stockman’s hut, which after repair would meet the stud’s requirements for some years. Fencing consisted of about 25 miles (40km) of outer boundaries and two horse paddocks, which were in a poor state of repair.[14]

Requirements to make it habitable and functional were: accommodation for staff, animals and equipment; a telephone connection for the property to function as a police station; and boundary fencing. The work was undertaken by the police constables, who cut the trees, pit-sawed the timber, and erected the buildings.[15] By the end of 1909, mustering yards had been erected and fencing had commenced. By December 1910, the existing slab stockman’s hut had been repaired for constables’ quarters, and a house with detached kitchen was erected for use by Acting Sergeant John Joseph Campbell, who was in charge of the stud and the remount breeding program.[16]

Stables were erected about 100 yards (91.4m) behind the Sergeant’s Quarters. The building was 78ft x 13ft (12.8m x 4m), with a skillion roof of iron, with guttering to its front. The frame was sawn timber, with dressed split slabs for its walls and partitions. The Stables were divided into two stalls for stallions 14ft x 13ft (4.3m x 4m), one at each end of the building; a forage room 10ft x 13ft (3m x 4m); a buggy shed; a dray shed; and three stalls each 8ft x 13ft (2.4m x 4m). The buggy shed was enclosed by two hardwood doors. Immediately in front of the two stallion stalls were two substantial yards.[17]

A windmill was erected near Carnarvon Creek, where there was a good quantity of water, about 200 yards (182.9m) from the Sergeant’s Quarters. Water was pumped into a 2000 gallon galvanised iron tank erected behind these quarters, on a stand 9 ft (2.7m) high. Pipes from this tank lead to the Sergeant’s Quarters and both stallion stalls.[18] A Meat House, for meat processing, was also erected, as an essential component of the station.

The accommodation for the two to four Aboriginal Queensland Police Force trackers employed on Rewan between 1909 and 1934 was inferior to that provided for other staff. An image from c1909-17 of one residence shows a dirt-floored, slab-walled and bark-roofed hut, with boughs and rocks used to hold the roof in place.[19] Their accommodation in 1920 was described as ‘big, comfortable and waterproof huts’.[20] The trackers on Rewan are known to have undertaken horse- and cattle-related duties, and fence- and yard-building. Elsewhere in Queensland, trackers performed kitchen duties, cared for horses, checked fences and looked for trespassing stock.[21]

By early 1911, a second dwelling had been constructed southeast of the Sergeant’s Quarters, to accommodate the Commissioner of Police and other government officials when they inspected the property. Initially it was called the Commissioner’s Cottage, but was later referred to as the Officers’ Quarters. This timber-framed and -clad building with verandahs to its north and west elevations, had a corrugated metal roof with acroteria, and post-and-rail verandah balustrades. [22] As it was intended for periodic short-term use by official visitors, it comprised only two bedrooms and a bathroom. By the end of April 1911, the Sergeant’s Quarters and the Commissioner’s Cottage, along with well-tended gardens to the front, had been fenced in with 124ft (37.8m) of painted picket fence, including two wicket gates and two large double gates, at the front and the back of the buildings; as well as 369ft (112.5m) of split paling fence.[23]

Periodic visits by officers of the QPF and the Home Department, and dignitaries took place.[24] The first occurred in April 1911, when Chief Inspector Frederic Urquhart reported excellent progress had been made in building, fencing, clearing and ring-barking on Rewan. As intended, Rewan also served as a police station and patrols were being made.[25] Urquhart recommended doubling the herd of cows and adding 50 mares and another stallion before August 1911, and further fencing.[26]

Additions were subsequently made to the stud. Horse numbers rose to 331 by 31 July 1911, then to 400 by 31 July 1912. In 1913, the thoroughbred stallion ‘Turkish Lad’ was purchased at the National Exhibition in Brisbane and sent with 12 mares to Rewan, and two further mares were purchased from Eulolo and Roxborough Downs Stations. By 1914, the number of stud mares had reached 215.[27]

Rewan-bred horses were first supplied to the mounted police in 1912, when 69 trained remounts were provided. The Commissioner of Police reported that in the 1912-13 financial year the cost of purchasing horses for the department had decreased by £500, and he expected Rewan would produce well-bred horses in fair numbers in the future.[28] In 1913 there was praise for the 20 Woodford- and Rewan-bred horses sent to Brisbane for use in escort work in the metropolitan area.[29] In June that year, 17 horses from Rewan were also despatched to Longreach.[30]

Farming activities commenced on Rewan in 1913. In June, a new timber shed stored its crop of pumpkins. Farm implements were sent there, to enable ploughing of 13 or 14 acres (5.7ha) of land for lucerne and other crops, including oats.[31]

However, during 1915 and 1916, environmental factors hampered Rewan’s development. Drought halted agriculture and reduced foal numbers, while dingoes killed calves.[32] Flooding late in 1916, which destroyed three tons of panicum hay at Rewan, ended the drought.[33]

Afterwards, the stud resumed its breeding success. During 1916, 56 remounts were allocated for duty, valued at £840.[34] In the 1916-17 financial year, 70 remounts were sent out for duty to various districts (value £1050), and there were 669 horses on Rewan Station.[35]

In July 1916, the Home Secretary, the Hon. John Saunders Huxham; John Christian Peterson, MLA; and the Under Secretary of the Home Office, William J Gall, inspected Rewan Station and requested a report on improvements required to make the property viable, and their approximate cost.[36] Subsequently, the addition of cattle and a stallion to Rewan’s stock was approved, resulting in the purchase of the stallion ‘Lord Elderslie’, for £156.10, in May 1917.[37]

Improvements to Rewan buildings, approved in September 1916, were carried out by the Department of Public Works during 1918, using timber sourced from Meteor Downs. The buildings included a new Meat House, erected at a cost of £150. It was constructed with its door in a location that differed from its DPW plan.[38]

The 1920s were filled with praise for Rewan’s horses. During his Queensland visit in 1920, Edward, Prince of Wales requested to see the world-famous Queensland troopers and their mounts. He congratulated the Commissioner of Police (Frederic Charles Urquhart, Commissioner 1917-21), Inspector Carroll, and Sub-Inspector Campbell, who supervised the police stud, saying he much admired the horses.[39]

Official inspections continued in May 1921 when the Home Secretary, William McCormack, accompanied by J C Peterson, MLA for Normanby, and W H Gall, the Under Secretary of the Home Department, visited the Central district and spent two days inspecting Rewan. At this time there were about 600 horses and 1300 Shorthorn beef cattle on the property.[40] In October of the same year, the new Commissioner of Police, Patrick Short (Commissioner 1921-25), also inspected Rewan Station.[41] During 1921, 112 horses were sent from Rewan to various districts as remounts, the highest number provided in one year during its lifetime.[42]

Improvements to the stud in the 1920s included reroofing the hay shed and additional stables with second-hand, galvanised iron (1922) and the addition of 30,000 acres of leasehold land from Consuelo Holding, north of Rewan (1922).[43]

While Rewan concentrated on providing remounts for the mounted police, the motorisation of Queensland and the wider world was progressing rapidly. The QPF was failing to keep up, largely due to budget constraints. Successive Commissioners had tried to provide more modern transport. In 1896 Commissioner Parry-Okeden introduced bicycles for patrols, which were slowly distributed around the colony. However, at a cost of about £13/bike, they were more expensive than horses. Bicycle numbers reached 96 in 1914, but many were old and worn out and funds were not available to replace them or increase their numbers.[44]

Between 1917 and 1924, Commissioner Urquhart advocated the introduction of motor cycles to supplement bicycles in country districts and requested 50, but realised the expense prohibited their purchase.[45] Finally, in 1925 three motor cycles with side cars and 21 new bicycles were acquired, mainly for use in the metropolitan area. Motor cars for the police headquarters were hired as needed.[46] Increasingly, police used their private vehicles at work.[47]

By 30 June 1926, police horse numbers had fallen to 758 and the Commissioner of Police stated: ‘It is obvious that motor vehicles are filling calls that were formerly met by horses...’.[48] The QPF purchased two motor vans to transport prisoners in 1926 and by 30 June 1929, 12 motor cycles were in use.[49] However, it was not until after Cecil James Carroll was appointed Commissioner of Police (1934-49), that motorisation of the QPF proceeded rapidly.[50]

Environmental threats made the latter years of the 1920s difficult for Rewan Station. Successive drought between 1926 and 1932 affected the breeding, breaking and handling of horses, and delayed distribution of remounts in 1927.[51] In November 1929, fire threatened Rewan from the north and west for over three weeks and required about 18 men to subdue it.[52]

New stock was added to Rewan’s stud in the late 1920s and praise continued for its horses, although QPF horse numbers continued to fall, reaching 616 on 1 July 1929. Notably, in August 1929, the well-known racehorse and sire, ‘Had-I-Wist’, grandson of the 1890 Melbourne Cup winner ‘Carbine’, was presented to the State Government by the Commonwealth authorities and sent to Rewan Station as a stud horse.[53]

Praise for Rewan horses continued to be received in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1927, ‘The Duke and Duchess of York expressed very high appreciation of the police horses which formed part of their escorts, and members of their party also commended the remounts, stressing their ‘symmetry and tractability’.[54] The Governor General of Australia and the Governor of Queensland, Sir John Goodwin, also ‘praised the class of remounts forming the escorts’.[55] In 1929, the Governor inspected ‘Had-I-Wist’ and about 16 police horses bred at Rewan at the Petrie Terrace police depot and expressed his satisfaction with the quality and appearance of the horses.[56] In 1932, Governor Sir Leslie Wilson and his daughter were enthusiastic about 13 Rewan-bred police horses paraded at the Petrie Terrace depot.[57]

Despite such praise, from 1929, members of the Queensland Parliament, the Queensland Police Union and Queensland newspapers criticised Rewan Station and the police horse breeding program. In the Queensland Parliament in 1929, the Home Secretary, J C Peterson (1929-32) was questioned by Thomas Alberto Dunlop, (Independent, Rockhampton), about the high cost of salaries and allowances, and forage for horses at Rewan Station.[58] In 1930, Arthur Jones (Labor, Burke) questioned the Home Secretary about the annual cost of running Rewan Station and its total cost since establishment.[59]

From 1930 to 1933, the Queensland Police Union conducted a concerted campaign against the Rewan stud and in support of motorisation of the QPF.[60] Queensland newspapers quoted Queensland Police Union Journal articles stating that police thought Rewan Station was a ‘white-elephant’.[61] The Telegraph advised that ‘The Government [should] view this matter seriously and have it dealt with purely from a business, utility and economic viewpoint’.[62] The Police Union continued its campaign to close the police horse stud into the first half of 1933 and appeared to exaggerate Rewan Station’s costs. The Evening News quoted the Police Union’s June meeting that hoped authorities ‘would have no hesitation selling the Rewan horse-breeding establishment, which was costing upwards of £50,000 a year [actually about £3470], a wasteful expenditure in a futile effort to prop up antiquated methods and ideas’.[63] In June 1933, the Home Secretary (Edward M Hanlon) was expected to confer with the Police Commissioner (William H Ryan, 1925-34) about the closure of Rewan Station.[64]

A galvanising factor in Rewan’s fate was the conviction of its officer-in-charge, Sub-Inspector Campbell, for tax fraud and his dismissal from the police force in August 1933. Thomas Jones, superintendent of the farm home for boys at Westbrook, was sent to Rewan to take charge.[65] His report on Rewan Station outlined the history of the breeding program and provided advice about future strategies. He found no misconduct in the management of the government’s cattle and horses. He advised that the station needed fencing and building repairs, and ringbarking. He concluded that:

Rewan should be ringbarked and given a chance. The policy laid down when the place was first started was an admirable one and if carried out properly Rewan would be today ... doing well what was intended it should do. I... have no hesitation in saying that Rewan has not had a chance of carrying out its programme.... If it is decided to carry on it would not be difficult nor expensive to place the property under practical working conditions.... Had proper inspections been carried out the place would have been improved in every way instead of being allowed to drift.[66]

However, in the economic and political climate of 1933, Jones’ advice was not taken and the stud’s closure was announced in October 1933. The state was experiencing the worst worldwide economic depression since the 1890s. State-owned enterprises in general were out of favour after the failure of the Labor government’s State Enterprises initiatives (1915-1925).[67] Although Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station was not part of that scheme, there was a popular view that the Government should not run business enterprises. According to Home Secretary Hanlon, Rewan Station had cost £60,000 over its lifetime for a return of £33,000.[68] The reasons cited for the police horse stud’s closure were: its location was too inaccessible for regular inspection and regular control by officers of the department, and it had not produced horses suitable for North Queensland work.[69]

In 1934, Rewan Station was divided into two pastoral properties and allocated by ballot. The value of improvements on Rewan Station at the time of its sale was £1570.16.[70] The building improvements were: the Commissioner’s Cottage comprising two rooms, bathroom and front verandah; Sub-Inspector Campbell’s Quarters comprising eight rooms, with front and side verandahs; Single Constables’ Quarters comprising two rooms, front verandah, small kitchen and an improvised room on the back verandah; a Meat House; three huts for native trackers’ accommodation; stabling accommodation for the stallions; and a number of sheds and yards.[71]

The stud horses, cattle and plant were disposed of by September 1934. Of the horses: 39 went to Springsure as Police remounts; 34 were forwarded to Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement; 12 were sold locally; and 263 were herded over the Carnarvon Range for auction at Charleville on 12 September 1934. During the journey, 25 died or were destroyed including the valuable stallions, ‘Had-I-Wist’ and ‘Ercanil’, and 11 foals; and 5 went missing (strayed or died). Of the 1464 cattle on Rewan Station: 121 were sold to Lakes Creek Meatworks; 13 bulls were sold to John Rewan Campbell of Rolleston; 1300 were transferred to Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement; and 30 died. The proceeds of the livestock sales were £1240.6.10. Plant and loose tools were transferred to Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement and to the Springsure Police Station to be used in police stations.[72]

During its lifetime, Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station bred, trained and supplied 1029 remounts to the QPF.[73]

By the end of the 1930s, the QPF’s horse breeding program was remembered more positively. The Wingham Chronicle & Manning River Observer newspaper stated in 1938: ‘At Rewan some of the finest horses used in the Queensland Police Force were bred’.[74] In his 1941 obituary, Patrick Short, former Commissioner of Police (1921-25), was credited with making great improvements to Queensland police horses through the Rewan stud.[75]

From 1934 to 2019, Rewan Station has operated as a 17,500ha cattle property. In 2019, it retains three buildings from its former role as a police horse stud: the former Stables (1911), the former Commissioner’s Cottage (1911), and the Meat House (1918). These are the only built remains of a former police horse stud in Queensland and are important in demonstrating the Queensland Government’s policy, between 1904 and 1934, of breeding horses for the Queensland Police Force, an important organisation in Queensland history.

Description

Rewan Police Horse Breeding Station (former) is located approximately 64km southwest of the Central Queensland town of Rolleston. Positioned on a rise, on the north bank of a creek bend, the station complex is accessed via Rewan Road to the east. It retains three timber-framed buildings that are associated with the occupation and operation of the early 20th century police station and horse stud.

The features of state-level cultural heritage significance of the station complex are:

• Commissioner’s Cottage and its fenced garden (1911)
• Former Meat House (1918)
• Former Stables (1911)

Standing in their original locations, the buildings are oriented facing northeast and are roughly aligned along a northeast to southwest axis: the Commissioner’s Cottage, facing and visible from Rewan Road; the former Meat House approximately 20m to the rear of the Cottage; and the former Stables approximately 35m further to the southwest.

Commissioner’s Cottage and its fenced garden (1911, extended post-1932)

The Cottage is a lowset, timber-framed and -clad building comprising an original (1911) gable-roofed core. It has a later (post-1932) skillion-roofed extension to the rear (southwest), which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

The core is rectangular in plan and has an L-shaped verandah wrapping the front (northeast) and side (northwest, part former bathroom). The skillion verandah roof is set below and at a shallower pitch to the gable. The core contains one room, but retains evidence of its original two-bedroom layout in the form of the top-rail of the (former) dividing partition and separate doorways accessing the front verandah. A window and doorway opening are also retained in the rear (southwest) wall.

A garden occupies the area at the front of the Cottage; it retains garden beds with stone edging and is fenced on part of its original alignment (parallel with the Cottage front and a return at the northwest end).

Features also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Views to the Cottage from Rewan Road
• Original location and orientation
• Fenced garden, with stone-edged remnant garden beds, to the front of the Cottage
• Open space around the freestanding Cottage (facilitating abundant ventilation of the interior and verandah)
• Lowset, gable-roofed form
• Corrugated metal roof sheets
• Acroteria
• Verandahs, including: timber beams and posts; unlined, raked ceilings with exposed rafters; and timber boarded valance
• Timber chamferboard cladding
• Original door and window openings
• Original timber-framed, four-light, double-hung sash window (southeast)
• Original metal window hoods
• Timber tongue and groove (T&G) V-jointed (VJ) board linings to coved ceiling
• Timber T&G beaded and VJ board wall linings, fixed horizontally
• Timber top-rail of (former) dividing partition
• Timber floor framing and floor boards
• Low timber stumps with antcaps

Features not of state-level cultural significance of the Cottage are:

• Modifications to the original core, including: weatherboard verandah wall cladding; replacement verandah balustrades with cross-bracing (not original design), timber brackets to verandah posts; replacement verandah floorboards; relocated timber stairs; four-light French doors (not original design); electrical fittings; vinyl floor coverings; and insect screens
• Fence return at the southeast end (not original alignment), and replacement timber fence frame and pickets (not original design)
• Skillion-roofed extension containing a kitchen with attached stove recess, and an L-shaped verandah with concrete slab floor and metal posts

 
Former Meat House (1918)

The Meat House is a lowset, timber-framed and -clad building with a pyramid roof. Square in plan, it comprises a one-room core (former butchering room), surrounded by overhanging eaves supported on rough-hewn, round timber posts.

The core has a thin concrete slab floor on a raised platform of earth and undressed stone. It is accessed by a single door and has high-level screened openings for ventilation on all sides.

Features also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Open space around the freestanding Meat House (facilitating abundant ventilation of the interior)
• Pyramid roof form
• Corrugated metal roof sheets
• Finial
• Wide eaves with timber fascia and T&G VJ board linings
• Round timber posts
• Weatherboard wall cladding
• Timber boarded and ledged door
• High-level openings and fixed gauze screens
• Timber T&G VJ board ceiling and internal wall linings, unpainted
• Square ceiling ventilation / access panel
• Curved metal carcass rail with movable hook, suspended from ceiling via metal brackets
• Fixed timber rail with 11 attached metal hooks
• Fixed timber bench and brackets
• Drainage hole at floor level
• Concrete slab floor on an earth and stone platform

Features not of state-level cultural significance of the Meat House are:

• Lighting and other electrical services
• Moveable storage items
   

Former Stables (1911)

The former Stables is a long, narrow, lowset, timber-framed building with a skillion roof that slopes down to the long-sided front (northeast). It is one 13ft (4m) stall in width and enclosed on the southeast, southwest and northwest sides.

Two enclosed rooms (former stallion stall and feed room) are at the southeast end of the building; an open-plan area (former open-fronted dray shed and three partitioned stalls with post-and-rail fronts) is at the centre; and two partially enclosed rooms (former enclosed buggy shed and stallion stall) are at the northwest end.   

The intactness of the building reflects its continued use as part of a working pastoral property, with sections of original timber slab and post-and-rail construction deteriorated, demolished or replaced.

Original and early fabric is concentrated at the southeast and northwest ends, and includes horizontal timber slab walls and framing, and earth and timber (former feed and buggy rooms) flooring.

Features also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• Open space around the freestanding Stables (facilitating historical setting and access from the northeast)
• Long, narrow, lowset, skillion-roofed form
• Corrugated metal roof sheeting
• Evidence of original layout demonstrating functional spatial arrangement
• Original and early horizontal timber slab construction (southeast and northwest ends), including: horizontal slabs (some adzed); vertical posts with fixing battens; and top and bottom plates
• Original and early post-and-rail framing, with evidence of mortice and tenon joints (former dray shed)
• Original and early metal and timber fixtures
• Original and early timber floor framing and boards (some adzed, former feed and buggy rooms)
• Original and early timber stumps with antcaps (southeast end)
• Original raised earth and rock platform (southeast end, extending into former yards)

Features not of state-level cultural significance of the Stables are:

• Non-original timber stud framing and additional cladding on the southeast (fibre-cement plans) and southwest (corrugated metal sheeting) sides
• Round timber posts fronting the open stall area (replacements consistent with original number of posts but not original design)
• Non-original roof timbers and corrugated metal sheets
• Concrete slab floor (southeast former stallion stall)

 
Features not of state-level cultural heritage significance

All other buildings, structures, and features on the site are not of state level cultural heritage significance, including:

• Tanks, sheds and demountables
• Boundary fences and gates
• Paths and driveways
• Trees, vegetation and gardens not previously mentioned

References

[1] As well as being a sanctuary for native birds and animals.
[2] W. Ross Johnston, The Long Blue Line: A History of the Qld Police, Boolarong Publication, Brisbane, 1992, pp. 2, 11. (The Commissioner of Police did not control the Water Police.)
[3] Margaret Cook, Police and Justice Study: A report for DERM, August 2011, p. 35. The Native Police were disbanded by the early 1900s. See: Margaret Kowald, ‘The Queensland Police force 1895-1910’, MA thesis, University of Queensland, 1989, pp. 15, 260; Johnston, The Long Blue Line, p. 134; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1901, QPP, 1 (1902), p 1024 cited by Kowald, ‘The Queensland Police Force 1895-1910’, p. 198.
[4] Johnston, The Long Blue Line, p. 135. (Parry-Okeden served as Commissioner of Police from 1 Jul 1895-31 Mar 1905); ‘Report of the Commissioner of Police for the year 1906’, QPP, 2 (1907), p. 276 cited by Margaret Kowald, ‘The Queensland Police Force 1895-1910’, pp. 16, 60, 293; Kowald, ‘The Queensland Police Force 1895-1910’ pp. 255, 263. (For the cost of horses 1893-1898 see '1899 Royal Commission', Queensland Votes and Proceedings of the Queensland Parliament (QV&P), 4 (1899), 886.); EJT Barton, Jubilee History of Queensland, Diddams, Brisbane, 1910, p. 196.
[5] Queensland State Archives (QSA) Item ID 290394, Report on Breeding Police Remounts, n.d. c1912; Johnston, The Long Blue Line, p. 135; ‘Durundur Police reserve’ The New Horse Stud’, Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 20 Oct 1904, p. 5. (The Police Paddock Reserve was established in 1885. There were 40 brood mares at Woodford in 1904. See: ‘Durundur Police reserve’ The New Horse Stud’, Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 20 Oct 1904, p. 5.)
[6] Margaret Pullar, The Town on the Brown: A History of Rolleston, Queensland Department. of Natural Resources, Brisbane, 1999, p. 39; QSA Item ID 290393, Letter from Commissioner of Police to Under Secretary Home Department, 18 Jan 1909; QSA Item ID 290394, Report on Breeding Police Remounts, n.d. c1912. (In January 1909, this report on the supply of police remounts in the other Australian states found that only the Northern Territory, which was forming five small, horse-breeding stations, was engaged in breeding police remounts. Victoria reportedly had discontinued the breeding of remounts 40 years previously, as it had proved costly and unsuccessful. However, there is evidence that a stud operated at Dandenong Police Paddocks 1853-1930 then at Bundoora 1930-c1949. See: <http://bpadula.tripod.com/policepaddocks/id16.html>, accessed 10 Apr 2019; ‘Black Trackers’, The Herald (Melbourne), 23 Feb 1929, p. 17; and ‘Army Camp for Police’, 7 Feb 1949, p. 7; ‘Bundoora Homestead Art Centre’, <http://www.bundoorahomestead.com/about-us/house/>, accessed 10 Apr 2019. Northern Territory: No studs in the Northern Territory are known to remain, according to Stephen Ashford, NT Heritage Parks, Wildlife and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Sport and Culture, Pers. Comm, Apr 2019.)
[7] QSA item ID 290394, Report on Breeding Police Remounts, n.d. c 1912.
[8] Report of the Commissioner of Police for the year 1908, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1909, p. 7; Queensland Government Gazette (QGG), 24 Apr 1909, pp. 950-1; QGG, 10 Jul 1909, p. 70; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1910, p. 7; ‘Official Notifications’, Brisbane Courier, 9 July 1909, p. 7; QSA Item ID 290394, Report on Breeding Police Remounts, n.d. c 1912. (The land was regarded as suitable for breeding horses because of its variety of grasses and good natural water supply from Carnarvon Creek, Johnny Woods Creek, Charcoal Creek, and Boggarawalla Creek, all with permanent water holes; as well as several permanent lagoons and swamps accessible to stock. Rewan was also declared a Reserve for the Protection and Preservation of Native Birds, under the Native Birds Protection Acts 1877-1884. Acting Sergeant John Joseph Campbell and Constable J Ruthenberg were appointed as rangers of the reserve. The reserve later came under new legislation, which protected native animals and birds.)
[9] Margaret Pullar & Michael Kennedy, An Assessment of the Cultural Heritage Significance of Rolleston and District, July 1997, p. 6; Chris Cunneen, 'Rolleston, Christopher (1817–1888)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rolleston-christopher-4501/text7359>, published first in hardcopy 1976, accessed online 21 Feb 2019. (Charles Frederick Gregory, brother of the Queensland Surveyor General, Augustus Charles Gregory, surveyed Rolleston town site. Christopher Rolleston was the former Commissioner of Crowns Land for the Darling Downs, and brother-in-law of the Leslie brothers, who lead the settlement of Darling Downs from 1840. From 1860, Rolleston, with Louis Hope and Alfred Denison, acquired extensive runs in the Leichhardt district centred upon Springsure Station near Rolleston.)
[10] Pullar, A History of Rolleston, pp. 16-19; Google Earth. (Emerald was on the Central Railway Line from Rockhampton.)
[11] W R Johnston & B Campbell, Bauhinia: One Hundred Years of Local Government, Bauhinia Shire Council, Springsure, 1979, p. 67.
[12] QSA item ID 290394, Report on Breeding Police Remounts, n.d. c 1912; QSA Item ID290394, Rewan Expenditure, c 24 Nov 1909.
[13] QSA Item ID 290394, Report to Under Secretary, Home Department, 23 Jun 1909.
[14] QSA Item ID 290394, Report to Under Secretary, Home Department, 23 Jun 1909.
[15] QSA Item ID 290394, Report to Under Secretary, Home Department, 23 Jun 1909; QSA, Item ID290397, Report by Snr Sergt John J Campbell to Commissioner of Police, 26 Oct 1912; ‘Queensland Police Horses – Breeding Station at Rewan’, Telegraph, 10 Dec 1910, p. 12; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1910, p. 7. (The only materials imported were the window sashes and iron.)
[16] QSA Item ID290394 ‘Rewan Expenditure’, c24 Nov 1909; ‘Qld Police Horses – Breeding Stn at Rewan’, Telegraph, 10 Dec 1910, p. 12; ‘Qld Police Horses – Breeding Station at Rewan’, Telegraph, 10 Dec 1910, p. 12; ‘Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1910’, p. 7. (The Sergeants Quarters and Constables’ Quarters are no longer on site.)
[17] QSA Item ID290393, Report re improvements made at Police Station – Rewan from Constable 1st Class Hansen to Commissioner of Police, 11 Jul 1910. (Yard dimensions: 24ft x 20ft (7.3m x 6.1m), built with round timber posts about 6ft 6in (2m) high, and about 14in (35.6cm) diameter with three rails morticed and scarfed into the posts, and a cap. Two gates made of sawn timber were placed in front of each yard with an opening of 4ft 6in (1.4m) each.)

[18] QSA Item ID290393, Report re improvements made at Police Station – Rewan from Constable 1st Class Hansen to Commissioner of Police, 11 Jul 1910.

[19] Image: Rewan Remount Station, Rob and Rosie at their residence, c1912, SLQ, Neg. no 23081; QSA Item ID 290394, Report to Under Secretary, Home Department, 23 Jun 1909.

[20] QSA A/44849 Sub-inspector, Rewan to Commissioner of Police, 11 Dec 1920, cited by Johnston, The Long Blue Line, p. 199.

[21] QSA, Item ID290393, Report from Snr Sergt John J Campbell to Police Commissioner, 12 Jul 1916; images from Report of the Commissioner of Police, 1910, 1911.

[22] ‘Qld Police Horses – Breeding Station at Rewan’, Telegraph, 10 Dec 1910, p. 12; ‘Buildings at Rewan erected by Police’ in ‘Report of Commissioner of Police’, 1910; Images accompanying the ‘Report of the Commissioner of Police’, 1910 and the ‘Report of the Commissioner of Police’, 1911.
[23] QSA Item ID290394, Report from Srgt John J Campbell to Commissioner of Police, 29 Apr 1911.
[24] Visits by dignitaries: Apr 1911: Chief Inspector of Police, Frederic Urquhart; Jul 1916: Home Secretary, the Hon. John Saunders Huxham; John Christian Peterson, MLA; Under Secretary of the Home Office, William J Gall; May 1917: Patrick Short, Chief Inspector of Police; May 1918: Home Secretary (Huxham); Mar 1920: Commissioner of Police (Urquhart); May 1921: Home Secretary, the Hon. William McCormack, Under Secretary, W J Gall and J C Peterson, MLA for Normanby; Oct 1921: Commissioner of Police, Patrick Short; Aug 1933: Thomas Jones, Superintendent, Westbrook Farm School for Boys.
[25] QSA Item 364549, letter from Inspector Short to Commissioner of Police, 30 Oct 1911. (Constable P Lee was appointed ranger of the reserve for native birds and native animals at the stud farm at Rewan’ after the transfer of Constable Rothenburg to another station. See: ‘Official notifications’, Brisbane Courier, 12 Jul 1912, p. 4. Prickly pear of the tree variety was present on the property, but was confined to an area of about 200 acres (80.9ha) of brigalow scrub about 14 miles (22.5km) from the station.)
[26] QSA Item ID 290393, Report by Chief Inspector, F Urquhart on Rewan Station to Commissioner of Police, 21 Apr 1911; QSA Item 364549, letter from Inspector Short to Commissioner of Police, 30 Oct 1911. (Accordingly, eight miles (12.9km) of boundary fence between Consuelo and Rewan Stations was commenced. Two miles of the large paddock fence had been erected with posts and top rail but wiring remained to be added. Another 1.5 miles was required to complete this fence and enclose 1500 acres (607ha). The Rewan-Consuelo boundary fence had been marked out but building had not commenced. Urquhart recommended the immediate erection of 24 chains of split post fencing around the homestead, for a home paddock for horses. He was convinced the place would be profitable and of immense service in providing police remounts.)
[27] QSA Item ID 290394, Report on Breeding Police Remounts, n.d. c 1912; QSA Item ID290394 ‘Rewan Expenditure’, c 24 Nov 1909; ‘The Rewan Stud Farm’, Morning Bulletin, 23 Aug 1913, p. 6; ‘Cloncurry Notes’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 20 Sep 1913, p. 3; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1914; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1916.
[28] W G Cahill, Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1912, p. 8.
[29] ‘From the Remount Station’, Darling Downs Gazette, 3 Jan 1913, p. 2.
[30] ‘Pastoral’, The Northern Miner, 12 Jun 1913, p. 6.
[31] QSA Item ID290393: Letter from Sub-Inspector Harlan to Snr Inspector of Police Depot, 5 Aug 1914; Snr Inspector Geraghty to Commissioner for Police, 23 Aug 1913; ‘Ploughing at Rewan Station’, c1914, SLQ Neg. No 23078; The Week, 20 Oct 1916, n.p; QSA Item ID290393, Request from JJ Campbell to Snr Inspector of Police, Brisbane, 25 Jul 1914. (In May 1918, Rewan was growing lucerne and had already stored lucerne hay for feed. See: ‘Rockhampton District’, Telegraph, 8 May 1918, p. 2.)
[32] Queensland Police Museum (QPM), Rewan File 1910-1916, Snr Sergt John J Campbell to Snr Inspector of Police, Brisbane, 17 Jul 1915. (In this period only 20 foals were born from 124 brood mares.)
[33] Johnston & Campbell, Bauhinia: One Hundred Years of Local Government, p. 63; QHR650094 Rewan Station, Rewan. Application; QSA, Item ID 290393 Snr Sergt Campbell to Inspector of Police, 2 Feb 1918.
[34] Report of the Commissioner of Police for Eighteen Months Ended 30 June 1916, p. 1. (There were also 5 bulls and 497 head of cattle on the property, valued at £2948. In the 1916-17 financial year, there were 10 bulls and 566 head of cattle, valued at £4320 and cattle had been sold for good prices that year.)
[35] Report of the Commissioner of Police to 30 Jun 1917, p. 1. (In the 1916-17 financial year, 100 fat bullocks were sold at £15 per head, and 4 fat cows at £13 per head.)
[36] QSA, Item ID290393, Report from Snr Sergt John J Campbell to Police Commissioner, 12 Jul 1916.
[37] QSA, Item ID290393, Letter from William Gall, Under Secretary, Home Department to Under Secretary, Treasury, 25 Sep 1916; QSA Item ID290393, Chief Inspector P Short to Commissioner of Police, 27 May 1917. (There were 576 cattle on the property after the sale of 100 bullocks to the Central Queensland Meat Export Company at £15 per head. Stud stallions were: ‘Libertine’, ‘Turkish Lad’, ‘Bonny Boy’, ‘Brisbane’ and ‘Lord Elderslie’, while one, ‘Archie’/‘Archer’, was to be sold.)
[38] QSA Item ID290393, Letter from A P Loch, Rolleston Police Station to Police Department, 23 Oct 1918; Report of the Commissioner of Police to 30 Jun 1918, p. 1; QPM, ‘Rewan Files’, Letter from T Pye Under Secretary to Commissioner of Police, 5 Dec 1918; QSA, Item ID290396, Valuation of Police Buildings, Rewan, 16 Jan 1919; QPM, Rewan Files 1916-1922: DPW Plan: Rewan Police Stock Breeding Station, New Buildings and Addition, 16 Aug 1917; Qld Police Museum, Rewan files 1916-1922, Letter from AB Brady Under Secretary & Government Architect to Commissioner of Police, 12 Mar 1920; QSA, Item ID290393, Memo from Police Commissioner to Inspector Carrell, 7 Nov 1919; QSA, Item ID 364549, Station inspections – Rewan: ‘letter from John J Campbell, Sub-Inspector to Inspector of Police, Brisbane, 25 Oct 1919’; ‘Letter from John J Campbell, Sub-Inspector to Inspector of Police, Brisbane, 2 Feb 1920’; ‘letter from John J Campbell, Sub-Inspector to Inspector of Police, Brisbane, 31 Mar 1920’. (In September 1916, improvements to the property were approved by the Home Secretary, but did not proceed until 1918. These were ringbarking of 5000 acres (occurred between October 1919 and March 1920); erection of a dividing fence about 7 miles long to separate the run for the lower end of the station for young horses and bullocks; erection of a dividing fence between Rewan and Morella, with the Police Department to pay half the cost (equal to about two miles (3.2km) of fencing); purchase of a light waggon £40; erection of a three-roomed cottage as single men’s quarters and the providing of a 1000-gallon tank for the cottage; erection of a verandah with a small room thereon on the eastern side of the station [house]; provision of 2x1000 gallon tanks; and erection of a new meat house. See ‘Improvements at Rewan’, Morning Bulletin, 23 Sep 1916, p. 4; ‘Improvements at Rewan Station’, The Capricornian, 30 Sep 1916, p. 22.)
[39] ‘At Parliament House’, Telegraph, 4 Aug 1920, p. 7. (Inspector Carroll and the officer-in-charge of the Rewan police stud farm, Sub-Inspector Campbell, were similarly complimented. King George V for his coronation in 1911 had been presented with the Rewan-bred horse ‘Brisbane’ from the Queensland Government. See: ‘Queensland’s Present to the King’, Telegraph, 8 Jul 1911, p. 12.)
[40] ‘Remounts for Police’, Telegraph, 16 May 1921, p. 2.
[41] ‘Personal’, Brisbane Courier, 1 Oct 1921, p. 18.
[42] Report of the Commissioner of Police to 30 Jun 1922, p. 3.
[43] QSA Item ID 290394, Commissioner for Police to Under Secretary, Home Department, 14 Jun 1922; QSA Item ID290394, Inspector to Police Commissioner, 8 Jul 1922; QGG, 16 Dec 1922, pp 2100-1.
[44] Kowald, ‘The Queensland Police Force 1895-1910’, p. 40; Johnston, The Long Blue Line, pp. 135-7; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1914, p. 1. (More bicycles were purchased in the 1920s.)
[45] Report of the Commissioner of Police to 30 June 1917, p. 1; Report of the Commissioner of Police for the Year 1924, p. 3.
[46] Report of the Commissioner of Police to 30 Jun 1925, p. 3. (The report adds that ‘motorcycles and sidecars had provided of the greatest service. 21 additional bicycles also were being used, mainly by the plain clothes men in the metropolitan area, and the system had proved its effectiveness. Motor vans also would be of great use for the quick transport of police and prisoners. For the present the Commissioner considered it more economical to hire motor cars as required than to buy them.’ ‘Horses’, Telegraph, 21 Oct 1925, p.5.)
[47] Cook, Police and Justice Study, p. 47.
[48] Report of the Commissioner of Police for year to 30 June 1926, p. 3.
[49] Cook, Police and Justice Study, p. 46; Report the Commissioner of Police to 30 June 1928, p. 4; Report of the Commissioner of Police to 30 Jun 1929, p. 3.
[50] Norman Pixley, ‘An Outline of the History of the Qld Police Force 1860-1949, RHSQJ, 1950, p. 355; Report of the Commissioner of Police, p. 3; Pullar, A History of Rolleston, p. 40; Report the Commissioner of Police to 30 June 1928, pp. 3-4.
[51] Pullar, A History of Rolleston, p. 40; Report the Commissioner of Police to 30 June 1928, pp. 3-4.
[52] QSA Item ID 364549: Letter from W Ryan, Commissioner of Police to the Under Secretary, Home Department, Brisbane, 5 Dec 1929; Report from Sub-inspector John J Campbell to the Inspector of Police, Rockhampton, 18 Nov 1929. (Prickly Pear had spread in Bauhinia Shire during the early years of the century and continued to require control measures on Rewan Station until its eradication after 1930 through biological control. See: QSA Item ID290397 ‘Approximate value and particulars of all improvements and all stock at Rewan’, 26 Oct 1912; QSA Item ID364549: Letter from A W Johnston, Acting Secretary to Office of the Prickly-Pear Land Commission, Brisbane, 12 Aug 1930; Letter from J England, Secretary, Office of the Commissioner of Police to Secretary, Prickly-Pear Land Commission, 22 Aug 1930; Secretary, Office of the Prickly-Pear Land Commission to Secretary Police Department, 8 Dec 1930; Johnston & Campbell, Bauhinia: One Hundred Years of Local Government, p. 69.)
[53] ‘A Gift Horse’, The Evening News, 14 Aug 1929, p. 15; ‘Fewer Convictions’, Telegraph, 30 Oct 1930, p. 3. (Mundoolun-bred cattle were added to the Rewan stock in January 1930. See ‘Springsure’, Morning Bulletin, 25 Jan 1930, p. 13.)
[54] ‘Horses of Force’ Telegraph, 4 Nov 1927, p. 4.
[55] ‘Horses of Force’ Telegraph, 4 Nov 1927, p. 4.
[56] ‘Inspection by the Governor’, Brisbane Courier, 20 Nov 1929, p.24; ‘Springsure’, Morning Bulletin, 25 Jan 1930, p.13.
[57] ‘Splendid Physique’, Telegraph, 15 Jul 1932, p. 9. (The horses seen by Sir Leslie Wilson and his daughter included Fretsaw, Hero and Grumpy, three prize-winners at the previous Brisbane Exhibition and also two or three young remounts in training.)
[58] QV&P, 29 Oct 1929, p. 294. (The Minister replied that salaries varied from time to time and that forage was supplied for the Rewan stallions. He also reported that 251 cattle had been sold in the previous financial year, realising £2069 5s.)
[59] ‘Police Horses’, Daily Standard, 20 Aug 1930, p. 2. (The total amount spent by the government on Rewan Station since 1909 was £54,080. Upkeep of Rewan in the 1929-30 financial year was £3470. The value of remounts bred at Rewan and sent to police stations that year was £420, being 26 horses (14 to Townsville district and 12 to Cloncurry district), as drought conditions in that year affected sending out horses to stations.)
[60] ‘Dobbin’s Last Friend’, Truth, 9 Feb 1930, p. 14.
[61] ‘Police Horses Rewan Breeding Station’, Telegraph, 4 Dec 1930, p. 12; ‘Police Horse Breeding’, Morning Bulletin, 16 Dec 1930, p. 6. (According to this article, the Police Union thought Rewan Station was a white elephant ‘because the land was unsuitable for horse breeding; it would be a ‘dead loss without the few cattle sold from there; it was an expensive luxury which could be readily done without; a cheaper and better class of remounts could be purchased privately in various districts; good horses could not be bred at Rewan because it was too far south for horses acclimatised for northern/western service; and the Rewan horses were unsuitable for the work they were meant to do. Rewan also took a sub-inspector, two constables, and a number of trackers to manage it, meaning the salaries alone were over £2000 a year; [an over-estimation by £500] and that the police and trackers should have their time better occupied in their legitimate calling.)
[62] ‘Police Horses Rewan Breeding Station’, Telegraph, 4 Dec 1930, p. 12; ‘State Horses Breeding’, Townsville Daily Bulletin, 9 Dec 1932, p.3; ‘Costly Stud Farm, Police Allegations’, The Daily Mail, 6 Dec 1932.
[63] ‘44-hr Working Week’, The Evening News, 20 Jun 1933, p. 2.
[64] ‘May Be Sold: Police Horse Stud’, Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay & Burnett Advertiser, 6 Jan 1933, p. 6. (The site was considered for an Aboriginal settlement, but as the land was pastoral, not agricultural, that idea lapsed. See: ‘Prison Farm Site. Official inspection.’ Brisbane Courier, 17 Aug 1933, p. 13.)
[65] ‘Dismissed. Sub-Inspector Campbell. Sequel to Prosecution’, Morning Bulletin, 18 Aug 1933, p. 7. (For more information about Thomas Jones see: Westbrook Reformatory for Boys (1900-19) <https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00046b.htm> accessed 10 Apr 2019.)
[66] QSA, Item ID290396, ‘Report on Rewan’ by T Jones, forwarded to the Under Secretary, Home Department, Brisbane, Sep 1933.
[67] Queensland Heritage Register (QHR) 602659 Walkerston State Butcher’s Shop (former). (The combined loss sustained by the State stations and the State-acquired Chillagoe railway, mines and smelter was £2 million.)
[68] ‘Loss of £27,000. Rewan Remount Station’, The Courier-Mail, 27 Oct 1933, p.12; ‘Remount Breeding Station’, Evening News, 28 Oct 1933, p.5. (Hanlon believed there was no excuse for the failure of Rewan as the property was 108,000 acres of the best land in Central Queensland and was well-watered. In 1932 there had been 140 mares on the holding but only two foals were reared. He believed the mares were totally unsuitable for breeding police remounts, as through sending away the best mares for police work and keeping the rejects for breeding, there had been a systematic deterioration of the stock.)
[69] ‘Close Rewan. Cabinet’s Decision’, The Courier-Mail, 11 Oct 1933, p. 14. This article reported that the Police Department intended to breed horses for the QPF at Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement in the Central district, so a selection of the Rewan stock would go there. However, this doesn’t appear to have occurred.
[70] QSA, Item ID 290397, Letter from CJ Carroll, Commissioner of Police to the Minister for Health & Home Affairs, 6 Nov 1936.
[71] QSA, Item ID290396, Extract from Report of Inspection Rewan Horse Breeding Station by Chief Inspector Battersby, 13 Apr 1932, Re No 638.S.37.
[72] QSA, Item ID 290397, Letter from C J Carroll, Commissioner of Police to the Minister for Health & Home Affairs, 6 Nov 1936. (Additionally, there were 187 horses missing since 1931, presumed dead due to drought. The stud horses, in poor condition due to drought, were herded to Charleville, during a three-week period, at a fast pace and through stretches of country with little grass or water.)
[73] Report of the Commissioner of Police, 1912-1933; QSA, Item ID 290397, Letter from C J Carroll, Commissioner of Police to the Minister for Health & Home Affairs, 6 Nov 1936.
[74] 'New and Valuable Data Found in Carnavons', Wingham Chronicle & Manning River Observer (New South Wales), 7 Oct 1938, p. 2
[75] ‘Former Police Commissioner’s Death’, The Evening News (Rockhampton), 15 Feb 1941, p. 2.

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