From lawless to law-abiding, Tamworth has a checkered past

Assisted by his Gomeroi companion, with whom he was initiated as a tribal member, the escaped convict Clarke had rustled cattle from Joseph Brown, one of the first squatters on the Peel, taking them back to stockyards at Barber's Lagoon near Boggabri as easy food for his tribal friends.

Like many other bushrangers, Clarke eventually met his punishment demise after much bushranging activity, being hanged in Hobart at age 26, on the third time he'd been given a death sentence.

We all, of course, have heard about Fred Ward, alias Thunderbolt, who passed by Tamworth on many occasions in a bushranging career that extended nearly 7 years, before meeting his end at Kentucky Creek near Uralla, in 1870.

For some time after early Tamworth was established in the mid-1830's, travellers on roads through the Peel Valley ran the risk of robbery, with homesteads also at risk of invasion. Another of the earliest band of bushrangers around Tamworth was the Jewboy Gang, led by escaped convict Edward Davis.

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A newspaper report at the time stated: " ... outrages were constantly reported from around Tamworth ... houses, huts and farms were entered and pillaged." During 1840 the Jewboy Gang held up the AA Company teams proceeding to Tamworth and " .... stole a lot of valuable clothing, silk handkerchiefs and other articles." The same day, riding stolen horses, they had an unsuccessful chase after Duri Station owner John Eales. Eventually the gang was taken by surprise at today's Ardglen, north of Murrurundi, leading to their hanging execution in February, 1841.

About 1840, three of the AA Company's assigned convict servants absconded from Goonoo Goonoo Station, becoming bushrangers, targetting settlers, workers and travellers, mainly on the 'Peel Line' connecting the Peel Valley with Port Stephens. Their leader was a convict named Burke, described as " a treacherous, blood-thirsty ruffian".

In 1842 another bushranging gang, comprising Messrs. Wilson, 'Coxon's Tom' and 'Long Ned' were also captured by a party organised by the Frances Allman, the Commissioner for Lands based in Tamworth, leading to their hanging in Newcastle. In August, 1842 Wilson had held up 16-y-o Nat Buchanan who was riding down the Moonbi Range towards Tamworth, Buchanan later going on to become quite famous.

Also in the early 1840's, a bushranging partnership of Tim Bradish and Ed Branigan was brought to an end when captured on Goonoo Goonoo Station by AA Co. employees, after Captain Edward Mayne's Border Police had failed in their pursuit over their extensive policing district.

The AA Company eventually appointed it own 'farm police' to protect its own employees. The first recorded officer appointed by the Company was Constable William Hardy in 1842, responsible for maintaining law and order only within the Company's grant. The Company's first gaol was in the vicinity of the first Courthouse at today's Gipps/Ebsworth St intersection. The first recorded Tamworth Gaol breakout came in 1849, when a one-armed convict named Sullivan escaped from the first gaol, he having previously escaped at Moreton Bay. He was captured two years later in the Victorian Goldfields and sentenced to 14 years in Pentridge Prison for Highway Robbery.

An early heroine in this bushranging era, with a strong Tamworth connection, was Kitty Gallagher, herself an Irish convict, who in gaining her freedom had established a small cattle run with her husband. When four bushrangers made a sudden raid on their property in 1839, Kitty grabbed a gun, shot the leader dead, wounded another and caused the other two to surrender, with the three survivors being handed over to police.

Later, after her husband died, Kitty became a servant and nurse for AA Co. McIntosh. Mrs McIntosh later related that Kitty ".... was brave and courageous and always had a loaded gun for any emergency."

Bushrangers brought significant policing problems over a 60-odd year period, due to the extensive area involved, as well as communication and transport difficulties. Perhaps our localised bushranging period came to an end in the year 1900 when the aboriginal brothers Jimmy and Joe Governor each met their demise a few weeks after depredations in the Nundle and Hanging Rock area. The chase over a period of several months involved up to 200 police and 2,000 civilians.

Another recent article dealt with 'Major Mitchell and Tamworth', mentioning his son Roderick who was the third Commissioner for Lands from 1846, based in Tamworth, after Mayne and Allman. Their headquarters were on the northern side of today's Eastpoint Shopping Centre, with a garden in proximity below stretching down to today's 1930's river embankment.

According to the Wallabadah Manuscript - "Mitchell was the first to organise native police. He enlisted seven Tamworth Aboriginals as mounted police. When mounted and in uniform, they looked very martial, with their drawn swords. Their leader 'Flash Harry' looked every inch a soldier. He was over 6 feet high."

Mitchells's police barracks were located not far down the hill from today's McDonalds Restaurant on the corner of Marius and Roderick sts, the latter named after him in his father's 1849 Tamworth Town Plan.

Serving under Roderick Mitchell, David Lundon was the first Chief Constable employed in Tamworth after his appointment on March 2, 1847. This was only three weeks after John Bateman-Smith was appointed as Tamworth's first Clerk-of-Petty-Sessions, with the first Court-of-Petty-Sessions held five months later under co-magistrates Messrs. Mitchell, Bateman-Smith, Haig and Jenkin.

The first ever District Court in Tamworth was held on June 24, 1859, with Justice Robert Owen presiding, with a sergeant-of-police, who was leading a gold escort from Nundle to Tamworth, being charged with misappropriating some consigned miners' valuables. At the trial conclusion the four jurors were locked up overnight in uncomfortable conditions at the nearby Sir Robert Peel Inn (today's 83-85 Ebsworth St). Having finally reached a decision the four 'free' jurors were conveyed by Chief Constable Dwyer to the Judge, accommodated across the river at the Tamworth Hotel in Peel St (near today's Target Store) to deliver their verdict.

No doubt Constable Dwyer was one of our most outstanding early law enforcers, one of the characters we focussed on during the Historical Society's West Tamworth Cemetery Walk in Heritage Week. In 1851 he was placed in charge of all local police, supervising a huge area of North-West NSW. This Wallabadah Manuscript excerpt indicates his revered contribution to the local community - "The police were a very good class of men in the fifties.

Mr Dwyer was Chief Constable of Tamworth with only two police. They were well acquainted with the bush and many a chase they had after horse stealers and other criminals and, making great captures. Mr Dwyer was a very clever bush detective. He was always on the lookout for wrong doers. His name was a terror to them. So, with such a splendid officer, Tamworth was free from every crime. He never spared himself or his horse when on duty and was a very zealous officer having such a large district to look after."

Dwyer later had four police working under him. His jurisdiction was replaced on March 1, 1862 when James Garland was appointed as Superintendent of the newly formed Northern Police District, with local police then under control of Sergeant Horniman. Garland's headquarters (see photo) were in the vicinity of today's Target Store in Peel St, before relocation to Fitzroy St in 1872.

A previous article in this local history series dealt with the five hangings that took place in Tamworth between 1876 and 1907, all for the crime of murder, the sentences all being cast at our 2nd (1861) Courthouse in Darling St, now the site of our PCYC.

The first two (1876/1880) executions took place behind the nearby Watch-house, with the last three (1894/1907) at the current Tamworth Correctional Centre site in Johnston St.

Cattle stealing in early days often went unpunished. Back in October, 1878, Judge Meymott, operating out of the Darling St Courthouse, stated ... "It was most difficult to secure a conviction in a cattle-stealing case in Tamworth."

And so, in this article, we looked mainly at the first 70 years or so of Law and Order, Crime and Punishment, in the Tamworth District. The current Oxley Police Command, now undergoing a change in leadership, will follow in the footsteps of Messrs. Hardy, Lundon. Dwyer, Garland, Horniman, etc, along with our current Fitzroy St Courthouse, in continuing the ongoing task of making citizens "stick to the rules".