page_title: Mackay Court House and Police Station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Mackay Court House and Police Station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Court House, Mackay. (Alternative name is Mackay Court House and Police Station Complex, Victoria Street, Mackay.)
context_page_description: Mackay Court House and Police Station is a heritage-listed courthouse and police station at 67 Victoria Street and 14 Brisbane Street, Mackay, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. They were built from 1886 to 1963. It is also known as Mackay Court House and Mackay Police Station. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: The site has been associated with the police and judiciary in Mackay since the 1860s. Although buildings were erected and removed during the 19th and 20th centuries as the site developed, the major buildings remain and include the police station, built as a court house in 1886, the current court house, built in 1938, and two brick police residences from 1936 to 1937. A 1960s watch house and keeper's residence are also on this site.
  The town of Mackay is named for John Mackay who entered the valley of the Pioneer River in 1860 and established a pastoral run there in the following year. In 1862 a settlement was begun on the south bank of the river and by 1863, the township had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. The town prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar cane plantations being developed along the river. There were 2 police constables in Mackay by late 1863.
  1864 was the year in which a centralised police force under a Commissioner was inaugurated by Act of Parliament. It replaced a system of police districts where constables were under the direction of local magistrates and marked the beginning of a modern police force in Queensland. The government faced the problem of policing a huge area with a scattered population on a limited budget. Transport also posed problems, especially before the development of reliable roads and a railway network. The situation was addressed by instituting a system of regional courts served by visiting magistrates or judges and which had police offices, accommodation and lock-up facilities on the same site. The first report of the Commissioner of Police in 1865 recommended cutting costs and improving efficiency by combining police and judiciary functions in the same building. Because police travelled on horseback, the provision of stables and a paddock for police horses was necessary, so that police reserves for all these purposes were gazetted in major towns.
  A police watch house was built in Mackay in 1865 at the northern end of the current site and a Police Magistrate was appointed to serve the district. In 1872 a simple timber courthouse with a shingled roof was constructed. It was built near the Customs House rather than the police facilities and was inadequate from the beginning. A new courthouse was built in 1873 to the south of the lock-up and was soon extended, reflecting the speed with which the area was developing. A police station was constructed in 1878–1879 comprising cells and barracks.
  The 1880s saw an expansion in police numbers and in court cases as the Queensland economy enjoyed a boom and people poured into the colony. Police numbers were expanded and police and judiciary facilities constructed at such a pace that it became difficult to obtain suitably qualified contractors. The sugar industry was also booming and Mackay was amongst those regional centres where substantial new court houses were erected. In 1884 contracts for a new court house were prepared following the construction of new police stables and lock-up keeper's quarters.
  The new court house was designed by noted architect John James Clark, who was at the time Queensland Colonial Architect. Clark was born and trained in Liverpool, England. He arrived in Melbourne in 1853 and won a number of architectural competitions, his success in such competitions being a feature of his career. He designed some major public buildings in Melbourne, including the Treasury. He moved to Sydney in 1881 and in 1883 had become Queensland Colonial Architect. Although he left the position in 1885, he was responsible for some important public buildings including courthouses at Charters Towers, Rockhampton and Warwick. They and the Mackay court house were designed in the classical revival style thought appropriate for public buildings intended to convey a sense of stability and dignity, particularly a court house which represented the power of the law. The contractor f
caption: Court House (now Police Station), Mackay, c 1890
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