West End Police Station

Boundary Street in West End marks the southern boundary of the limits of the town of Brisbane established in 1844. As allotments of land were sold in the area from the 1850s a farming community developed. Commercial establishments were built to service the population, including the original Boundary Hotel built in 1865. Boundary Street began to attract a number of residents and small business people in the 1870s.  The farming community gradually evolved into a residential area, and various stores appeared to service this clientele. 

While the section of Boundary Street from the Melbourne Street intersection to Vulture Street contained a mixture of residences and commercial buildings in the 1870s, by the late 1880s it was predominantly commercial. Horse-drawn trams ran from Breakfast Creek to the Boundary Hotel in the 1880s, providing an impetus for both residential and commercial development. The booming economy at this time resulted in the population of the district almost trebling and the construction of new houses and shops. As the population increased, community infrastructure, such as this police station was constructed to service particular community needs.

Following the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859 and the inauguration of the Queensland Parliament in the following year, legislation was passed which gave Queensland a separate police force.  The Police Act of 1863 became operational in 1864. At this time there were 383 policemen in the colony, including 209 Native Police. Barracks and lockups were erected throughout the 1860s and 1870s, in Brisbane Town, and at Kangaroo Point and Milton.

South Brisbane had a full time constable in the 1850s, but as the population grew, so too did the need for more police. In August 1883 the Commissioner of Police was informed that two allotments of land were available in South Brisbane, “in the direction of West End”, which would be suitable for the construction of a police station.  The first was near the bridge in Melbourne Street and on “rocky hilly ground”. The second was in Boundary Street “opposite the Boundary Hotel”.  Although this site had a gully running through which required draining, it was chosen as the site for the West End Police Station and Lock Up.  This site, of just over one quarter of an acre in area was reserved for police purposes in October 1883.

The Department of Public Works and Mines called for tenders on 7 June 1883 and the building was constructed in 1884 at a cost of £426. Like subsequent Police Stations, the building was designed as a typical residential cottage.  It comprised a central passage-way with three bedrooms, dining room, sitting room, two cells, with front and rear verandahs. Soon afterwards, in July 1885, plans were prepared for a kitchen and wash house for the station.By 1889 four constables were based at West End Police Station. 
In 1923 a new office was added to the south-western side of the building, incorporating part of the front verandah.  A new EC was added to the building in 1928. Harold James Parr and Andrew Leven approved plans for new general office on the northern side of the building in March 1932. A new side verandah was built along with a new entrance which led to the office. The weatherboards were removed from the former external walls of the sitting room and dining rooms which were sheeted with TG and V pine.  The lattice from the front verandah was re-fixed to the new verandah.  A single gate was added to the picket fence in Boundary Street.

Major additions were added to the rear of the building after plans were completed and signed by H.J. Parr and A. B. Leven in September 1938.  The kitchen was moved back, turned and incorporated into the body of the building.  A stove recess, pantry, fanlights and louvres were built as at other Brisbane Metropolitan Stations.  The ceiling was lined with fibro cement and the walls were sheeted with weatherboards externally, and with TG and VJ pine internally.  A single Constable’s room and Sergeant’s room were built next to the kitchen.  These rooms were connected to the 1932 office by a covered way.  A laundry was constructed underneath the building and was partly enclosed with battening.  A concrete floor was laid.

By April 1976 a portion of the front verandah adjoining the public entrance to the office was enclosed and steel security mesh was added behind the louvres. The residential section of the station was altered to provide new male and female WCs.  Glass louvres were added and the stairs were moved to the rear of the building. The single Constable’s room was in use as a meal room.

In 1987 the existing office and residential space were remodelled to provide new office accommodation as the building was no longer used a Residential Police Station.  The front bedroom was converted to an interview room and the living room, dining room and second bedroom became a day room.  Part of the wall between the living room and dining room was removed and a load bearing beam was added. The third bedroom on the southern end was used as the office of the officer in charge, while the fourth was used as the exhibit store. The former bathroom was converted to a general store room and a new wall was constructed along with steel shelving. A new opening was cut in the wall of the old bathroom leading to the passage way. The former kitchen became a meal room and the Sergeant’s office provided an office for the Officer in Charge, C.I.B. The former meal room became a second interview room.  The general office on the northern side was used as a C.I.B. day room. Part of the wall leading to the porch was removed and a new lattice screen was added to the porch.  The store room on the former front verandah was used by the C.I.B. for storage.  The existing verandah enclosure was removed and a new wall was added inside the line of the facade.  Sliding windows were installed.  The remaining portion of the verandah became a public entrance and office, with new stairs at the entrance.  A window in the former living room was replaced with a doorway to allow police access to the area behind the public counter.  Colonial mouldings, fascias, nosing and colonial skirting were added to the verandahs.

These additions and extensions to the original 1884 building reflected the increasing duties of the police in the district and the new methods and routines of twentieth century policing. In 2014, the year Queensland celebrated 150 years of the State’s Police Force, and West End police station had accommodated 130 years of local police service, the West End police station was relocated to a new complex at 36 Vulture Street; the former Police Service property office.

The windows to the side and the one on the projecting room at the front are shielded by timber and corrugated iron sun hoods with battened sides.  The external wall sheeting is horizontal timber boarding and the whole structure is raised on painted concrete stumps with ant caps.  A pine fence or arrowhead pickets runs across the entire site frontage and behind it stand two mature trees.  Another small tree stands at the footpath edge also protecting the front of the building from busy Boundary Street.  The nature of the additions maintaining the original scale and the domestic nature of the buildings surroundings make it a notable feature of Boundary Street.

1. Queensland Government Gazette, 7 June 1883: 1507

2. Department of Public Works Plans, 22 June 1923 & Batch Card, ASD Collection

3. Department of Public Works, 6 September 1938

4. Information from Queensland Police Museum

5. Pullar, Margaret. Historical Reports on Ambulance, Fire and Police buildings throughout Metropolitan Brisbane, A Report for the Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit. 1995

6. Queensland State Archives C65-381 Department of Works, 1 April 1976

7. Queensland State Archives C65-536-1 & 2, Department of Works Plans, 2 July 1987

8. Queensland State Archives Item ID 584490 Architectural plans. West End Police Station, Kitchen and Wash House. 22/7/1885