The Western Australian Police Historical Society Museum

I made a new discovery this weekend. As I am oft to do, I was out wandering when I chanced upon a museum I never knew existed despite living in this area for many years.

The smell of cooking sausages and onions was what first drew me in, even though I am a vegetarian. Who can resist the smell of onions? The museum is located beside and under the Sewerage Ventilation Tower on Lincoln Street in Highgate. The Heritage listed tower has been there since 1941 when the Chief Engineer of Public Works, Mr Dumas commissioned it’s building. The purpose of this tower, you may well ask? It was originally built to vent the Perth sewer of acidic gases.

The 38 metre tower, which took 6 years to build And 250,000 bricks was used for the purpose it was built for , for a sum total of four weeks but the stench was so overpowering and the residents were up in arms. From this point on the tower was referred to as “Dumas’s Folly”.

In 1942 the WA Police installed a covert aerial inside the tower to operate their communications during World War ll. The small hall attached to the tower was used as a lecture room for traffic offenders and now is used as a meeting room for the WA Police Historical Society.

The Museum which is usually only open on Tuesdays and Fridays holds a comprehensive collection of WA Police paraphernalia including an old Anglia Police car, police uniforms dating back to the 40’s, police cameras, speed cameras, decommissioned weapons, many photos and documents and a collection of hats.

Maree, a volunteer with the society, showed me around as I was their first customer. They were hoping for a big crowd and had cooked up a mass of sausages. Unfortunately for them, I am vegetarian so I just had a nice cup of tea and a chat.

The photos of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples being taken prisoners in the remote North West of WA were quite distressing, with pictures showing large numbers of people chained and restrained. There is a photo of the Prison Boab Tree just out of Derby where people were imprisoned while waiting for transport to other towns.

The staff photos of large groups of men are testament to just how male-dominated the WA Police Force was up until the 60’s when one or two women were permitted to join. Even then the photos list the names of individual men but the women were not named, but instead labelled as “2 female police officers”. Women were not permitted to be married, as with the teaching profession and they had to be trained nurses in order to join.

My favourite item would have to be the Anglia police car that was out on display. As a lover of the TV series “The Young Ones” I have fond memories of Vivian, the punk in his Anglia. The kids who see the car apparently refer to “Harry Potter” as there is one in one of the Harry Potter movies.

Worth a visit but it is not usually open on weekends, just Tuesdays and Fridays. Maree did say that they were hoping to open on weekends in the future.