Former Police Station

By mid 1860s the community of 1500 or so residents were concerned regarding the ongoing hooliganism and petty crime in the neighbourhood, and began campaigning for a police presence, with Mounted Trooper Deckert coming to the town in 1866, followed by Mounted Constable Edward Deane in 1868.

By September 1866 a police station was formed at Mount Pleasant with just one Mounted Constable with a police horse in place. It is not known where this station was positioned, but was rented accommodation. Notice of a planned police station was gazetted in December 1866, with £1000 being allocated. By mid-1867 Messrs Hall and Nuttall, contractors, were given the contract for the erection of the police station on allotment O, now 27 Melrose street. The Colonial Architect designed the four roomed stone structure, with a large and high stone walled rear courtyard containing three police cells, with work commencing August 1867. A public ceremony held on 17 September 1867 was held for the laying of the foundation stone by Mr George Melrose J.P. and included a time capsule buried beneath the stone. Completion of the building was February 1868, with the total cost being £1,045 and was one of four stations built at that time with the same design, the others being Callington, Truro and Mintaro. On the 6th February, 1868 the Express and Telegraph newspaper revealed, “The police station is now completed, (and a very handsome building it is. There is an old saying that the best of people make mistakes. It seems instead of the Station being built on the proper allotment, it has been built on a piece belonging to a private individual. Whether it is the surveyor’s fault I am unable to say. The best of the joke is it was not discovered until the building was near completion.” (This same surveyor also made an error with another building within the township.) This error was finally resolved in 1872, with a realignment of the boundaries.

The police station and residence was occupied in early February 1868, possibly by Julius Frederich Deckert, who was stationed here in 1867, and had a child born at Mount Pleasant in July 1867. Mounted Constable Edward Deane transferred to Mount Pleasant in November 1868 until 1870 when he went onto Kapunda, and was replaced by George Birrell.

A number of additions and improvements were made to the station building, including a 1912 addition of a large room on the eastern side, which served as both the charge room and police office and courtroom. In May, 1912, the Daily Herald newspaper reported on the alterations; “Mount Pleasant Police Station. For the past three weeks the Government contractors have been busily engaged in constructing a new and more up-to-date courthouse and office. The present office, which is much out of repair, is to be discarded. The contract for the bricks has been supplied from the local brickyard of Messrs. Miele and Hood, where an up-to-date class of bricks can be obtained.” With these additions in 1912, the Mount Pleasant Magistrate’s Court was established at the police station and continued there until 1984 when the court function was closed.

Over time further additions to the residence were made in 1918, 1942 and 1962.

Mount Pleasant Police Station remained a one officer station with Mounted Constable William Geary being the last officer to use a police horse for police transport in 1951. The officer in charge was permitted to use his own motor vehicle thereafter, with mileage cost reimbursed and it was not until the late 1970s that the station was issued with its first police vehicle, a Holden sedan.

By 2011 the cost of maintaining the building became prohibitive and in October 2012 the police was vacated and relocated to more modern rented premises situated at 116 Melrose street.

The former Police Station was sold into private hands in 2017, with owners restoring and preserving the heritage of a building which has continued to speak of its history throughout time.

Reference  More than just bricks and mortar : history and reference book of South Australia police stations : South Australia 1838 to 2018 & Northern Territory 1870 to 1911 / author: John White ; [foreword by] Grant Stevens APM, Commissioner, South Australia Police