In the first half of the nineteenth century, the colonial government of New South Wales was faced with the problem of policing its vast expanse with limited resources. They tried to restrict settlement to a geographical area to be known as the nineteen counties, the boundaries of which were first gazetted in 1829.
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Surveyed by Sir Thomas Mitchell, the nineteen counties extended from Moruya on the South Coast to the Manning River and west as far as Orange in 1829. By 1830, the County of Macquarie had been added which extended to the southern bank of the McLeay River although the term nineteen counties continued to be used. Military police maintained law and order in the settled districts, however squatters had established runs well outside these boundaries and lawlessness ensued culminating in the Myall Creek massacre of 1839.
A new police force which came to be known as the Border Police was established exclusively from soldier transportees, British soldiers transported for military offences. An office of the Commissioner for Crown Lands and for the Border Police Force were set up in Kempsey in 1839 by Commissioner Oakes, however when Robert Massie was appointed as commissioner in 1842, he moved the headquarters to Belgrave Falls at the head of navigation of the Macleay River.
This was a well-used crossing for pioneer settlers moving north with stock. Some squatters in the Macleay District at that time and their runs, included: Captain P Campbell (Callatini); Henry St John Cahuac (Euroka); Magnus McLeod (Dondingalong; Lieut Andrew Baxter (Yessaba); Captain W H Geary (Lower Dungee) and Major William Kemp (Upper Dungee). Many of the squatters were ex-British Army officers and some station names remain today as locality references.
Buildings at the Belgrave Falls establishment included a Courthouse, Commisioner's residence and lock-up. With the end of transportation in 1840, free troopers were increasingly employed. There were eight on the staff of the Border Police Force at Belgrave Falls - a corporal, three troopers, two horse handlers, a carpenter and a blacksmith.
Typical duties of the Border Police in 1843 were escorting prisoners to Port Macquarie, attending court with them, guarding prisoners at the Station, serving notices on assessment of stock, serving summonses and pursuing runaway convicts. Troopers based at Belgrave Falls at that time were Henry Long, John Callaghan, Michael Clogher and James Smith. The nature of their work brought them into conflict with local Aborigines and the Border Police were implicated in several massacres.
The Border Police Force was disestablished in 1847. Many years after the last traces of the Belgrave Falls buildings had gone, the door from one of the lock-up cells was discovered in long grass on Patrick Purcell's property, who donated it to the museum.
The Macleay River Historical Society also installed a commemorative plaque on the site of the former police station at Belgrave Falls.
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