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on the Sabbath, allowing pigs to wander, trespass with travelling stock,
and illegal sale of liquor.
The scant official record is supplemented between 1891 and 1899 by a
much more lively account maintained by the local press. One of the earliest
of these is interesting for the manner of reporting...
"At the Milparinka Police Court on Wednesday 1st inst., before Mr. E.L.
Maitland, Esq., P. M., James Ferguson, for being drunk and disorderly, was
admonished and discharged. For permitting his tongue to run at very high
pressure Jimmy was mulct in the sum of two pounds ten shillings with the
alternative of four weeks durance vile, and for coming the Frank P. Slavin
ticket with the 'Peelers' pugilist Fergy was fined three pounds with the
option of one month's free board and lodging in Her Majesty's
establishment" (Tibooburra Telegraph, 7 October 1890:4).
This reportage typifies the manner in which the Telegraph handled any
matter touching upon the people or the community, and perhaps suggests
the Tibooburra community adopted a far more casual approach to the law
than was preferred by the business community at Milparinka.
Various courts sat at Milparinka for most of the period covered by my
research, a fact which probably emphasised the role of Milparinka as the
administrative centre. The courts originally sat in a corrugated iron
building, the location of which has not been confirmed, but which may also
have been the post office premises. Tenders for the construction of a new
courthouse were announced in September 1895, and the resulting stonebuilt
structure was completed in 1901. A police station and barracks,
together with a two-cell 'lock-up' were also present at Milparinka, the lockup
being proclaimed a jail in 1891. 'Mopoke' reported this in the 'Milparinka
Murmurs' as follows:
"The Milparinka Lockup has been proclaimed at jail, wherein prisoners can
be detained for any period not exceeding six months, yet nothing has been
done to provide the necessary accommodation, exercise yard etc., nor has
a warder been appointed. If you proclaim a horse an elephant it does not
make him one" (Tibooburra Telegraph, 7 April, 1891 :3).
Because of their range of duties and the area required to be policed, there
were occasions when no police were present in Milparinka. On these
occasions it seems the undercurrent of disharmony came rapidly to the
surface. The Sturt Recorder reported one of these as follows:
"A Street Row
"Seldom has a more disgraceful scene occurred in Milparinka than that
which took place in Loftus Street on Tuesday night. Some free and
independent electors came into the town during the day to see about their
electoral rights and made things what is termed 'lively'. After the departure
of the coach they commenced to quarrel with some stranger and also
amongst themselves, and there being no police to prevent it, started a