Society > Policing Pyrmont

Policing Pyrmont

For more than a century Pyrmont had such a rough reputation that many policemen saw themselves as an occupation force. The feeling was often mutual, so that police were seen as the enemy by young men who despised polite society and its laws. George Sparkes, who joined the police force in the 1870s after fighting in the “Maori wars”, explained that “Might, to a very great extent, was right in those days, and a very important part of a constable's duty was to be able to take his own part.” He supported his argument with lively accounts of scuffles he had enjoyed. (The Sun, 26 August 1912)

Newspapers shared this view, and often reported disorder, as well as criminal behaviour, as the work of a “Pyrmont push” – attributing lawlessness to all young men born and brought up in poverty. Respectable Sydney was reliably informed that poverty and crime were the same phenomenon. The Sunday Times (11 January 1920) left no room for doubt:

How Criminals are Manufactured in Sydney
Slums which Breed the Criminal Class
All the Sydney Slums must be Demolished

Criminals, and persons of suspicious or indifferent character, have necessarily flocked to Surry Hills and Ultimo and Pyrmont, because those suburbs are most easily accessible to town. Here you will always get the burglars, the housebreaking and garrotting class that does not exist in Balmain.

Violent incidents and sensational reporting painted a lurid picture of policing.  The reality was much duller. A lot of the work was the mundane investigation of thefts, assaults and break-ins. Foot patrols made the constables familiar, and some people became active informers. It was widely known that police drank at the Pyrmont Fire Station, which suggests that the public recognised them as men with ordinary human failings and treated them with wary tolerance. Urchins like Billy Young saw them as enemies, but “respectable” people did not hesitate to call on them when they were in trouble. Men who lost their wages playing two-up despised the wallopers – but their wives certainly did not! Some of the laws that police enforced were unpopular (such as bans on gambling and fighting) and police had to supervise evictions - but they were not insensitive. They did not need to look for trouble, so they usually left the Scott Street squatters to their own devices. More slowly than in wealthier suburbs of Sydney, policing was normalised, and police accepted as part of society rather than an external force.