New Clermont Police Station officially opens to great fanfare
The Clermont police station has been around for as long as most of the people in the tightknit town. But this week it was time for it to retire.
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The Clermont police station has been around for as long as most of the people in the tightknit town. But this week it was time for it to retire.
Clermont, located roughly 290km from Mackay or 380km inland from Rockhampton was the first inland tropical settlement in Queensland and was declared a town in 1863.
Since the declaration the town, which currently has a population of 3,900, has always had a police presence with the first police station being built in 1878 and another built in 1939.
Just this week the new station was officially unveiled.
According to police officers in Clermont, the town is relatively peaceful with low crime.
“Clermont is a town that likes to see police involved in community events, and we are often invited to participate in activities like judging local competitions and leading town parades,” Officer in Charge of Clermont Station Sergeant Steve French said.
“We are lucky not to have a lot of crime in Clermont, so we are able to invest a significant amount of effort into community engagement and proactive activities such as school programs, driver licensing and rural patrols to some of our more isolated areas.
“As a team here, we focus on building good relationships with the community so that when we need to ask residents for assistance, particularly when it comes to investigating criminal matters, they are happy to help.”
The police officers who work there service an area of 24,000 square kilometres, stretching from Emerald to Moranbah.
The new facility provides more space to better accommodate the needs of its five staff and community members and includes a separate watchhouse building with two cells and a vehicle holding yard.
Acting Queensland Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said the new station had all the necessary functions to support our current and foreseeable future operations.
“It also represents a new chapter in the long, proud history of the QPS in the Clermont area,” he said.
Police and Emergency Service Minister Dan Purdie said the new station was purpose built to meet the current needs of a modern police service.
“Our hardworking police dedicate their lives to protecting Queenslanders and this new facility will help make that work a little bit easier,” Mr Purdie said.
TURN BACK THE CLOCK: CLERMONT’S HISTORY
The Clermont region was the site of the of the 1891 Shearer’s strike, which according to the Australian Workers Heritage Centre was one of only two armed insurrections in Australia’s history with the second one being the Eureka stockade.
Local law enforcement and police brought in from across the state joined soldiers in dealing with the revolt though unlike the Eureka stockade in Victoria, the strike ended without bloodshed.
Arguably the shining moment of Clermont’s police history came on December 28/29, 1916.
A cyclone in the Whitsunday Passage led to cyclonic rains and then flooding in Clermont, Sapphire and Peak Downs.
Consequently rivers, including the Mackenzie, Comet, Nogoa and Barcoo, broke their banks.
Between 5pm on 28 December and 8am the following morning, 71.12cm of rain had fallen in Clermont.
Though 61 lives were lost in the region, if it not been for the overnight on-duty constable, who recognized Clermont was at risk of flooding after the prolonged heavy rainfall, many more lives would have been lost.
In 1933 the Clermont police station was partly damaged by fire and interim repairs kept it going until a new police station could be built in 1939.
The 1939 station was built closer to the center of town and the courthouse and away from the lower areas of Clermont which were hardest hit by the 1916 flood event.
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