Queensland Police mark 50th anniversary of Oxley Police Academy
It has been 50 years since the Oxley Police Academy opened its gates, heralding a major change in the way Queensland officers were trained for the service, according to one top detective. See the historical photos.
Police & Courts
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The opening of the Oxley Police Academy 50 years ago was a watershed moment in the history of policing, according to one of Queensland’s most seasoned detectives.
Retired Inspector Ralph Knust was one month shy of turning 15 when he walked through the gates of the academy in 1972 with a “hankering” to become a police officer like his uncle.
Mr Knust, now 65, will return to Oxley, west of Brisbane, on Thursday with many former colleagues for the 50th anniversary of the academy – that will be marked with the induction of 121 police recruits.
Since opening its doors, more than 30,000 police officers have graduated from the academy – the largest of two facilities in the state dedicated to training budding officers.
Mr Knust said it was a “watershed moment” and heralded a shift in the way police undertook education and training.
“It really marked a move to educate police, so that their training and education was relevant to the evolving society that we were living and operating in,” he said.
Before 1972, Mr Knust said officers only needed to have completed Year 10 and undertake a four-month “crash course” in law and police duties before they were sworn in.
“They just relied on what they learnt on the job essentially,” he said.
Spearheaded by then Police Minister Max Hodges, the $4 million academy was built in just 18 months and included a library, laboratories, pistol range, gym, pool and motel accommodation for up to 450 trainees.
Mr Hodges said at the time that it was not good enough to give an officer “four months training, tell him he’s a policeman and shove him out into the street”.
When the gates officially opened on February 1, there were 142 students including 118 men and 24 women.
First and second year students studied Year 11 and 12 subjects for their matriculation, while third year trainees went straight into formal police training.
They were taught psychology, criminology along with leadership and management.
Mr Knust was among the first who completed the three-year program and he went on to
work some of Queensland’s most high-profile cases.
He investigated the 1986 disappearance of Sharron Phillips and the murder investigation of 12-year-old Leanne Holland whose body was found in bushland in 1991.
Mr Knust headed the newly established Taskforce Argos fighting child exploitation and developed the new discipline of Incident Command Training after the shock 9/11 attacks in the United States before retiring as an Inspector in 2014.
While the training model has continued to evolve over the decades, Mr Knust said the academy’s legacy has made Queensland Police Service “one of the leading police agencies in the world”.
“The legacy is that in terms of thinking of community, over the years there has been a great deal of emphasis on lifelong learning in the police,” he said.
“And the police service itself has worked very hard to keep at the coalface at the cutting edge in terms of technology in investigative and policing practises.
“And that stems from that vision that was given legs in 1972.”
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