With no radio and television yet to be invented, the focal point of weekly interest was the Magistrates Court.

During its first 30 years, Mount Isa’s constabulary was kept busy with an array of characters charged with breaches of indecency (wearing shorts in the main street), murder, attempted kidnap, and jumping the rattler.

Police and the townsfolk had a good reason to laugh in early 1930 when a chap, dare it be suggested – a miner, daringly wore a pair of knee length shorts as he strode the hot and dusty streets; modesty was kept with the addition of golf stockings.

Although the debonair dresser wasn’t charged with any misdemeanour, he was advised to return home and change into more appropriate attire.  

This chap had been charged with strutting the streets in the very latest fashion stakes of southern golfers to the chagrin and mirth of the miners.   

Thank goodness the golf stockings were later lost.

However, the good-hearted laughter along with the shenanigans of the Beer Strike Committee the previous year, did not last long.

Legal and distilled alcohol was liberally available and the effect of overindulging in the amber fluid resulted in several inebriated drinkers being charged with disorderly conduct for throwing rocks at private residences as they walked home.  

And when one home owner took matters into his own hands and scared the day-lights out of the revellers by firing his gun over their heads, the incident was referred to in court as an “unusual offence”.  

Early living conditions were difficult with no sanitation, little suitable housing or electricity, a lack of security working in the mine and too many liquor outlets.

So it can be understood that tensions sometimes got out of hand with any slight incident, an excuse, for the workers to vent their frustrations.

And while many men would resort to a good fist fight, others saw an opportunity to vandalise property.

As was to be expected minor altercations and mishaps were the order of the day in the Magistrates Court but the charges escalated late in 1933 when one George Thomas was charged with unlawfully wounding and grievous bodily harm.  

He was found guilty of slashing a man’s face with a razor and sentenced to one year’s hard labour at Stuart Creek prison in Townsville.

Mount Isa quickly gained a reputation for unruly behaviour as was witnessed with rowdy scenes erupting in front of the magistrate’s court in early 1934.

Even when the Cloncurry Advocate called on the local authorities to try and control the increasing crime wave hitting Mount Isa, the petty rascals and career criminals were not perturbed.  

Police action was not always justified however, as evidenced by their actions in handcuffing a 16-year-old girl and removing her to the Duchess lock-up.  

She committed no crime nor was she charged with any offence.

Rather she was the innocent victim of an attempted kidnap and police believed she was better moved out of town, for the duration of the court hearings against her kidnapper.

And then Sergeant Honan arrived in town.

He was an old style policeman – the sort needed in the rough and tumble days when the city attracted the drifters and dreamers who wanted to be in on the mineral jackpot.

Sgt Honan’s arrival saw a drop in the crime rate but unfortunately the honeymoon didn’t last long when several men were imprisoned for ‘jumping the rattler’.

Even with Honan in town, the Mount Isa Magistrates Court of the 1930s found offenders were undeterred by threat of prison, as they saw this enforced holiday as a time to catch up with mates, smoke, talk, read and most importantly – and get a regular ‘feed’.  

For the juvenile offenders at the time, there was no appropriate detention facility and so they were would be charged and then allowed to remain in town, only to reoffend.

Not to be deterred in enforcing law and order, Sgt Honan concentrated on closing down the many illegal (liquor and brothel) establishments including two-up games.  

One night moving undercover, he ventured into a street game on the corner of Miles and Marian Streets and took on the betters at their own game.

Suffice to say, the game ended on the toss of the coins, the tosser lost the bet and to add insult to injury he copped a five pound fine.  

Sgt Honan was in town to clean up.

The miners respected only one thing – a straight talking nonsense approach, and he was straight up.

Sgt. Honan was reported as saying: “The ingenuity of offenders trying to explain away their misdemeanours, never ceases to amaze me.”

And such was the 1949 court case, when a local man was accused of the theft of £450 from Mrs Lynch, a local wife and mother.   

Described as a defence lawyer’s nightmare, the young offender slowly but surely exhibited ‘foot in mouth disease’, firstly denying the theft and secondly saying the money had been won on a ‘good trot’ at the races.

However, his campaign for innocence was quickly undone when the court heard he had tried to wash the notes thereby emanating a ghastly stench which, the Cloncurry Advocate reported, was the initial complaint of ‘excreting and offensive odour’.  

On investigation, the police found £450 of freshly laundered notes, the exact amount that Mrs Lynch had reported stolen from her home.  

The moral of the Mrs Lynch’s story - cleanliness is not always the best method - to conceal theft.

Researched and written by Kim-Maree Burton.     

Photographs supplied by North Queensland Historical Collections.

Information sourced from the Cloncurry Advocate, Brisbane Courier Mail and the Mount Isa Mail.