Constable Wall's Uniform

For a policeman posted to the small one person police station in Mount Barker, his “beat”, on horseback, covered hundreds of miles. He was required to visit every farm once a month and to check the condition of roads throughout the district. While he was absent from the Station, his wife was responsible for looking after any prisoners in the lock up, awaiting transfer to Albany. Constable Wall was the police officer in charge from 1887 to 1901. Tracking down sheep thieves took him on long patrols, the longest being a 9-week patrol during which he travelled 2,234 km. Think of the police horses: it is estimated that one of the police horses travelled nearly 100,000 km in its lifetime.