13. Police Lock Up

In 1843 a group of bushrangers held up the Broke Inn and stole £50 in cash! Similarly, in 1871, the Maitland Mercury recorded that the district was ‘notoriously infested with cattle-stealers’. This led to a petition for a permanent police presence to be established in the town, and in 1873, Constable Malarky had taken up temporary residence with hotel owner Mr. Dorrington. The Brokeites had to wait a few more years before a purpose-built, weatherboard lock up and courtroom was constructed in 1879. By the late 1890s the wooden police station was in poor repair and plans for a new building were abandoned as it was estimated that there was on average only one lock up case per annum. In 1898 the government reluctantly built the new, brick police station and lock up.