The Police Station, Southport

Southport was one of several secondary towns surveyed by George Goyder's Northern Territory Survey Expedition in 1869. The police station there was built by 1879.

Sub-Inspector Paul Foelsche arrived in Palmerston in 1870 to take charge of the newly formed Northern Territory Mounted Police. Shortly after he and his men arrived in Palmerston they built their own police station. This small building was subsequently replaced by a larger building which doubled as his residence.

In addition to his police duties Foelsche was an excellent photographer. He took thousands of photographs of Darwin, the Aboriginal people and the scenery. This pictorial archive is an invaluable record of 19th century Darwin, much of which was destroyed in the 1897 cyclone.

De La Rue, Kathy V The evolution of Darwin, 1869-1911: a history of the Northern Territory's capital city during the years of South Australian administration Darwin, NT: Charles Darwin University Press , c 2004

Lockwood, Douglas The front door: Darwin, 1869-1969 Adelaide: Rigby, 1984

Jones, Philip G The policeman's eye: the frontier photography of Paul Foelsche Adelaide: South Australian Museum, 2005

Downer, Sidney Patrol indefinite: the Northern Territory Police Force Adelaide: Rigby, [1963]

TravelNT: Darwin: History

Darwin, Northern Territory

South Australian Museum: Foelsche's Darwin

Australian dictionary of biography online: Foelsche, Paul (1831-1914)