Finke
The Finke police station was established in late 1930's after the closure of the Charlotte Waters police station. Members were mounted on camels, possibly the largest police patrol in the world, and the last police station in the Northern Territory to use camels.
The Finke police station was established in late 1930's after the closure of the Charlotte Waters police station. It was responsible for general policing, including inspecting stock, registering births, deaths and marriages, protecting the mines in the area, protecting birds and collecting taxes. It dealt with the Sundown murders in 1957. Members were mounted on camels, possibly the largest police patrol in the world, and the last police station in the Northern Territory to use camels. Aboriginal trackers were an essential part of the patrols, which were often responsible for finding people lost in the bush. The policemen's wives ran the post office and also distributed rations while their husbands were away on patrol. There were no doctors or nurses in the community, so the wives also nursed sick people.
Camels in 1951: Jumper, Oodnadatta, Fred, Finke, Ferdinand and Flossie
Northern Territory police maintained a station in the township from its establishment until the railway siding was moved to Kulgera in the 1980's. Initially, when the station closed, the Aboriginal Community Police Officers ACPO's worked locally to support the station at Kulgera. The historic Police cells are still in good condition but do not meet modern standards and are not presently in use. A small part of the old police residence is still used as a police office. Images are available on the Apatula Police page at Waru.Org.
In May 2009 a new temporary station was established and staffed at Finke - then known as Apatula. This was part of the Commonwealth Intervention and considered a "Themis Station". Initial stages of the intervention did not consider putting a station at Finke as there was an established ACPO staffed Police Post in the community. It was closed in 2019 and is maintained as a Police Post.
The community is now called Aputula taken from the Arrente name for the local water source. It is located in the South East corner of the Territory and is home to the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Luritja and Arrernte people. Apatula, is a remote Indigenous Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is 317 km south of Alice Springs and 159 km east of the Kulgera roadhouse on the Stuart Highway, near the border with South Australia.
Finke River (Wikipedia) is one of the largest rivers in Central Australia and was named by John McDouall Stuart in 1860. It is known locally as Larapinta and is home to the Finke Gorge National Park.
Many references to Finke Police Station can be found in the 'Camels' Page
In 1949 Les Penhall completed a report for Native Affairs of a patrol of southern stations in the Finke Police districts - it is available via the National Archives CRS F315/0 Item 1949/388