The emergence of the motor vehicle in Darwin went almost without comment until 1925 when the local press reported the emergence of a new problem ‘in the person of a speed head [who] made himself a pest to pedestrians’. The driver of this motor vehicle desisted only after police spoke with him. 187 Dudley was the first police officer to make use of motor vehicles as a means of transport on official duty. He often travelled by car inspecting stations. On one such trip, Dudley almost met his death when a fire started unseen in the rear of his vehicle. When travelling to Wave
Hill, Dudley and Constable Sheridan noticed the floorboards in the rear alight under spare drums of petrol when they were 80 miles from Katherine. Having stopped, the pair were able to remove the drums and continue to Wave Hill, where they arrived unscathed and made repairs.188
187 Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 11 September 1925.
188 Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 10 June 1924