January 2002 Volume 83 Number 1 "serving the protectors"
Edited by John Ballantyne

The Last Swagman

 
The Bush Detective 1; The Bush Detective 2; A Man Called Possum: The mystery man who became a legend; Tracks; The Lollypop Lad Mystery; The Last Swagman and Legends of the Australian Bush.
(Published by SM [Max] Jones)

Some of the best books you’ll ever read are off the beaten track.

Max Jones – a former detective sergeant in charge of the Riverland CIB – is not only something of a legend in the police service, but is a born story-teller as well.

His series of short books introduces the reader to the rigours of policing in the Bush and to a rich cast of characters.

During his 38-year career in the SA police – much of it spent in the Riverlands – Jones at times had little or no assistance and was forced to rely on his own judgement.

Through this school of experience, he acquired a wisdom and knack of being able to assess people – vagrants, criminals and alcoholics – that one could never pick up from a textbook.

Once, in the 1970s, Jones was alarmed when he was summoned to appear before the then SA police commissioner, Harold Salisbury. His alarm turned to relief, however, when Salisbury said:

“I’ve been studying your career and I’m impressed with your record and amazed that you could arrest so many offenders and put them before the courts without creating complaints and appeals. I want you to explain to me how you managed to do this over so many years.”

Jones’s true-to-life stories are real gems and bring the bush vividly to life.

One of his books, A Man Called Possum, is about a real bush legend – a man who shunned human company for over 54 years, eking out a lonely existence along the River Murray.

Known only from fleeting glimpses to the people of the Riverland who gave him his name, the Possum deliberately turned his back on society to live almost entirely off the land as a recluse along the banks of the Murray River between Wentworth, NSW, and Renmark.

It took Jones almost 30 years to solve the mystery behind the man called Possum.

From chance encounters, brief meetings and full-scale conversations with the man himself, and from the testimony of others, the author pieced together Possum’s extraordinary life story.

This book is a memorial to a man willing to forgo modern comforts and human relations for a life alone in the harshness and freedom of the Bush.

All of Jones’s books are worth a read. They are more than just good yarns: they are a manual for common-sense policing and a guide to life.

 
More… Cops, Crooks and Catastrophes
Shirley Hardy-Rix
(Melbourne: Hybrid Publishers, 2001)
$16.95 (incl GST)

More… Cops, Crooks and Catastrophes hilariously records those episodes that police would rather forget and crooks wished had never happened.

Imagine being pulled over for speeding and then having to lend the policeman a pen so he could write out your ticket. This happened when a motorcycle policeman left his pens at the office

Or take the time when a policeman pulled over a young buck and, while inspecting his car, managed to run him over – with his own car!

Or there was the policeman who locked himself out of his own police station.

On the other side of the law, there are crooks who just weren’t cut out for a life of crime.

There was the thief who was taking white goods from a building site and left the impression of his number plate in a pile of builders’ sand.

Or the bandit who shot himself, fell through a plate glass window and then was run over as he fled the scene of his aborted robbery attempt.

In this book of heroic failures, Shirley Hardy-Rix – a one-time crime reporter, currently editor of the Police Association (Victoria) journal – has compiled 60 entertaining stories that reveal embarrassing moments from both sides of the law.

 
Tales of the Troopers
(Wakefield Press, 1999)
Reviewed by Mick Standing

Tales of the Troopers is a must-read for those interested in the history of SAPOL and, indeed, South Australia.

The book is a compilation of 36 short stories by the doyen of SA police history, the late Jean Schmall. The Police Journal ran 32 of those stories through the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Police Historical Society members, Jim Sykes and Bob Potts – both retired police officers – produced the book.

Each chapter is a tale in itself. But those tales highlight the early troopers’ courage, resourcefulness and devotion to duty. They also reveal the many tribulations with which they had to deal, as well as their heroism in dangerous situations.

The early mounted troopers were not only police but also early explorers, who ventured into parts of the state where no one had gone before them. And few at that time possessed the necessary bush skills to survive in the then fledgling colony. Then, simply to survive was to triumph. To succeed in the tasks of a police role must have been miraculous.

The book is a tribute to Jean Schmall’s ceaseless efforts to memorialize the deeds and activities of the “common copper” of the wild colonial days.

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