Gday...

1789  -             The first police force in the convict colony of New South Wales is formed.

Australia was settled by the convicts and officers of the First Fleet in January 1788. It was believed that the colony's isolation from any civilisation would be deterrent enough for convicts attempting to escape. Many thought they could reach China by escaping into the bush; some returned, exhausted and starving, to the flogging that inevitably awaited them. Many never returned, and stories abounded that skeletons of convicts who escaped but could not survive littered the bushland surrounding Port Jackson and Sydney Cove.

It was necessary to establish a police force to pursue the errant convicts, and to also guard against petty thievery that went on. On 8 August 1789, Australia's first police force was established in the colony of New South Wales. It was made up of a dozen convicts.

The NSW police force has continued to develop and change over the years. The force in its current form was established in 1862 with the passing of the Police Regulation Act and drew upon members of the Royal Irish Constablary.  

1802  -             Explorer Matthew Flinders discovers Port Curtis in Queensland, now the site of Gladstone.

Matthew Flinders was an English sea explorer, and the first European to circumnavigate Australia. Between December 1801 and June 1803, Flinders charted the entire coastline of Australia. In July 1802, he undertook to survey the coast of Queensland and Torres Strait, with the intention of improving current charts and maps of the area. Hope still abounded that an entrance might be found from the Gulf of Carpentaria to a navigable inland sea. To that end, he was accompanied by another ship, the 'Lady Nelson', which had sliding keels, enabling it to sail any body of water more than 1m 80cm deep.

On 8 August 1802, Flinders discovered an excellent harbour, sheltered and deep, on what is now the central Queensland coast. He named it Port Curtis after Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope. The port city of Gladstone now stands at that site.

1963  -             The Great Train Robbery in England occurs, in which £2.6m is stolen in used, untraceable bank notes.

For 125 years, the The Post Office train, known as the Up Special, had run its nightly service. On 8 August 1963, the train was carrying over 26 million pounds ($AU75.5 million) in used, untraceable bank notes destined for burning at the Bank of England, when it was stopped by a red light at 3:15am local time in Buckinghamshire. Police investigators later found that the signals had been tampered with and telephone wires had been cut. After the train was stopped, thieves attacked driver Jack Mills, 58, with an iron bar, uncoupled the engine and front two carriages and drove them to Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore. There they loaded 120 mail and money bags into a waiting truck.

13 of the thieves were caught and tried six months later. Ronnie Biggs became the best known of the criminals when he escaped from prison and headed for Brazil, remaining free for 28 years. He returned to England needing medical treatment, but knowing he would be arrested as soon as he arrived back in his home country. Biggs continued to serve out his sentence until his death on 18 December 2013.

Cheers - John