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from the armed forces. Consequently, Brown’s immediate request for a transfer to the Australian Capital Territory
Police Force was denied.
Following the cessation of hostilities in 1945, Brown transferred to the Finke police district southwest of Alice
Springs. He reasoned that his farm experience would be invaluable when dealing with camels that were the main
method of patrolling the district. His patrol area was approximately 106 000 square miles (almost 275 000 square
kilometres—at the time the largest police district in the world) and stretched from the Queensland to the Western
Australian borders as well as from Alice Springs to the South Australian border. The more lengthy western patrols
often entailed him being away from Finke for more than three months at a time covering the Ayers Rock (Uluru)
district. Brown claimed to have been one of the first seven or eight people to climb the Rock.
Ever prepared to resolve a situation himself without recourse to formally charging an offender, on one occasion
Brown apprehended some young men who had been killing sheep on Mt Cavenagh Station. Mindful of the cost to
the government, and the inconvenience to witnesses of returning to Alice Springs to instigate formal proceedings,
Brown obtained a number of dresses from the station owner, had the culprits wear them, and paraded them in full
view of their tribe. The humiliation suffered by the offenders ensured that the sheep killing ceased as sure as if the
young men had been incarcerated!
By the late 1940s Brown had been suffering from chronic dermatitis for a number of years and frequently
required hospitalisation in Alice Springs though the ailment never affected his sense of humour. During one such
stint in hospital, a visiting southern senator concerned at the sight of the police constable lying on his front with
raw skin covering virtually the whole of his body, inquired as to the nature of his condition. Brown immediately
quipped ‘...it’s just this leprosy...it’s getting me down’ whereupon the politician made a hasty exit.
The skin complaint reached the stage where Brown became too ill to work. In 1952 he was referred to the
Commonwealth Medical Officer, who concluded the condition might improve in a more temperate climate but
that Brown would never again be fit to work in the Northern Territory. Early in 1953 Brown was retired from the
Northern Territory Police Force on medical grounds whereupon he and his family returned to the farm, by this time
a sugar cane farm, in northern New South Wales.
Ronald Agnew Brown, who was predeceased by his wife, died at Kingscliff, New South Wales, on 1 October 1994
and is survived by a son, Sydney Daniel, and a daughter, Annabelle McMillan.
Northern Territory Archives Service, CRS F596, P88; Oral History Interview with R A Brown, 20 October 1987 in Northern Territory Archives
Service, NTRS 226 TS 469; personal information.
BARRY GARSIDE, Vol 2.BROWN, VICTOR VOULES (1841–1910), agent, auctioneer and mining entrepreneur, was born on 29 July 1841
at Alberton, South Australia, the fifth of ten children of William Voules Brown and his wife Harriet, nee Perkins.
His father was a publican, farmer and cemetery manager at Brighton, South Australia. His parents arrived in South
Australia in the Coromandel in 1836.
Brown grew up on his parents’ farm at Baker’s Gully, then at Brighton. He was brought up as a low-church
Anglican and went to Charles Taplin’s school at Brighton, where he received a good basic education. He left home
in his early teens and farmed with his brother William, before going in 1859 to the Indigo goldfields in Victoria
where he was badly injured in a mining accident. In 1800 he went to the Otago diggings, then in 1861 worked his
way to England and back as an ordinary seaman. He then helped his father at Brighton and was licensee of the
Thatched House Tavern from 1863 to 1866.
While living at Brighton he met Julia Solomon, daughter of Jewish merchant Emanuel Solomon and Celia,
nee Smith. They eloped and were secretly married on 24 January 18 6 4 at St Mary’s, South Australia. From 1866 to
1868 he farmed at St Mary’s, then helped his father with his farm, hotel and cemetery at Brighton.
In late 1876 he left his family in Adelaide and went to Palmerston to be local manager for M J Solomon and
Company, auctioneers, mining, estate and general commission agents, taking over the business from V L Solomon.
In March 1879 he left for a holiday in Adelaide and when he returned to Palmerston with his family later that year,
set up his own business as auctioneer, valuator, land and general commission agent in Mitchell Street. Early in
1880 he was appointed local agent for Eastern and Australian Steam Ship Company and held this agency for the
rest of his life. E and A won the contract to carry mail between Adelaide (via Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland
ports), Port Darwin and Hong Kong—passengers and cargo were also carried.
Brown’s business was not a success and during 1880 he became a junior partner of Herbert and William E Adcock,
trading as Adcock Brothers, auctioneers, customhouse and commission agents at Palmerston and Southport.
His wife died at Palmerston in 1881 and soon after her death, he sent his children to Adelaide to be educated and
cared for by his sisters.
About 1883 he began his long association with Eliza Sarah Tuckwell, daughter of Edward (Ned) Tuckwell
and Eliza, nee Hemming, whom he married on 3 March 1901. During 1885 he travelled to Derby to help establish
a branch store for Adcock Brothers, then returned to Palmerston. After leaving Adcock Brothers in 1887, he, his
brother John and Herbert Adcock started their own business, Port Darwin Mercantile and Agency Company,
auctioneers, customs, shipping and general commission agents, using Solomon’s Mart, the store and premises built
for V L Solomon in 1885. Part of the building became a mining exchange, where mining samples were exhibited
and mining meetings were held. Brown was salesman and auctioneer for the new business and often travelled to
country settlements such as Pine Creek and Brock’s Creek to carry out auctions. In 1888 he and Adcock received a
public apology from the liquidators of Town and Country Bank, who had wrongly included them in the insolvency
adjudication of Adcock Brothers. William E Adcock went to gaol as a result of this insolvency.