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The search party, including Bridgland, was picked up after about twenty-six weeks by the survey ship Geranium,
having found no trace of the women. Rumours and stories about the missing women persisted for many years.
After relieving at Borroloola for five weeks, Bridgland’s next postings were at Rankine River from 1925 to
1926, Borroloola in 1927, Anthony’s Lagoon and Borroloola again in 1930. In November 1928 he was promoted
to the rank of Sergeant at a salary of 432 Pounds per annum and from this time was occasionally called to Darwin
to relieve the superintendent. While at Rankine River, one of his longest journeys involved taking a Chinese man
and some witnesses from Sudan Station 1 100 kilometres into Darwin, travelling by horse to Katherine, then by
train into Darwin and returning to his station.
‘Bridgie’ was a superb bushman and first-class horseman and these were useful skills when patrols of over
800 kilometres in isolated outback areas were quite common. He had a phenomenal memory for horses and their
individual characteristics and his fellow policemen described him as a shrewd tracker and a great judge of men.
He was not only a gifted bush policeman but also a good administrator. As well as the usual policing duties, his
work at remote police stations often included being stock inspector, gaoler, Protector of Aborigines, statistician,
rainfall recorder and postmaster.
On 17 December 1930 he married widow Mrs Mabel Coralie Hawke, nee Brown, daughter of E V V Brown
at Adelaide Registry Office. While they were travelling back to Darwin in the Malabar, the ship was wrecked near
Sydney and they lost all their possessions. After a short time in Darwin, Bridgland was posted to Borroloola police
station again from 1932 to 1934, and while there went out to the Queensland border and Tanumbirini Station, taking
the census. After a holiday in Adelaide in 1934, he was stationed in Darwin until May 1935, then at Anthony’s
Lagoon from 1935 to 1936, Darwin from 1936 to 1938 and Tennant Creek from 1938 to 1939. In December 1937
he was appointed to the new position of Sergeant First Class.
In January 1940 he went to Alice Springs to relieve as officer in charge for a few months, then returned to
Darwin, where one of his duties was registration of aliens. His wife and son left Darwin after the bombing of
Pearl Harbour but he stayed on and was in charge of Darwin police station when it was bombed on 19 February- Soon after the bombing, he was ordered by Superintendent Stretton to travel south to Alice Springs, where
he remained for the rest of the war. In October 1947 he was appointed Acting Inspector and in 1949 was promoted
to the rank of Inspector, as officer-in-charge of southern division, at Alice Springs, holding this post until he retired
from the Northern Territory Police that year. He had served 38 years as a policeman, 34 of them in the Northern
Territory.
After leaving the Territory, Bridgland and his wife lived at Millswood in Adelaide and he worked for the
Housing Trust, Harris Scarfe and Chrysler until about 1956, when he finally retired. His wife died in 1958 and he
died on 11 July 1980 at Linden Park, aged 90. A son, stepson and stepdaughter survived him. Bridgland Circuit
at Palmerston and the Ray Bridgland Housing Commission Flats in Alice Springs commemorated his name in the
Northern Territory.
F D Deans, ‘Bridgie’, Citation, December 1964; S Downer, Patrol Indefinite, 1963; Northern Territory News, 25 August 1977; J Rich, Gum
Leaf and Cow Hide, 1986; AA, NT, NTRS 226/TS 164 & F 596.
JENNY RICH, Vol 1.
BROWN, ALFRED JOSEPH VOULES (1868–1955), customs officer, trepanger and trader, was born on
24 October 1868 at St Mary’s, South Australia, third child of Victor Voules Brown and his first wife Julia,
nee Solomon. His father was a farmer and publican, and later agent and auctioneer in Palmerston, Northern
Territory. He grew up at St Mary’s, Brighton and Palmerston and attended Pulteney Grammar School, Whinham
College and Thomas Caterer’s College in Adelaide. In 1885 he returned to Palmerston and helped his father at
his auctioneer and agency business. In September 1885 he went with his father and uncle John A V Brown to
Cambridge Gulf, Western Australia, where they landed goods for the Duracks, then to Derby, where he joined the
Kimberley gold rush.
Brown spent the next 13 years in the north west of Western Australia and in Palmerston. He worked for Harry
Hunter and Sid Hadley at Swan Point Station, King Sound, in 1887, then from 1888 to 1891 was a shipping clerk
and storeman for his father at Palmerston and held a number of Northern Territory mineral licences. From 1891 to
1899 he lived mainly in the north west of Western Australia and had some difficult times, but few details are known
of his activities. He spent some time with pearler William Hewett James, who was notorious for his cruel treatment
of Aborigines. Brown is said to have twice fought James because he objected to James’ cruelty. He also worked in
a butchering business and in hotels at Marble Bar and Bamboo Creek. In October 1899 he returned to Palmerston
and his father purchased for him E O Robinson’s trepanging business at Bowen Strait on the Cobourg Peninsula.
Brown was appointed Acting Landing Waiter for His Majesty’s Customs at Bowen Strait and from 1899 to
1906 collected duties from the visiting Macassan trepangers, issued licences and helped to keep law and order
in the area, using his schooner Essington. He also gathered trepang and traded on his own account, assisted by
Tingha, a Macassan trepanger, and local Aborigines mainly of the Iwaidja tribe. Tim Finnigen (Mamitpa) worked
for him for many years. The Aborigines and Macassans referred to him as ‘the Commandant’ or ‘the Commander’.
Ernestine Hill quotes him as saying of the Macassans: ‘Respectful salaams on all sides when I came on the scene.
My little bit of braid and a revolver kept [the Macassans] all in order... Except for a few villains, they were good
trustworthy men. They came ashore to my camp or aboard my lugger for their papers, dressed in red turbans
interlaced with silver, sleeveless white jacket, gold buttons, a necklace of red agates, gold rings in their ears, short
blue pants and bare feet. It was a solemn official pow-wow, me in an old Navy coat and white trousers, topped up
with Her Majesty’s cap.’