Early courthouses were used as venues for church services, polling places, meetings – even it is said, for theatrical performances (although I’ve not been able to find any such performances in Glen Innes unless you count the spirited acting some solicitors could be relied upon to produce.)
There have been three buildings where justice has been dispensed in this district.
First in a tiny rough wooden slab hut in Wellingrove, then after Glen Innes became the official centre in1859, a basic four-roomed building for Court of Petty Sessions.
In 1873 after a citizen ‘grand indignation meeting’ had demanded a new lock up, Court House and Postal and Telegraphic buildings tenders were called for, with the erection of a new courthouse to cost £2,500.
The skilled stonemason was John McGauran, and the stone was quarried from what was to become the site of the hospital and is now The Land of the Beardies Museum.
The new courthouse, one of Glen Innes’ landmark buildings, was opened in December 1874 (although 1873 is on the building.) Town and County Journal 16 May 1874 said “…built of bluestone. All the doors and window facings and *quoins are however of granite…” (*decorative feature on the exterior of buildings.)
Substantial additions of two new wings on either side of that courthouse in 1898 gave us the façade we see today.
In 1942 the Glen Innes Courthouse had been a very busy place as shown in some of the statistics issued by then CPS (Clerk of Petty Sessions) Mr H Isles in January 1943:
“146 charge and summons cases, four cases in the Industrial Magistrates court, 46 Small Debts plaints, 18 military exemption, 581 dogs registered at a cost of £17/17/6, Registrations of 222 births,110 deaths, 101 marriages including eight performed by the Registrar, 203 Miners Rights issued, 30 applications for mining leases, 7,000 betting tickets sold, 51 Old Age and Invalid Pensioner applications, 4 Widows pensions applications, 55 convictions for drunkenness, 2,383 letters received and 5,550 sent…Public revenue £12,593/9/8.”
There are many Glen Innes people who will remember one particular, very community minded CPS who moved to Goulburn – the late Bob Thurling OAM who died in 2018. So aptly described as “a man with a curious mind, distinctive little Morris Minor, a larrikin streak – most of all, Bob Thurling was a man of integrity – good, kind, thoughtful”.
