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The Police Station

The Police Station is built from 100 year-old limestone bricks, manufactured locally using lime made from oysters, scraped from the rocks. Liming was carried out by the burning of live oyster shells along the Clyde river as well as much of the rest of the NSW coastline. Government buildings were often strongly constructed, as much to provide security for the Police, who were usually undermanned, as to reflect the power of government. In a relatively lawless society, the Police were often powerless and were certainly unpopular in certain areas of the diggings, partly as a result of the unpopular laws they were called upon to administer. Many people in the diggings considered themselves Colonials and saw much of the English law as unfair as it often favoured the "landed gentry" and disadvantaged the diggers. In fact, some of the licensing laws were designed to force the diggers back into the paid workforce. One of the less popular laws required gold to be sold at the Police Station or Post Office within ten days at the Government set prices.

Bushrangers The bushrangers of the gold rush era include the notorious Ned Kelly, Ben Hall, Captain Lightning, Frank Gardiner and Thunderbolt. The murderous Clarke brothers of the Clarke and Connell gang were considered to be worse than any other bushrangers of the times and became known as "The Bloodiest Bushrangers". They were sons of an ex-convict in the Monaro, who raised them to believe in his view of the fair and equitable distribution of property, beginning with horse and cattle stealing. The Clarke gang of relatives and friends was well trained in bushcraft and heavily armed. They plundered publicans and storekeepers and ambushed Gold shipments from Nerrigundah and Araluen and the coaches that travelled from Sydney and the Illawarra. They moved virtually unckecked until November 1866 when they were caught by a posse of troopers. Tom Clarke, 26, and brother John, 24, were hanged from twin gallows at Darlinghurst Jail on June 25th, 1867, ending a reign of terror on the south coast which cost the lives of eight men.

The Jail Jails like the one in Old Mogo Town were designed to travel on a flat bed rail car and were common throughout Eastern Australia. They are thought to have been manufactured in the late 1800s. In remote regional areas like Mogo during the period of the goldrush, jails did not exist and prisoners were usually restrained by being chained to a tree by the ankles. The cell at Old Mogo Town originated in Cooma but was later moved to Batemans Bay where it was decommissioned just 13 years ago in 1987. The double thickness floorboards were replaced 25 years ago after being burnt in an attempted escape.

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Discover Australian Gold Rush History at Mogo
between Batemans Bay and Moruya on the South Coast of NSW Australia.



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