Zara Dare

Zara Dare (28 May 1886 – 1 October 1965) was one of the first two female police officers of the Queensland Police Department, assigned number '2WP', appointed on 16 March 1931, until her resignation in March 1940 to get married. Prior to being a police officer, she was a missionary to China with the Salvation Army.

Early life

Zara's parents James Dare (1854–1935) and Evaline Sinclair (1861–1939) married in 1881. Evaline was one of fourteen children, and the sister of Hugh Sinclair (1864–1926), later a federal member of parliament (1906–1919).

One of twelve, the fourth child and second daughter Zara was born in 1886 in Shoalhaven, New South Wales.

After becoming one of the largest stud cattle breeders of New South Wales' South Coast, about 1904 the family moved to Talgai West, north-west of Warwick, Queensland, and later the Tweed district, NSW, for dairying and cattle. James Dare was also a noted show judge of dairy cattle, a strong adherent to the Salvation Army movement, a cricketer, philanthropist, and an expert marksman.

Missionary work

Dare started identifying with The Salvation Army work in Lismore, New South Wales. After training in the service of the Salvation Army as a cadet in Melbourne, she spent four years as an officer in Sydney and Melbourne, to 1917. Establishing the first Salvation Army corps in Beijing, the contingent members found a cold and bleak winter, an uninviting place of high walls, people everywhere and crowds, with a difficult language; then an almost unbearable heat of summer, which combined with continuous rain. Men in the streets would stare at these foreigners whose clothing collars bore the Chinese characters 'Jo Shur Jun' (救世軍; jiù shì jūn; 'Save World Army').

Considering this as a 'great adventure which lasted 15 eventful years', Dare spent two years at a school at Beijing, before continuing to coastal Tianjin, 'pioneering the work of the Salvation Army' with an American, Finn, and two Chinese colleagues. With a population of about 30 000 people she converted a number of persons to be officers of the Salvation Army. Despite distinct hostility towards 'Christian propaganda', at their first Sunday meeting they made 44 converts. Observing their great devotion to parents, and unfailing politeness, the Chinese people had also suffered from a recent disastrous drought; she helped to feed up to 1000 persons per week from starvation. It was at this time she met 'Christian General' Feng Yuxiang. During this time as Adjutant Dare, she undertook lantern lectures from Ipswich to Nambour. She then returned around May 1925 to China, to Ping-Ti-Chuan, North West Frontier, miles north of Datong. The military base of General Feng Yuxiang of the National People's Army allowed her to conduct meetings among Feng's troops, speak upon a platform purpose-built for her, and had thousands of Chinese soldiers sing old Salvation Army hymns Dare had learned as a child in Shoalhaven. The Salvation Army withdrew from the Chinese mainland in 1949, and did not return until 2017. )

Temperance Union organiser

By February 1930, with an ailing mother, and some homesickness, Dare returned to Australia to settle in Brisbane. She joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), whose headquarters was based at Willard House, River Road, North Quay, near the Brisbane River. At one WCTU educational conference in April she and a Mrs Budgen were allotted the subject for a speech, 'Treatment of snake bite and shock'; On others, about her experiences in China. Dare by July 1930 had become their State organiser, which included travels through Queensland.

It was at the WCTU that she chanced upon an American poster stating 'Women police are wanted' – After some reflection, and corresponding to good timing with a government trial, a few months later she was appointed to the Queensland police.

Interviewed at the time, Dare indicated her friends advised her to apply, but the type of work always appealed to her as a way of helping girls and women 'where present organisations did not largely reach', given her connection with women's work over the years.

Police career

Origins

First reference to the idea of women police was made by the National Council of Women of Queensland in 1911. Following an inquiry by the Acting Home Secretary, in 1915 the third Commissioner William Cahill (period 1905–1916) of the Queensland Police Department rejected the idea of employing women. This was the same year that South Australia led by appointing the first female police officer in the British Empire.

At a time when people were dealing with the effects of the Great Depression, it was the sixth Commissioner, William Ryan (period 1925–1934), who sanctioned the recruitment of the first two policewomen. the annual meeting of one branch of the Queensland Women's Electoral League (QWEL) in July 1930 was emphasising the need to establish 'a force of women police in Queensland', especially as there were appointments in every other state of Australia. On 30 September 1930, Queensland's Premier Arthur Moore at the QWEL state annual general meeting announced as an experiment, 'several policewomen would be appointed as vacancies occurred in the general police force', to be trialled in Brisbane with two or three members, and a medical test similar to male applicants. Additional female officers might be appointed if the 'experiment' was successful. The Home Secretary required applicants to 'undergo severe medical and educational tests', cited their 'primary duty would be to shield girls and women from evil'. Sixty applicants applied for two positions, eight interviewed, and a comparatively few able to pass the required medical test.

Appointment

The Home Secretary and the Police Commissioner announced in late February 1931 of the intended appointments of Zara Dare of Brisbane and Ellen O'Donnell of Gympie. There was no dissenting voice in the cabinet meeting making the decision, to assist in inquiries involving female suspects and prisoners. Actions required...

Railway stations would be visited, and females travelling alone would be protected from possible molestation. Wine saloons would be patrolled to prevent excessive drinking by women, and there would be regular street patrol work.

After their appointment both women were trained by plain clothes male officers, working various hours.

Career

When joining the department, Dare lived at Hill Street, Sherwood, before moving to Kate Street, Kedron.

After five years of service the presence of female officers was still little known within the Brisbane community, in part because they did not wear uniform.

During the years, she took her experience of rescuing children and women in China, to the police courts. Reflecting in 1940, Every year police women in this city are responsible for bringing in hundreds of children from the streets who have been sent out to "lift" goods from the chain stores. We bring them in to the station, talk to them and take them home. We patrol the gardens and parks, the department stores and places of amusement. We try to be kind as well as just. Sometimes kindness is mistaken for weakness. I have taken many a 'hiding' in my time, but if I have helped to lift a few people to their feet, given them any sort of incentive to run straight, it has all been in a very good cause.

Later developments

The seventh Commissioner Cec Carroll (period 1934–1949) advertised for a replacement female police officer. A third female officer appointment, additional to O'Donnell and Johnstone, was also being considered in 1940. 3WP Alison Johnstone commenced on 17 February 1941, and 4WP Olive Wanmer on 20 March 1941. By 1945 numbers are increased to nine female officers for the Women Police Section due to the increased policing demands of WW2.

1WP Ellen O'Donnell was injured on duty in 1962, and died from related causes eight months later on 8 March 1963, after 31 years service, aged 67. O'Donnell is buried at the Nudgee Cemetery, with her sister Winifred (born 1887, died 12 June 1968), at site 5A-654. She never married. She was not eligible for pay allowances, or superannuation.

Only in March 1965 were Queensland's female police officers sworn in, and given entitlements already provided to male police officers; and pay equity did not occur until 1 September 1970 – almost four decades after Dare and O'Donnell started. Married women were allowed in the police force from 1971. James Wilson of Montville, Queensland was one of nine children, seven years Dare's senior, and this was his second marriage.

Wilson first married in 1903 to Bertha Louisa Doretta Kreutzmann, until her death at 59 years of age, in September 1939. Wilson's marriage with Kreutzmann produced two sons and two daughters. He was one of the first commercial growers of avocados in the State. Their son, James Cockburn Wilson, together with later-Sir Frank Sharpe at Redland Bay, went on to develop the popular commercial 'Sharwil' cultivar in 1951.

After the Dare–Wilson wedding, the Wilsons moved to 'Cumnock', Mooloolaba, north of Brisbane by 1943, before moving to the Nambour area, and by 1958, retiring to 138 Turner Street, Scarborough, north of Brisbane. James Wilson died on Friday, 30 August 1963, aged 84, and was interred with his first wife at the Buderim cemetery, Mooloolaba Road, Buderim.

Dare died two years after her husband, on Friday, 1 October 1965, aged 79, at Scarborough, and was cremated. She is interred at the Mount Thompson Crematorium, columbarium 7, section 13, niche no. 195.