Recently I was preparing to go to a rodeo with a friend who mentioned to me that I really should wear a pair of boots to be ‘with it’. As most police officers always had a fairly good stock of uniform items, I went in search of a pair of police boots and found a pair among my hoardings.

On reflection, these boots—while never worn—would have to be about twelve-years old at least. They could be much older because I do not recall wearing boots as a commissioned officer although my recollection is that it was optional because as a commissioned officer—until about 1989—we purchased our own footwear with our uniform allowance. Again from recollection, the Newnham Administration introduced a policy to supply uniform to all members and I believe that that policy remains today.

When I retrieved this pair of police boots, my memory went back to 1956 when I became a police cadet and the emphasis then placed on police boots. That is really what I am going to write about anyway.

Initially I worked in the Records Section of the old Roma Street Police Station (some of our members will not realise that it was in between the current Mayfair Crest Hotel and the Suncorp-Metway Building). The ‘in thing’ among cadets (there were about a hundred of us) was to wear police boots with our civilian attire. We all worked with uniformed police officers and most if not all of them would part with a pair of boots for a price.

City police had black boots while country police had tan ones. Quite often you could get a pair of tan boots and you then made them black with raven oil. I think that my first boots were tan and were even second-hand. The boots in 1956 and for many years thereafter, were made by Co-operative. Later on the contract went to Leslie Shoes.

While I wore police boots for many years as a cadet and a police officer, I know that many others in the community also wore police boots. For example my late father was a carpenter and he—through my efforts in purchasing or exchanging boots (you could always exchange sizes at the Police Store)—wore them for probably twenty-years at work and later in his retirement.

You could always tell a Queensland police boot by its appearance generally and particularly its height (much the same as the current army boot). They always seemed to be very comfortable and protective of one's feet.

While I never broke with tradition and wore them, later on the elastic-sided boot became available and many of my colleagues turned to them probably because they were easier to get on and off. I imagine they would have been popular with country police particularly who had to then—and no doubt still do—on occasions turn out to duty as quickly as possible.

Another positive with the police boot was the ability to go to the place where they were made and exchange a new pair for a new pair of shoes. Many police officers did this over the years and probably some of our readers may be saying, ‘I didn’t know about that little lurk’.