There was an historic crackdown on fortune telling in Queensland ninety years ago that no one saw coming. I told a version of this story on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

The decade after the First World War were the golden years for fortune tellers, in the Depression in the 1930s popularity continued to grow, and momentum built for a police crackdown. Fortune telling in itself wasn’t illegal, but fraudulently taking money for something fake was.

In 1939 in Toowoomba, complaints were pouring in about a woman telling fortunes at her premises in Ruthven Street. On cold a Saturday in July, when businesses in Toowoomba closed for the day at 12.30pm, about a dozen young women finished their work and went to the premises. Police followed and arrested Mrs Elsie Maud Tysoe.

Early one morning a decade earlier, Mrs Tysoe had deserted her husband by riding her horse bareback and without a bridle for over two miles (see picture top of page), and then supported herself by telling fortunes ever since. She must have been quite a sight, described as five feet six inches tall, thin build, slightly round shoulders, fair complexion, brown hair, and her two front upper teeth missing.

When Mrs Tysoe was convicted and fined £2, she told the magistrate that she couldn’t pay the fine and insisted on being sent straight to gaol.

In 1936, Mrs Elizabeth Johnson, otherwise known as Madame Johnson, was arrested for telling fortunes at her studio in Toowoomba. A few years earlier, Madame Johnson had fallen off her chair and been deserted by her husband, so she too was using fortune telling to support herself. She was convicted and fined £2. Her art deco studio on the corner of Snell and Russell Streets is still there if you want to go have a look.

But the big crackdown in Toowoomba began in 1934 when Queensland’s first policewoman was put on the case. Three years earlier on the 16th of March 1931, Miss Zara Dare was one of the first two policewomen appointed in Queensland. She had previously been a Salvation Army missionary and spent thirteen years in China.

Policewoman Dare was becoming a bit of a clairvoyant specialist even before her big Toowoomba sting. She’d already picked up Martha Jane Williams, otherwise known as Madame BeIlray, had her convicted of fortune telling and fined £5.

But on the 17th of December 1934, Policewoman Dare set the record for bringing four separate fortune tellers to the Toowoomba courthouse on the same day. She had rounded up them all together, brought them to court, and had them all convicted.

The record-setting quartet included Toowoomba’s veteran fortune teller Mrs Edith Martha Wood, a widow living in Neil Street. Mrs Wood had been telling fortunes at the annoyance of the law for over a decade.

On this occasion, Mrs Wood appeared in court with her face hidden by a dark veil, at first refusing to remove it. When the magistrate read out the charge, he was constantly interrupted by Mrs. Wood shouting things like “How dare you” and “How disgusting!” In any case, all four defendants were convicted and fined £5 each.

Queensland clairvoyants may have sought revenge for the policewoman’s crackdown. Shortly afterwards, a spooky death nearly finished Policewoman Dare. A driverless car almost ran her down in front of the Roma Street Police Station in Brisbane. She was only saved from certain death by a colleague who pulled her out of the way at the last second.

Policewoman Zara Dare was later presented with a cut-glass water set in honour of her pending nuptials. And that’s what ended her historic policing career, because she got married on the 4th of March 1940 and resigned from the force.

However, Zara Dare’s place in history had been secured both as Queensland’s first policewoman nine years earlier, and her record haul of fortune tellers in the crackdown in Toowoomba.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4AK.

Photo credits:
Representation of Mrs Elsie Maud Tysoe – Copilot.
Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, 1944 – State Library of Queensland.
Madame Johnsons studio, Cnr Russell and Snell Streets, Toowoomba – Google Maps, 2025.
Policewoman Zara Dare – Truth, Brisbane, 4th June 1933, page 13.
Madame Bellray – Truth, Brisbane, 2nd July 1933, page 10.
Zara Dare in honour of her pending nuptials – Telegraph, Brisbane, 2nd March 1940, page 9.