One town can lay claim to Queensland’s first two policewomen who were appointed ninety-four years ago, and yet today there’s no public recognition. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

The two women—Miss Zara Dare and Miss Ellen O’Donnell—were sworn in and commenced duty at the Roma Street police station in Brisbane on Monday the 16th of March 1931. Both were described as ladies of culture and of excellent physique. They were plain clothes and never wore a uniform. Both women had close ties to the Ipswich district.

Policewoman O’Donnell was thirty-four years old and kept house for her brother in Gympie, when she applied to the police as a joke, never expecting to be accepted. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel O’Donnell who were pioneers of Rosewood just outside of Ipswich. She was born in Ipswich, attended the nearby Ashwell state school, and was an accomplished pianist and singer.

Her father Daniel O’Donnel was born in Drumore, Donegal, Ireland, and came to Queensland in 1864 which co-incidentally was the same year that the Queensland police force was founded. Policewoman O’Donnell lost her father when she was eighteen years old. He went to feed and water the cattle in the scrub when there was a strong dry wind blowing. He never returned. After her mother cooed into the night, neighbours came and at near midnight, Mr O’Donnell was found burned to a crisp having been caught in a bushfire.

Policewoman O’Donnell was raised with a strong sense of service. One brother was a lieutenant-colonel who served at Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War, and another was a land ranger in the Dalby district.

While both Policewoman O’Donnell and Policewoman Dare would be involved in many cases ranging from shoplifting to murder, it was Policewoman O’Donnell who had a way-of-her-own with lost children that earned the unofficial title of “Police Department foster-mother.” Hundreds of lost children owed their safe return home to her. Interestingly, she never married or had children of her own.

As for Policewoman Dare, she was the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Dare. The family moved from New South Wales to Queensland where they lived on the Darling Downs and in the Tweed district, and then settled in Pelican Street, North Ipswich. They were ardent members of the Salvation Army and high up in the dairy industry. One of her brothers was the manager of Goulburn butter factory, another brother the general manager of the Oakey butter factory, and another the proprietor of the Cooyar cheese factory.

Her father passed away when he took a hoe into his garden to dig a vegetable patch and dropped dead. Both of her parents are buried in the Ipswich cemetery.

Policewoman Dare herself spent thirteen years as a Salvation Army missionary in China, was then the Queensland state organiser for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, before at forty-four years of age, joining the Queensland police.

Policewoman Dare became a clairvoyant specialist. On the 17th of December 1934, she set the record for bringing four separate Toowoomba fortune tellers to justice on the same day.

Shortly afterwards, she avoided an apparent supernatural attempt on her life when a driverless car almost ran her down in front of the Roma Street police station. She was only saved because a colleague who pulled her out of the way at the last second.

While the younger Policewoman O’Donnell never married and remained in the force until retirement, the older Policewoman Dare in 1940 at fifty-four years of age resigned from the force on the same day that she got married. The only thing that she would say about the romance was, “We are both very well satisfied with each other, and that is all that matters.”

There was newspaper coverage of the first two policewomen at the time, but today there’s no lasting commemoration that I’ve found. I’ve reached out to the Queensland police museum but haven’t heard back yet.

Policewoman O’Donnell died in 1963. Policewoman Dare passed away in 1965 and her ashes are interred at the memorial gardens in Holland Park. There’s nothing to indicate that either hold a special place in Queensland history, and I think that should change.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Representation of policewomen Zara Dare and Ellen O’Donnell – ChatGPT.
Roma Street Police Station from Albert Street, 1 May 1938 – Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
Mrs Lillian May Lee charged with murder, with Policewoman Eileen O’Donnell – Brisbane Telegraph, 20th March 1952, page 1.
Two-year-old Danny Plant with Policewoman Eileen O’Donnell – Brisbane Telegraph, 8th June 1953, page 11.
Miss Zara Dare, Queensland’s first policewoman – Sunday Mail, Brisbane, 12th July 1931, page 20.
James Wilson and Zara Dare at the office of the Registrar-General to be married – Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 5th March 1940, page 8.
Zara Dare Wilson, Mount Thompson Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, Holland Park – uploaded by Shane 2023 via Find a Grave website.