THE TENNANT CREEK ADVANCEMENT SOCIETY

and

THE TENNANT CREEK AMENITIES FUND

Preamble: I joined the NT Police in 1950, aged 21, the minimum age for the Force. Prior to this I was a permanent Public Servant in NSW, having begun work in 1944. I arrived in Darwin by DC3 on 25^th March 1950 and was transferred to Alice Springs in October 1950. In November 1951 I became OIC Finke Police District. This covered the Territory South of the Alice Springs Aerodrome to the three adjoining State Borders. Finke was a one man Station with Camels the only official transport. I resumed duty at Alice Springs in June 1954, and was promoted to Sgt. 3^rd Class in October 1955. In November 1956 I was promoted to Sgt. 2^nd Class and posted to Darwin as Police Prosecutor. I was transferred as OIC Tennant Creek in August 1957 and was promoted to Sgt. 1^st Class at Tennant Creek in February 1958.

At Tennant Creek: On arrival at Tennant Creek I found an antagonistic attitude towards the Police, resulting from the enforcement of the Gaming Ordinance by my predecessor, Sgt. Mannion. I came with a similar reputation to his, from my enforcement of the Lottery & Gaming Ordinance in Alice Springs.

When I was stationed at Alice Springs in 1956 I had raided the Betting Shops there, without giving any prior notice. I arrested and charged the real operators, who were running the shops, and seized their records. Prior to this there was always a dummy running the shops whenever they were “raided” by Police. This arrangement indicated a degree of collusion between the proprietors of the shops and some member or members of the Police Force. Usually the dummy operator would be Victor Alexander “Rajah” Lomax.

Following the Alice Springs raid Inspector McKinnon, the Officer-in-Charge of the Southern Division of the Northern Territory, ordered me to produce the records and to make them available to the offenders so they could complete their transactions. I considered that such action would make me an accessory to the offences. I refused, asking to be allowed to give my reasons. I was not permitted to give my reasons for disobeying what was clearly an unlawful order. I was suspended and later fined Five Pounds for “disobeying a lawful order”. Inspector McKinnon made the demand twice during our conversation, the first time stating the reason why he wanted them. He repeated the demand in the same conversation. It was held that I was justified in my refusal when he added the reason but not justified in refusing when he repeated the demand without stating the reason! McKinnon then made the betting records available to the offenders.

Superintendent Graham, then the most senior Police Officer in the Territory, later sent a memo to the NT Administrator, who was also the Commissioner of Police, reporting that action and fine. The Administrator made a note on the file, asking whether “the act of making these betting slips available in the way proposed would amount to aiding and abetting the offence”. This had been my reason for not obeying the order. The Administrator suggested that a Crown Law opinion be obtained. I do not know whether this was ever done.

My enforcement of the Lotteries and Gaming Ordinance had been prompted by the blatant nature of offences, the fact that people associated with such activities were generally unhelpful to Police, and would even provide assistance to persons of ill repute that the Police would rather see out of town. There was also the inevitable, and usually well-founded, suggestion that some Police were in receipt of corrupt payments.

In Tennant Creek matters came to a head on 31^st August, shortly after my arrival. A person named Witney was arrested by two Constables on patrol, and was removed from the Tennant Creek Hotel on suspicion of betting. An anonymous phone call was received at the Police Station stating that the offender, Witney, had returned to the Hotel. The two Constables went back to the Hotel to remove Witney. They were met by a crowd, jostled, heckled and booed in a near riot.

Soon after that event Superintendent Graham from Darwin and Inspector McKinnon from Alice Springs came to Tennant Creek. Supt. Graham said that as OIC Tennant Creek it was my responsibility to encourage better relations between the Police and the public. He suggested that if I decided that Betting Shops should be allowed to open then Peter Lynch, who was not known to me at that time, should be allowed to operate one.

I considered that in this situation the best course would be to institute some form of control of Gaming that would both benefit the town and remove any suggestion that any member of the Force was in receipt of corrupt payments. I decided to institute a de-facto “licensing” of Betting shops. The SP bookmakers would have to contribute to a fund, as a sort of licence fee. A committee of reputable townspeople, to be known as the Tennant Creek Advancement Society, would administer the fund and set the “licence fee”. I would not be a member of the Society. The idea was that the townspeople would know that the bookies were paying for their privilege and that the fund was being used to support educational, sporting, social and cultural facilities in Tennant Creek. I drew up the Constitution of the Tennant Creek Advancement Society, as follows:

The Object of the Society shall be to assist Tennant Creek Educational, Cultural, Sporting and Social bodies.

The Society shall operate a fund to be known as the Tennant Creek Amenities Fund.

There shall be both Contributing Members and Ordinary Members of the Society.

Contributing members shall be such as are appointed by the OIC Police Tennant Creek. Contributing members shall pay (space left blank) Pounds per week into the Amenities Fund. (The Committee later decided on Ten Pounds per week)

Ordinary members shall be such as are appointed by the OIC Police Tennant Creek. The OIC Police may appoint such persons as are nominated by the Contributing Members as Ordinary Members.

The OIC Police shall have the power to dismiss any Member.

Meetings of the Society shall be held in the months of February, May, August and November each year and such other times as are necessary. The Office bearers of the Society shall be a Chairman, Secretary and a Treasurer who shall be elected by the members at the meeting in February of each year.

A quorum shall consist of the contributing members and three ordinary members.

At each meeting the amount of credit of the Fund shall be disclosed and applications for assistance considered. Payments from the fund shall be made according to the will of the meeting provided that no such payment shall be made unless all the contributing members are in favour.

No body shall be granted more than 25% of available funds at any meeting unless with the unanimous approval of the meeting. Funds will be distributed as equitably as possible among the above mentioned bodies.

The fund shall be audited by a resident Tennant Creek Accountant every December and the Auditor shall report to the OIC Police Tennant Creek.

I appointed Jack Ford, Businessman, Charlie Huck, Publican, Bill Hamilton, Native Affairs, and Jeff Kittle, Businessman, as Ordinary Members. I did not want professional gamblers as contributing members so I approached “Handlebars” Macintyre, licensee of the Goldfields Hotel and John Ross, Electrician, to start one shop and Jack Meany, of the Works Dept. and Len Pratt, a Miner, to start the other. Before long Macintyre and Ross sought permission for Peter Lynch to run their shop as they said it was not a game for amateurs and they were losing money. Jack Meany later withdrew and was replaced by Cec. Bourne, TAA Agent.

By October 1957 the system was working and the attitude in Tennant Creek towards the Police had improved. Police were now able to do individual patrols in the town, rather than having to patrol in pairs. People were more forthcoming with both information and assistance. I felt I had achieved what Supt. Graham had asked.

Shortly after I had initiated the Tennant Creek Advancement Society in 1957, Inspector McKinnon had called the members of the Force in Alice Springs together and said: “Kelly has opened the Betting Shops in Tennant Creek so I am going to open them in Alice Springs.”

There was no suggestion of the establishment of an “Alice Springs Advancement Society”, or an “Alice Springs Amenities Fund” or anything like it. Reg Harris of Alice Springs subsequently advised me that Inspector McKinnon was in receipt of substantial payments from the Bookmakers.

Peter Lynch, who was running one of the Betting Shops in Tennant Creek told me later that he had told Lewis and Christensen, who ran one of the Betting Shops in Alice Springs, that it was costing him Ten Pounds a week to operate in Tennant Creek (The rate set by the Advancement Committee). They told him it was costing them Thirty Pounds a week. There were two Betting Shops. It was assumed that it was costing the other Betting Shop the same.

In April 1958 Administrative Inspector Stokes came to Tennant Creek. He said that Mr. Neil Hargreaves, MLC for Alice Springs, had mentioned the Tennant Creek scheme to the Minister for Territories, who had asked Inspector Stokes to investigate and report to the Minister. I explained my motives and actions and he appeared to be satisfied.

On 3^rd June 1958 the NT Administrator and Police Commissioner, Mr. Archer came to Tennant Creek to tell me I had been permanently appointed to Tennant Creek. He asked me to explain the operations of the Tennant Creek Advancement Society. I explained all that had occurred. He said: “this could cost me my job”. I said that I had not had any intention of embarrassing him and that if instructed I would do all that was possible to stamp out gaming in the town and at the Mines. He replied: “of course such matters are left to the local Sergeant’s discretion”.

Subsequently Mr. Marsh, then Acting Administrator and Commissioner of Police, came to Tennant Creek and asked about the scheme. He greeted the idea enthusiastically, saying “this is excellent. Give me all the details and I will write them down.” I did this. He said “When I get back to Darwin I will give this to the Crown Law Office. I will have them draft a Bill to incorporate this in the Lotteries and Gaming Ordinance. I will give it to Len Purkiss MLC to present at the next sitting of the Legislative Council.” I then made some suggestions as to the wording of the Bill.

After the next sitting of the Council, Len Purkiss showed the draft Bill to me. I saw that it embodied my suggestions. He said he had not presented the Bill as he had shown the Draft to Neil Hargreaves, MLC for Alice Springs, who said he would oppose it as it only allowed Betting Shops in Tennant Creek and Katherine, and not in Alice Springs. I asked him to leave the Draft with me. I then prepared an amended draft Bill, which would allow Betting Shops to open in Alice Springs only on days when there was no race meeting in or near the town. I also inserted a provision for the Police to have a say as to who could conduct a Betting Shop.

Not long after this Supt. Graham passed through Tennant Creek and I showed him the draft Bill. He asked for a copy. Some time later he contacted me about a complaint from the Secretary of the Wauchope Racing Club. There had been a Race Meeting at Wauchope that was not well attended, even though the Tennant Creek Betting Shops were closed on that day. Graham asked me if I had ever “raided” the Betting Shops in Tennant Creek. I replied that the shops would close if I told them to, and that I would not “raid” a shop that I had permitted to open. He asked for a written report on the situation, which I provided on 17^th November 1958. This report said:

STARTING PRICE BETTING – TENNANT CREEK

I have to advise there are two S.P. Betting shops operating in Tennant Creek. Both of these opened with my sanction.

One shop is operated by Peter LYNCH, Agent of Tennant Creek and is situated in Patterson Street, adjacent to the Billiard Saloon. The entrance is screened from the street and persons do not congregate in the street outside.

The second shop is operated by Cecil Ivor BOURNE, in partnership with Leonard James PRATT. BOURNE is an investor and PRATT a miner. This shop is situated in a lane off Patterson Street adjacent to the Goldfields Hotel. Persons do not congregate in the vicinity.

No complaints have been received from local persons concerning the operation of the Betting shops. The operators of the shops close down whenever there is a race meeting within 100 miles of Tennant Creek, of their own volition.

It is normally the practice for the S.P. operators to field at any meeting in the vicinity. The only exception to this was the meeting recently held at Wauchope. This was because of a personal feud between the Secretary of the Race Club, who is the wife of the Publican at Wauchope, and Peter LYNCH. I have spoken to both parties and do not expect a recurrence of the incident.

No raids have been carried out on these premises. I do not intend to carry out any raids unless instructed to do so as I feel this would be unfair to persons who may be found in the shops, and would be inconsistent on my part.

The operators of the shops have no convictions for Gaming offences and I am certain that if the shops were to be raided they would close down and remain closed. They would not be willing to have stand-ins for the occasion as this would smack of collusion.

As I have previously intimated to yourself and to the Commissioner I will immediately close the shops if instructed to do so. Forwarded for your information.

(Signed) A.B. Kelly

Sgt 1/C

Officer in Charge

During this time there were still gambling games at the mines, which occasionally gave rise to trouble. There were some suggestions of crooked dice being used. One miner lost his pay, stole someone else’s and lost most of that. He was arrested.

Raiding games at the mines was difficult because of their locations on the Mine sites, and as there could be a number of games going at the one time. I decided to permit a game in a quiet location in Tennant Creek, on similar terms to those under which the Bookies were operating, after discussion with the Tennant Creek Advancement Society. This had to be a clean game.

Where there had previously been three games at Peko, the number of games were reduced to one. However after a fight at the town game I closed it down. Peter Lynch suggested that a poker machine be made available at the Peko Mine Club, as an alternative to the type of games that could be rigged. I suggested he take the matter up directly with the Tennant Creek Advancement Society. The system that I had initiated worked well.

About 20^th August 1959 I drove from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek with Inspector McKinnon. We discussed illegal gaming in Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. I told McKinnon that the gambling game at Alice Springs was so notorious that Delhunty, a Tennant Creek gambler, had paid an overnight visit to the game in Alice Springs and had cleaned up there. I had suspected Delhunty of using crooked dice and I had eventually seen him off from the Territory. Shortly before this, with Constable Wilson I had stopped and searched Delhunty in his vehicle on the Queensland side of the Three Ways road junction, at about 2 O’clock one morning. Delhunty was then on his way to Queensland. In his vehicle we found blank dice and engraving instruments, which we confiscated. As we had no evidence of a serious offence and he was leaving the Territory, I told Delhunty he was not to return to the Territory. He agreed not to, and was allowed to continue on his way.

Inspector McKinnon denied all knowledge of the Alice Springs game. He said that he had instructed his men to be on the lookout for it. I said: “They don’t have to look too far. It is in Joe Lewis’ shed on the East Side. He has a table tennis there, and there is a frame leaning up against the wall that is put over the table tennis to play the dice game”.

McKinnon then suggested that we stop on the side of the road and make a cup of tea. While I was crouched over the fire, boiling the Billy, I heard the crack of a gun and a bullet buzzed past my ear. I turned and saw McKinnon holding his pistol. He was about ten feet away. He said: “It went off.” Nothing more was said about it. I think he was trying to intimidate me. There was no occasion for him to draw his pistol, which must have been in his pocket. He was not wearing a holster. We did not normally carry guns or wear holsters in those days.

I visited Alice Springs on two occasions after this conversation with McKinnon and found there had been no attempt to close the illegal game down. “Rajah” Lomax used to keep me in the picture about gaming in Alice Springs.

On the 4^th December 1959, while Superintendent Graham was on leave, Inspector McKinnon sent Acting Superintendent Bowie a cryptic telegram: “Patrolling today as discussed”. I later discovered that a copy of this telegram had been placed on my file in Darwin.

McKinnon arrived in Tennant Creek later that day and raided the Peko Club, seizing some Poker machines. He suspended me from duty and then reinstated me so that I could prosecute the person who had been charged with gaming at Peko. This person was not known to me – he was from Alice Springs. I now have reason to suspect he was a plant.

There was no Police record of this person in Tennant Creek. I later discovered McKinnon knew he had a record in Alice Springs, but he failed to advise me of this. I advised the Bench that nothing was known of the offender. This was the usual practice when we had no record to produce. I was suspended again immediately after the hearing and charged by McKinnon with neglect of duty for not producing the offender’s record.

It was clear that Inspector McKinnon, who was known among the Police as “Hanger Bill”, was determined to fit me up. The hearing of the charge against me was a fiasco. During the hearing in Alice Springs a Journalist who had been drinking with the Chairman of the Discipline Board told me that I was going to be found guilty whatever was said, as discipline had to be maintained. I said I would call him to give evidence. He said he would deny everything as he still had to live in Alice Springs and keep onside with Inspector McKinnon.

Following the Tennant Creek hearing I was reduced in rank to Constable and posted back to the Finke, which had been my first bush Station. I resigned from the Force. The Betting Shops and the other illegal gaming in Alice Springs continued without any interruption from Inspector McKinnon.

John Healy took over from me as Acting Sergeant i/c Tennant Creek. He subsequently told me that Inspectors McKinnon and Bowie came to Tennant Creek and told him to go lightly on the Betting Shops in Tennant Creek. These continued to operate, but without any benefit accruing to the Town. The Tennant Creek Advancement Society ceased to exist.

After I left the Force I worked for five years in Sydney and then moved to Adelaide to work as an Industrial Advocate. I bumped into Peter Lynch in Adelaide. He told me that there had been a meeting in Canberra between a deputation of members of the NT Legislative Council and the Territories Minister, concerning the Commonwealth veto of the Gaming Legislation based on the system I had instituted in Tennant Creek. At that meeting, after considerable discussion, a Public Servant had said that the scheme was not practicable and would not work. Neil Hargreaves MLC of Alice Springs, had replied that it had in fact been working for two years in Tennant Creek. Lynch assumed that this had embarrassed the Minister and that had led to McKinnon’s raid. I later discovered that this was not what led to McKinnon's action.

While I was Secretary of the Municipal Officers Association in South Australia I was appointed by the South Australian Government as a member of the Flinders University Council. Neil Hargreaves, who had been the Alice Springs M.L.C. was also a member of the University Council. I asked him about Peter Lynch’s account of the meeting with the Minister in Canberra. He confirmed the account but stated the meeting happened after I had left the Force. This left the motive for the raid a puzzle.

In 1986 I attended a Police Reunion in Alice Springs. McKinnon was there. I said hello to him and shook his hand. He said: “I’m glad you spoke to me. Mind you, I would not have blamed you if you had not.” Later at that Reunion a number of former Police Officers refused to take part in a group photograph at the old Gap Police Station, because “Hanger Bill” McKinnon was going to be in it. I did not.

Some years after the 1986 Police Reunion I saw a Police file in Alice Springs that contained a copy of an order dated 17^th November 1959, from Superintendent Graham posting me as OIC Alice Springs. This order was sent nearly three weeks before McKinnon arrived at Tennant Creek on 4^th December 1959 and laid a charge against me. It had never been forwarded to me.

The order was to advise me that Sergeant 2/C Metcalf was to leave Darwin for Tennant Creek on 25^th February 1960 and on arrival at Tennant Creek was to take over from me as Officer in Charge. I was to take recreation leave from 1^st March 1960 and was to resume duty as OIC Police at Alice Springs on return from leave.

All orders and correspondence from Darwin Headquarters was sent to Tennant Creek through the OIC Southern Division, Inspector McKinnon, in Alice Springs. There was no good reason for his failure to forward this particular order on to me. He received it two weeks before he staged his raid on the Peko Club at Tennant Creek. The raid was staged after Superintendent Graham had gone on leave and Inspector Bowie, the recipient of the cryptic telegram from McKinnon, had become acting Superintendent.

I would have been delighted to be posted to Alice Springs. It was the best town in the Territory. My wife was an Alice Springs girl and the rest of her family were there. However we never found out about the intended posting until 30 years later. That order was never sent on by McKinnon. The posting to Alice Springs was clearly the reason for the Peko Club raid.

When I saw that order I realised why McKinnon had carried out his “raid”. He had not wanted me as OIC Police in Alice Springs. He knew my views on Betting Shops and on their connexion with Police corruption. Had I been able to take up the position of OIC Alice Springs I would most probably have closed the Betting Shops. I would have certainly continued to press for an amendment to the law. I might even have instituted an “Alice Springs Advancement Society” with an “Alice Springs Amenities Fund”. In the latter case the community of Alice Springs would have benefited, just as the Tennant Creek community had.

At the time that the Amenities Fund was operating in Tennant Creek, the Commonwealth Government subsidised funds raised by local bodies in the Northern Territory, including the Tennant Creek Advancement Society, on a Pound for Pound basis. The Tennant Creek Amenities Fund applied for and received this subsidy. The money raised by the Tennant Creek Advancement Society was used for many worthwhile causes in the town. It was also used to help persons travelling through the town, who were in need of assistance. Most of the money went to Tennant Creek sporting facilities. The “Len Purkiss Oval” has been identified as one beneficiary of my institution of the Tennant Creek Amenities Fund.

There is a reference to me in an article: “The Saga of Sergeant Kelly”, in Reg Harris’ “Legendary Territorians” (2007). This article suggests that I was transferred from Alice Springs directly to Tennant Creek and ordered to not to close the betting shops there. This article is wrong on both counts but I am prepared to accept the legendary status, which is much more complex than Reg Harris thought.