No. 1606 - Rokeby - Police Academy - St Barnabas' Chapel (1978)

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Rokeby is an eastern suburb of Greater Hobart on the east bank of the Derwent River. It remained a small village until the State Government’s Housing Department built a large public housing estate in the 1970s.

The Rokeby Police Academy, officially known as the Tasmania Police Academy, opened in March 1976 as the first purpose-built police academy in Australia. Police training had previously taken place in various locations, including Sackville Street and Argyle Street in Hobart.

The state of the art facility included a mock courtroom, television studio as well as a non-denominational chapel. The chapel was situated within the main administrative building and was dedicated and consecrated to St Barnabas in March 1978 by the Anglican Bishop Robert Davies.

I have yet to find photographs of the chapel which is no longer in use.


The Police Academy at Rokeby. St Barnabas Chapel was located in the administration building in the left foreground of the photograph: Source: Tasmania Police Association Journal, March 1976


Sources and Further Information:

Henslowe, Dorothea I and Hurburgh, Isa. Our heritage of Anglican churches in Tasmania / by Dorothea I. Henslowe, 1978

Tasmania Police Association Journal, March 1976

https://www.tasmaniapolicemuseum.com.au/

The Tasmanian Police: Museum: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063818777798


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