At the start of 1943, thousands of soldiers, many from the Australian Army’s 1st Armoured Brigade, relocated to Mingenew. Their presence in the area was important. With the increasing fear of a Japanese attack, they were critical to the defence of Australia.
The news that the soldiers were in the district was conspicuously absent from the newspapers. Censors were hard at work, and reminders were displayed in various places. They advised people to avoid “all reference in your conversation and correspondence to matters of naval or military importance.” It was not considered “smart or clever to talk and write about such things.” With the National Security Act in full force, no one wanted to risk receiving a large fine or imprisonment.
Everyone knew they were there, but no one put it in print. The only time a soldier appeared in the papers (giving us a glimpse of their presence) was if there was a tragic accident or they acted in a disorderly manner while in town.
They did not stay in the same place for a long period of time. After several months of being located north-east of Mingenew, they relocated south-east of the town to Yandanooka. They were there from March 1943 until the end of July. On 24 July, they received instructions that they were to relocate to Round Hill near Moora. They moved out over the space of a week, with some of the last groups arriving in early August.
As the troops moved from one place to another, the people of Mingenew continued with their lives. On 30 July, at 6 pm, the mail contractor placed £3,808 in a brown canvas bag. The brown bag was placed into a slightly larger blue canvas bag, and the two bags were placed into a mail bag made of white canvas. He took the nest of bags from the post office to the railway station, placed it inside, and locked the door.
Later that night, at 10:30 pm, the bags were removed from the railway station and placed inside the guard’s van of the Perth-bound Midland Railway Company’s train. The train departed at 11 pm. When it arrived in Perth, the nest of mail bags containing the money was not on board.
Journalists for various newspapers immediately reported on the story. It was a Mingenew sensation and was referred to as “the biggest robbery of its kind in this State for many years.”
Inspector Stanley Read of the Criminal Investigation Branch placed his best detective on the case. As the robbery also involved the postal department, they, too, were said to have sent an investigator from their Post Office Investigation Branch.
Additional information came to light days later. The money was consigned by a Commonwealth Department to Perth and was not insured. It was made up of 69 five-pound notes, 2,800 one-pound notes, and 1,320 ten-shilling notes. The numbers of the notes were not known, which would later become a hindrance to the police’s ability to trace them.
Aside from the initial reports, there was limited follow-up in the newspapers. The only clue as to who was suspected of having committed the crime is found in the Western Australian Police Gazette.
Having had no success tracing the culprit, a ‘Special Inquiry’ notice was printed in the Gazette on 10 August. It provided a closer estimate of when the crime took place: sometime between 10:45 and 11 pm, indicating that the guard’s van must have been unattended for 15 minutes.
The notice requested that all officers in charge of police stations notify banks and stores in their districts in case the offender tried changing the small notes for larger denominations. Their suspicion was clear when they stated:
Up to date it is believed that soldiers are responsible for this theft and particular attention should be paid to any strangers in the town.
After that point, in 1943, the newspapers were silent. There were also no updates in the 1943 and 1944 Police Gazettes. Even records relating to the Midland Railway Company were scarce on details. On 25 November 1943, the Company Secretary, John Lewis, writing private correspondence from London, stated, “The theft of a mail bag containing £3,808 in currency notes from Mingenew station is very unfortunate, and I hope to learn from your further advices that the money has been traced. Meanwhile I note that the Company is in no way financially responsible.”
The money was not traced. While initially the source of it was reported as a ‘Commonwealth Department,’ by January 1944, the newspaper ‘Mirror’ revealed that it was banked by the Army canteen units, and consigned to the head office in Perth. They further stated that police believed that an “Eastern State gang” dressed as soldiers were responsible and that they had stolen it during the troop movements.
Having given up on finding the culprit, attention turned to what entity was accountable for the loss. The ‘Mirror’ claimed that both the Commonwealth Bank and the Railway Department were pointing fingers at each other. In documents dated February and April 1944, the Midland Railway Company reiterated that they did not expect to be financially liable. Unless insurance covered it (I note that early reports said the money was not insured), then it became the tax payer’s burden. Again, there was no follow-up article.
The mystery of the Mingenew robbery was never solved. It was a lot of government money, and the indifference they appeared to show towards finding it is fascinating. Was there a criminal gang from the eastern states dressed up as soldiers, infiltrating units, and stealing thousands of pounds? Or were soldiers responsible? Regardless of the ‘who,’ with the crime occurring in war years, during a time of censorship, and at a secret location, there were more than likely restrictions as to what could or could not be said or done. Perhaps, in the end, it was those restrictions that affected the outcome of the investigation.
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Sources:
Australian War Memorial; Poster; Warner, R Malcolm, LHQ Vic L of C Area, LHQ Cartographic Coy, Australian Survey Corps; 1943; Accession Number: ARTV02497
Australian War Memorial; Photograph; February 1943; Accession Number: 043801
State Library of Western Australia; Mingenew Railway Station [picture]; 1910; Call Number: 031228PD
State Library of Western Australia; Midland Railway Company of Western Australia records, 1884-1999; ACC 1557A/446
The Mice of Mingenew: unofficial history of 1 Aust. Armd. Brigade Coy. ASC 1941-1945; Neville Kidd; 1985
1943 'CENSORS ON GUARD', The Irwin Index (Mingenew, WA : 1926 - 1956), 2 January, p. 4. , viewed 15 Aug 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251622948
1943 '£4000 MAILBAG ROBBERY', The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), 2 August, p. 1. (HOME EDITION), viewed 18 Aug 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78452890
1943 'The Mail Robbery', The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), 3 August, p. 10. (HOME EDITION), viewed 18 Aug 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78448188
1944 'Argument Over £4000', Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956), 15 January, p. 4. , viewed 21 Aug 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75933871
1943 'Who Will Pay For £4000 Mingenew Loss?', Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956), 14 August, p. 1. , viewed 23 Aug 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75933154