A VISIT TO THE SA POLICE MUSEUM: UPDATED WITH PLASTER BUST DISPLAY IMAGES. NOV 8th 2022...

 ...UPDATED NOV 8th 2022. Images down the page >>

Not quite two weeks since I visited Adelaide in South Australia. I have family and friends there and in fact, it was my first Australian home when I arrived here in 1977.

Amongst the highlights of this last trip was a visit to the South Australian Police Museum. It was very special for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to hear with some sadness that the Museum and its surrounding buildings which include the Thebarton Police Barracks, have been effectively resumed by the State Government. They intend to build a new annex to the Royal Adelaide Hospital on the land. There is a slim chance that it may not go ahead. Whilst I was there, a number of drilling locations were pointed out to me. They need to make sure that this is not sacred land although in some ways, it always will be. I learned that mine may have been amongst, if not the last visit to the museum by anyone, I truly hope not.

I was given a personalised tour so it was just the curator and I. We walked through and past all of the exhibits. The Uniform room was stunning, it houses thousands of police artifacts and memorabilia, and not just from Australia, many pieces had been donated to the museum from Police Forces around the world. Tray upon tray of cap badges and insignia, I was delighted to find the cap badge that I once wore, many years ago.

Some of the dress uniforms were stunning, especially those from Europe (Italy!). Rooms filled with early Police equipment, from accoutrements to early radios, in fact, an entire Police front office from the 50s had been set up in one room complete with an old but still functioning I think, switchboard. Happy days :) the curator showed me with great pride the collection of early Police vehicles including a horse-drawn Paddy Wagon for want of a better term. A long row of motorcycles was gleaming apart from some oil spots beneath the BSAs :) I spotted a black Holden Sedan similar to the one seen in some of the Somerton Man-era photographs. It was radio equipped but it was a 1954 model. SA Police were amongst the first to install mobile communications in their vehicles complete with morse code keys. 

SAPOL has always been a forward-thinking service, with many Australian firsts to their credit since its beginnings in 1838. 

I was told the story of how the civilian force came about in those times, apparently, the 18 strong contingents of Royal Marines was first to take on the Policing role in SA, but someone forgot about the rum ration that was dealt out on a daily basis. And so the SA civilian Police was formed to keep the marines under control.

It was here that I learned that right up until the late 50s I think, the police also operated the ambulance service. That of course means that the van that took the Somerton Man to the Hospital the morning of December 1st, 1948, was the ambulance and not just a Police body van as I had erroneously thought.

Naturally, I was shown and photographed the bust of the Somerton Man and a few other artifacts related to the case. I will publish them shortly.

Apart from the sad news of the impending closure, it was a great and very informative visit to the museum, the knowledge and experience of those I met were most impressive. I learned a great deal and I was able to share some of the information that I have gathered over the years, some of which was quite new to them.

The online shop is still operating, and they have a range of very interesting books and other items on sale there. I certainly bought a few things whilst I was there and while I have read a few texts on SAPOL I am now plowing my way through some even interesting aspects of the Police in South Australia. 

You can find the Museum Shop HERE

PLASTER BUST DISPLAY IMAGES:

This Image was taken at SAPOL Museum Thebarton SA 

The display is housed in a plastic shield case, the case itself has been damaged at some time. For those interested in the detail, the appearance of the bust is quite a brilliant white which makes it a little difficult to discern the facial features. 

The housing contains a number of items:

1. A copy of the Gerry Feltus book, The Unknown Man, (the width of the book is 170mm)

2. A casting of the teeth of the Somerton Man based on Dr. Dwyers Dental chart.

3. A description of the bust on the top of the box and that Dr. Dwyer performed an autopsy on the Somerton Man on December 2nd, 1948

4. A brief excerpt from The Unknown Man book is typed on the small sheet of paper that you see propped up against the bust's left upper arm.

5. The Witness Summons from the Coroner to Paul Lawson, the man who made the bust

6. One of Paul Lawson's Diaries is beneath the Witness summons.

A few thoughts on this image. Firstly the bust itself showed no signs of having been chipped away as you might expect would have happened if a number of hair samples had been removed. In fact, I only saw one location on the top of the scalp where there may have been some attempt, it was more like a scratch than a cut.

The bust seemed smaller than I expected, the width of the book could be used as a guide to the width of the bust although using photographs in this way is not the best way to find a measurement. But, if you choose to use the book is a guide, then the width of the man's body across the shoulders would be approximately 420 mm. I wouldn't have called that particularly broad-shouldered. In fact the average width of a man across the shoulders is 410mm The width of the head itself is not much wider than the width of the book if you include the ears.

The shoulder width does not include the triceps as you can see in this diagram above. 

READ MORE ABOUT AVERAGE SHOULDER WIDTHS HERE

Average head width of 200 mm is suggested here

and the height of the face is 250 mm, on average.

AND MORE HERE: 

You can roughly calculate a man's height by measuring the size of the head. an average man would have a height that is approximately 7 or 7.5 times the height of the head.  A perfect ratio would be 8 times the size of the head.

Another image was taken from above the display:

Here you can see part of the Unkown Man book, the dental cast made by Dr.Dwyer and based on the Dental chart he produced, the actual Witness Summons for Paul Lawson and beneath that is Paul Lawson's diary for June 1949. the cast of the teeth was made in 2003. For the record, the cast clearly shows that the front teeth were missing and not 'crowded' as in anodontia or hypodontia as promoted by Professor Abbott. In total, according to Dr. Dwyer's chart, there were 18 teeth missing.

This chart will be a critical element in the identification of the exhumed remains. If this dental chart matches that of the remains then you have the remains of the Somerton Man. If they do not match, then the remains are not those of the Somerton Man. 

There are more photographs from the Museum Visit to follow...