September 28, 2015
Tuesday is National Police Remembrance Day … an opportunity for the community to pause and commemorate fallen police officers throughout Australia.
South Burnett police hold a special ceremony every year, which rotates between different towns.
In 2015, the service will be held in Kingaroy.
It will start at 3:00pm in the Uniting Church, corner of Youngman and Alford streets.
In the Gympie region, the service will be held at 10:00am at St Peter’s Anglican Church, corner of Lady Mary Terrace and Amy Street, Gympie.
* * *
A special ceremony will be held in Longreach on Tuesday to honour a man who worked alongside Queensland police for more than 20 years but whose service has largely been overlooked until now.
Corporal Sam Johnson, a Bidjara man born in Charleville about 1877, served for 23 years as a police tracker.
He died at Longreach from influenza in 1919 and is buried in the Longreach Cemetery but does not have a headstone.
The Queensland Police Union, the Queensland Police Service and the Friends of the Queensland Police Museum have worked to correct this and a headstone and a plaque commemorating his service will be unveiled this week.
Corporal Johnson was involved in the successful conviction of the infamous Kenniff Brothers bushrangers who murdered Police Constable George Doyle in 1902.
