A rural police residence, possibly Kempsey. Perhaps the home of Alfred James Burrows.
1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook
Dick, Caroline, Magpie Billy, Maria, Bullseye Tommy, Jerry, Nancy, Jenny, George, Selina, Kitty, Jim Crow, Emily, Ebony, Topsy, Tiger, Old Billie, Dolly, Mary Anne & child, Emma, Spider Tom, Nellie, Alice & baby . . . Flicking through an antique pocket notebook that once belonged to a police constable in western NSW, I was arrested by the page headed: "Blankets 1894". In a notebook otherwise full of shopping lists, maudlin poetry, betting notes for horse races, lists of belongings at the scenes of lonely rural deaths and descriptions of wanted horse thieves, this unassuming list struck…