In 1933, two trained Alsatians, Tess and Harada, joined the New South Wales Police Force. Almost immediately they were earning their keep, apprehending criminals and tracking people lost in the bush. Tess in particular would go on to perform amazing feats of detection. She was adored by the public, especially children.
Dog training displays were a great hit at the Royal Easter Show. On one occasion Tess made a mock attack on a Constable Spicer with such force that she knocked him over and he ended up in hospital with broken ribs.. In the following photo taken at the same event she is about to apprehend a revolver touting ‘bandit’ trying to make his getaway.
But there was a gentle side to Tess as well. Here she is giving a ride to a five year old boy at the police yards in Alexandria.
The Easter Show was also a great opportunity for Tess to show off her strength and agility, jumping through hoops of fire and diving from a high platform. It demonstrated her complete trust in her handlers. In those difficult days of the Great Depression the dog achieved a star power that rivalled the legendary racehorse Pharlap.
No fear at all.
A tricky climb up!
A PLEA TO SEE TESS
‘We would like to go the sports on Saturday, but; we have no money, as my daddy is out of work. There are four in the family, daddy, mummy, my little brother and I. I have heard a lot about the dog Tess, and I would like to see her.’ Such was the letter written to the organisers of the Police Carnival by a 12 year old girl who lives in the Balmain district. Sergeant’s Lendrum and Pickard, of Police Headquarters, received the letter last night, and half an hour later they were at the small and poorly furnished home where the girl and her people live. The girl, and her mother, father and little brother will see Tess and all the spectacular items at the carnival tomorrow, And they will be guests of the police at luncheon. ‘You are princes from a fairy story, said the little girl, thanking the blushing police officers.’ (Daily Telegraph, Feb. 22 1935)
Perhaps the most defining operation in Tess’s police career was the tragic case of a little girl who went missing on Christmas Eve in the NSW town of Windsor. It would be recorded years later in the book, ‘The Cold Nose of the Law’
EXTRACT FROM BOOK – A feat of double-tracking by the New South Wales Alsatian Tess has probably never been equalled by any other police dog in the world…..Tess scored this greatest of all her successes on Christmas Day, 1937. A little girl was murdered in a country town near Sydney. The murderer, an old man employed as a gardener, killed her in his room, put the body in a sack, and dropped it into a creek.
The police dog was sent for after unsuccessful searches by police and residents. Following the child’s track from the scent of a frock, Tess first took detectives to the murderer’s room. Then, after sniffing one of the old man’s shirts, she took the police at a run to the creek [about a mile away], located the body in the water, and tried to bring it back to the bank. (News, May 1 1948)
It was heartbreaking outcome, but the dog had done its best.
Tess leading an officer to the creek where the little girl’s body was found.
Tess died suddenly in December 1940 at nine years of age. but she would not be forgotten..
Taxidermists from the Australian Museum took on the job of preserving Tess, ‘She will now be on a high pedestal in Sydney Museum, to be admired just as that great racehorse Phar Lap is admired in the Melbourne Museum. (Worker, March 25 1941)
Tess frequently starred at the Easter Show in the years that followed, albeit in a glass case. Despite the lure of sideshow alley, she was still capable of drawing a young crowd more than a decade later;
SHOW SIDELIGHTS – A popular attraction with children was the preserved and stuffed figure of Tess,. the first NSW police dog, in a large glass case. Tess, an Alsatian, worked with the police helping to find lost children. (Daily Telegraph. April 11, 1954)
You can still see this special dog on display at Sydney’s Police and Justice Museum.
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