The Historic Houses Trust in Australia has a forensic photography archive at the Justice & Police Museum which contains an estimated 130,000 images created by the New South Wales Police between 1910 and 1960.
Images uncovered in Justice & Police Museum’s Forensic Photography Archive, capture the spaces left behind: a moody catalogue of vacant lots, empty roads, desolate interiors, crime scenes and the everyday fragments of life in these hard-bitten slices of Sydney.
Corpse in vacant lot 1933
Domestic interior, showing kitchen, sink, mugs and utensils, inscribed “Hurlstone Park Murder 1074″.
Car crash, night time, early 1940s. Details unknown, but possibly Liverpool street, Sydney.
Street scene, Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, near corner of Riley Street, looking east, around 1938. Details unknown.
Crime scene with blood spatters and signs of struggle
Scene of fatal accident involving taxi and pedestrian, Broadway (near the corner of City Road) Sydney, 18 November, 1948.
Body on track. Location and details unknown.
Street scene. Late 1940s, details unknown.
Detective and damaged taxi cab circa 1946
Bedroom with female murder victim on bed. Location and details unknown; presumably Sydney, ca 1942.
Scene of the shooting murder of Dr Claude Tozer, at the home of Dorothy Mort, Lindfield, NSW, 21 December 1920. NSW Police
Streetscape, scene of motor accident, early 1920s, location and details unknown. Possibly somewhere in the Eastern Suburbs, Sydney. NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice and Police Museum, Sydney Living Museums.
Streetscape, scene of accident involving two trucks, corner Balfour and Meagher Streets, Chippendale, early 1940s. NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice and Police Museum, Sydney Living Museums.
Interior with piano, suitcase and chairs. Details unknown, early 1950s. NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice and Police Museum, Sydney Living Museums.
Commercial interior showing damaged safes. Details unknown, late 1930s. NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice and Police Museum, Sydney Living Museums.
Street scene, showing collision between tram and coal truck, Botany Road Mascot, early 1940s.
Corpse, late 1930s
Masked detectives and civilians, 1933
Collapsed Awning Fatality, c1926
Illegal Abortion Room, late 1930s
Car Crash, early 1940s
Identifying Illegal Ticket Sellers, 1948
Unknown Crime Scene, mid-1940s
Backyard, scene of attempted suicide, North Sydney – 1948
Aftermath of shopfront fire in the Sydney Arcade – c1937
Accident by Sydney Harbour Bridge – June 11, 1947
Crime Scene, late 1930s
Tram and Coal Truck Collision, early 1940s
Car Accident, early 1940s
Four Men in Connection with Motor Accident, early 1940s
via The Sydney Justice & Police Museum
