TV bank becomes real-life cop shop

Tasmania Police yesterday announced that the former ANZ Bank at 24 High St would today become a temporary police station.

The existing police station in Bathurst St, New Norfolk, is to be demolished and rebuilt after serving the town since 1967. The site next to historic St Matthew’s Anglican Church has been home to local law enforcement officers since colonial times and once also housed a jail.

A development application for the new police station  was lodged with the Derwent Valley Council last week and is open for public comment until March 10.

While the temporary police station will be open from today, the New Norfolk branch of Service Tasmania will continue to operate from the old police station until early next month.

The New Norfolk Police Station in Bathurst St, New Norfolk.

The new $5 million police station will provide separate accommodation for police and Service Tasmania.

A post on the Tasmania Police Museum Facebook page yesterday said the New Norfolk Police Station – once described as the most modern in the state – was well past its use-by date due to “the ravages of time and a degree of neglect over the years.”

When it opened in 1967, the building was the headquarters of the Central Police District, with a complement of a superintendent, inspector, sergeant, detective sergeant, senior constable, nine constables and two junior constables, responsible for about 17,000 square kilometres of central Tasmania. The station was built with provision for the addition of a second floor which never eventuated.

Staffing of the New Norfolk Police Station is presently one sergeant and 11 constables in New Norfolk, with a further two officers expected to be appointed in two years time.