Thread: The WA Police unit with wages paid by the Chamber of Minerals & Energy

Operating since 1907, whose brief is policing of Gold mines in WA & NT.

The gold squad has been hunting thieves for 100 years — and business is booming - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Didn't know that the GSDU was now looking after NT gold mines as well as WA. When I was last working at a gold mine in the NT, they had their own Darwin based Gold Squad, consisting of two detectives - Graham (can't remember his last name) and Gert Johansen. They were a pair of characters who hated a beer - I spent a few nights on the turps with them either on the mine site or in the Memorial Club in Alice Springs.

The GSDU in WA also oversees the security of the couple of diamond mines here - but their main focus is on gold. I know Chris King (current detective sergeant in charge of the unit), and have known quite a few of his predecessors, including the Silver Fox (who certainly has not been missed - see that his old pub recently burnt to the ground).

At one time, the detective sergeant in charge of the GSDU here in Kal was also one of the stalwarts of the local speedway, and quite a few of his officers were petrol heads. As well as the Chamber of Minerals & Energy paying the wages of the GSDU officers, they also provide the vehicles used by the squad. Back then, they had some of the fastest (Holden and Ford) vehicles on the road in the GSDU - all heavily modified. When there was a changing of the guard, the new sergeant in charge insisted that all of the souped up Commodores and Falcons were sold and replaced them with a fleet of Nissan Patrol wagons. I bought one of the Commodores - it was a VN Berlina with a very well worked 308 as well as modified transmission and suspension. Was scary fast, and the GSDU members I knew at the time told me that the "regular" police in Kalgoorlie had nothing that could catch it. These days, the GSDU standard issue vehicle is the Toyota Prado.