Why people loved - and feared - Adelaide's first policewoman, Kate Cocks

Kate Cocks was a formidable woman. Appointed to the South Australian Police Force in 1915 at the age of 40, she was given the same salary and powers of arrest as men in the force. It was a first in the British Empire.  As a guardian of morality, she marched through Adelaide’s parklands whacking canoodling couples with a five-foot cane. Husbands caught abusing their wives, were made to kneel before her and recite the Lord’s Prayer. Protecting women's virtue wasn't her only agenda though. Later in life she set up a refuge for homeless women over fifty and, with the Methodist Church, established a home for unwed mothers with the aim of helping them keep their babies. But the Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home had a darker legacy. Aboriginal children stolen from their mothers were taken there to be adopted out to white families. 

• Guest: Lainie Anderson, journalist, historian and author of “Murder on North Terrace” -  a book inspired by the true story of South Australian policewoman Kate Cocks. Published by Hachette.
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer