Alured Tasker Faunce, soldier and police magistrate, arrived in Sydney, New South Wales with the 4th Regiment. He retired from the army on 1 October 1836 to become the police magistrate at Brisbane Water, New South Wales
Marcus De Laune Faunce, in his biography of Faunce published in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, writes that Faunce after his appointment as magistrate '... soon gained the nickname of 'Ironman Faunce', and was frequently attacked by the Sydney Gazette and its editor George Cavenagh ... His notoriety mainly stemmed from what was known as the 'Blindberry' case. On rather flimsy evidence he accused three leading citizens of complicity in stealing a cow named Blindberry. Two of the accused were also magistrates, one of them serving on the bench with him. The case excited wide interest in the colony, especially as the accused were imprisoned in irons under primitive conditions and their houses were searched without warrant before they were taken to Sydney. The autocratic behaviour of Faunce seems to have derived from his youth, ignorance and inexperience of civil life and law, and from his briefing before taking up his difficult post. In April 1837 at the trials in Sydney it was suggested that Governor Sir Richard Bourke, displeased with the general professional standards of magistrates, had advised Faunce that a firm magisterial hand was needed...'
Faunce was '... reprimanded by the Supreme Court and, in subsequent suits brought by the 'Blindberry' victims, had to pay £1500 damages, which forced him to sell his commission.'
He was supported by Bourke which did not further endear him to the Sydney Gazette and the newspaper continued to write editorials against him '... particularly after ... [he] was appointed to Queanbeyan [New South Wales] as its salaried police magistrate.'
Faunce brought a libel case against the editor of the Sydney Gazette, George Cavenagh, and the case went to trial in March 1838.
Marcus De Laune Faunce writes that after Faunce's arrival in Queanbeyan his '... subsequent magisterial record was active but unblemished, and he became a popular and respected figure in the growing community of the Limestone Plains.'
Source: Marcus De Laune Faunce, 'Faunce, Alured Tasker (1808–1856)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/faunce-alured-tasker-2036/text2515, accessed 24 September 2013.
