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Extract

Title
Joe!
Description

The origins of the digger nickname for police, ‘Joe’, remains uncertain. In this extract, digger William Kelly speculates on those origins.

Archival Source
Robyn Annear's research Notes prepared in the course of writing the book, Nothing But Gold; Private (Robyn Annear). Details

These notes from a variety of primary sources were kindly donated to the eGold project by Robyn Annear.

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Transcript

Joe is a term of opprobrium hurled after the police ever since the diggings commenced, but the derivation is still a mystery. Some commentators trace it to the Christian name [Joseph] of Mr Latrobe [sic]; but this is an error; the ex-governor was never personally unpopular, except with the editor of the Argus.

Created: 25 August 2006