Even if they were never fired in the line of duty, wouldn't they have hundreds of rounds put through them at the range? Unless Australian police are supplied (like Barney Fife) with just one bullet, then I call BS on Melissa Sweet.
Hundreds of rounds would not be much for a model 19. The could take a few thousand full power .357 loads before they started to loosen up and require re-timing, or at least that was the accepted wisdom 20 years ago. It seems likely that the Australian police used .38 rounds for practicing, and the model 19 might take a hundred thousand of them before having problems.