Australian native police

Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal troopers under the command of White officers appointed by colonial governments.^[1] These units existed in various forms in colonial Australia during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentieth centuries. From temporary base camps and barracks, Native Police were primarily used to patrol the often vast geographical areas along the colonial frontier in order to conduct indiscriminate raids and punitive expeditions against Aboriginal people.^[1]^[2] The Native Police proved to be a brutally destructive instrument in the disintegration and dispossession of Indigenous Australians.^[2] Armed with rifles, carbines and swords, they were also deployed to escort surveying groups, gold convoys and groups of pastoralists and prospectors.

The Aboriginal men within the Native Police were routinely recruited from areas that were very distant from the locations in which they were deployed. This would ensure they would have little familiarity with the local people they were employed to shoot and would also reduce desertions.^[3] However, due to the excessively violent nature of the work, the rate of trooper desertion in some units was high.^[1] As the troopers were Aboriginal, this benefited the colonists by minimising both the troopers' wages and the potential for Aboriginal revenge attacks against White people. It also increased the efficiency of the force as the Aboriginal troopers possessed incredible tracking skills, which were indispensable in the often poorly charted and difficult terrain.^[4]

The first government-funded force was the Native Police Corps, established in 1837 in the Port Phillip District of what is now Victoria.^[5] From 1848 another force was organised in New South Wales, which later evolved into the Queensland Native Police force.^[6] This force massacred thousands of Aboriginal people under the official euphemism of "dispersal", and is regarded as one of the most conspicuous examples of genocidal policy in colonial Australia.^[7]^[8] It existed until around 1915, when the last Native Police camps in Queensland were closed.^[9]

Native Police were also utilised by other Australian colonies. The government of South Australia set up a short-lived Native Police force in 1852, which was re-established in 1884 and deployed into what is now the Northern Territory.^[10] The colonial Western Australian government also initiated a formal Native Police force in 1840 under the command of John Nicol Drummond.^[11] Other privately funded native police systems were also occasionally used in Australia, such as the native constabulary organised by the Australian Agricultural Company in the 1830s.^[12] Native Police forces were also officially implemented in the Papua and New Guinea territories administered by colonial Queensland and Australian governments from 1890 until the 1970s.^[13] The Australian government also organised a Native Police force on Nauru during its administration of the island from 1923 until 1968.^[14]

^ ^a ^b ^c Richards, Jonathan (2008). The Secret War. St Lucia: UQP. ISBN 9780702236396.
^ ^a ^b Rowley, C.D. (1970). The destruction of Aboriginal society. Canberra: ANU Press. ISBN 0140214526.
^ Loos, Noel (2017), Invasion and resistance : Aboriginal-European relations on the North Queensland frontier 1861–1897, Boolarong Press, ISBN 978-1-925522-60-0
^ Queensland. Parliament. Legislative Assembly. Select Committee on Native Police Force and the Condition of the Aborigines Generally. (1861), Report from the Select Committee on the Native Police Force and the Condition of the Aborigines Generally together with the proceedings of the Committee and minutes of evidence, Fairfax and Belbridge, retrieved 22 July 2017
^ Fels, Marie Hansen (1988). Good Men and True: The Aboriginal Police of the Port Phillip District 1837–1853. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 9780522843507.
^ Skinner, Leslie Edward (1975). Police of the Pastoral Frontier. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702209775.
^ Palmer, Alison (2000). Colonial Genocide. Adelaide: Crawford House. ISBN 1742233929.
^ Bottoms, Timothy (2013). Conspiracy of Silence. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781743313824.
^ Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, pp 87–90 People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days, Merri Creek Management Committee, 2001 ISBN 0-9577728-0-7; Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes & Proceedings 1861 p 386pp, "Report from the Select Committee on the Native Police Force and the condition of the aborigines generally"; Feilberg, Carl Adolf (anonymous): "The Way We Civilise; Black and White; The Native Police: – A series of articles and letters Reprinted from the 'Queenslander'", Brisbane, G and J. Black, Edward Street, December 1880, 57 pages; Richards, Jonathan: The Secret War. A True History of Queensland's Native Police, St Lucia Queensland 2008, 308 pages incl. ill. and appendixes.
^ Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck (2007). In the Name of the Law. Wakefield Press.
^ Pashley, A. R. (2002). A Colonial Pioneer.
^ "Early Days of Port Stephens". Dungog Chronicle : Durham and Gloucester Advertiser. New South Wales. 30 August 1927. p. 6. Retrieved 30 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ Kituai, A. I. K. (1998). My Gun, My Brother. University of Hawaii Press.
^ Pacific Islands Monthly, Pacific Publications, 1931, retrieved 30 July 2017

[secret-1] Richards, Jonathan (2008). The Secret War. St Lucia: UQP. ISBN 9780702236396.

[rowley-2] Rowley, C.D. (1970). The destruction of Aboriginal society. Canberra: ANU Press. ISBN 0140214526.

[loos-3] Loos, Noel (2017), Invasion and resistance : Aboriginal-European relations on the North Queensland frontier 1861–1897, Boolarong Press, ISBN 978-1-925522-60-0

[4] Queensland. Parliament. Legislative Assembly. Select Committee on Native Police Force and the Condition of the Aborigines Generally. (1861), Report from the Select Committee on the Native Police Force and the Condition of the Aborigines Generally together with the proceedings of the Committee and minutes of evidence, Fairfax and Belbridge, retrieved 22 July 2017

[fels-5] Fels, Marie Hansen (1988). Good Men and True: The Aboriginal Police of the Port Phillip District 1837–1853. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 9780522843507.

[skinner-6] Skinner, Leslie Edward (1975). Police of the Pastoral Frontier. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702209775.

[7] Palmer, Alison (2000). Colonial Genocide. Adelaide: Crawford House. ISBN 1742233929.

[bottoms-8] Bottoms, Timothy (2013). Conspiracy of Silence. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781743313824.

[ellender-9] Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, pp 87–90 People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days, Merri Creek Management Committee, 2001 ISBN 0-9577728-0-7; Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes & Proceedings 1861 p 386pp, "Report from the Select Committee on the Native Police Force and the condition of the aborigines generally"; Feilberg, Carl Adolf (anonymous): "The Way We Civilise; Black and White; The Native Police: – A series of articles and letters Reprinted from the 'Queenslander'", Brisbane, G and J. Black, Edward Street, December 1880, 57 pages; Richards, Jonathan: The Secret War. A True History of Queensland's Native Police, St Lucia Queensland 2008, 308 pages incl. ill. and appendixes.

[10] Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck (2007). In the Name of the Law. Wakefield Press.

[11] Pashley, A. R. (2002). A Colonial Pioneer.

[12] "Early Days of Port Stephens". Dungog Chronicle : Durham and Gloucester Advertiser. New South Wales. 30 August 1927. p. 6. Retrieved 30 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.

[13] Kituai, A. I. K. (1998). My Gun, My Brother. University of Hawaii Press.

[14] Pacific Islands Monthly, Pacific Publications, 1931, retrieved 30 July 2017

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