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105-839: Known as the Ok Tedi River by the Yonggom people who live on its western bank, it was renamed the Alice River by the Italian explorer Luigi d'Albertis . Ok is the word for water or river in the Ok languages family. It is a tributary of the Fly River . Tributaries of the Ok Tedi include the Birim . The Kiunga-Tabubil Highway runs parallel with the river for the majority of its course, until just south of Ningerum where

210-557: A Dunghutti man called Doughboy who had murdered a sawyer named Dan Page. In 1860, Poulden was soon called out again to capture Aboriginal criminals who had laid siege to Mrs McMaugh at Nulla Nulla Creek. Poulden and his six troopers tracked them up Five Day Creek to the ranges where several were killed after a gunfight. An orphaned child was taken after the skirmish and delivered to local Towal Creek squatter John Warne to look after. The native police involved in such raids used to strip naked and would wear red headbands to distinguish them from

315-622: A non-commissioned officer ranking over a group of 11 other Aboriginal men in a paramilitary force that was to be sent to Tasmania to fight against the Aboriginal people there in the Black War . The detachment was to be headed by the commissary officer at Port Macquarie George James MacDonald , but the colonial authorities disbanded the unit before it was deployed. At Port Stephens , the Australian Agricultural Company had obtained

420-434: A "friendly fire" incident during this dispersal. Dempster, having fallen sick, then allowed Johnson to take charge of his division and lead it to Yamboukal (modern-day Surat ) where a lot of Mandandanji working peacefully on this pastoral station were subsequently killed. As a result of this, Dempster was suspended for 3 months. It appears that neither Johnson nor Dempster faced any legal repercussions. Sgt. Skelton also led

525-415: A Clarence River squatter was asked if he thought any Aboriginal criminals were still at large, he simply replied "No, I think they are dead." The Native Police were officially withdrawn from the area in 1859. Sub-Inspector Galbraith was dismissed in 1863 for the accidental shooting death of a native girl while out "routing the blacks" near Grafton. In 1854, Sub Lieut. Dempster who was initially stationed as

630-523: A Gunai clan. Outraged sensibility among the colonists demanded both the rescue of the supposed damsel and the wholesale punishment of the natives involved. A special Native Police mission was organised in September 1846 under HEP Dana that failed to produce the White woman. A private posse of ten armed Aboriginal men and six Whites was then organised under de Villiers which also did not produce the woman. The rumour of

735-454: A base on Yule Island . Here he obtained notoriety for publicly kissing the most attractive young native women and passing it off as a customary sign of peace. He also, with a shell full of burning methylated spirits, ostentatiously threatened to set the ocean alight. Most of his companions and employees deserted him after these activities. D'Albertis conducted his first trip to the Fly River in

840-574: A collective punishment. His force drove a camp of people, most of them older women and children, across the Edward River, fatally wounding 2 women and a child. By 1853, 12 troopers of Native Police were officially stationed in the Murrumbidgee District under the command of the local Commissioner for Crown Lands. The need for native troopers in this region was soon deemed superfluous and the government dissolved this detachment in 1857. However,

945-653: A commissioner, and the other was to trial a force of armed and mounted Aboriginal police under the command of White officers. By 1840, the Border Police became the main replacement for the NSW Mounted Police along the frontier, while the Native Police Corps, as the Aboriginal force was known, was limited initially to one division in the Port Phillip District of the colony, around Melbourne . Requests for

1050-414: A consequence, the 1st Division of Native Police under Commandant Walker was sent into the area. Additionally, Lieutenant John Murray and the 3rd Division with the troopers of Sgt. Doolan were deployed by ship to Gladstone to ensure a strong garrison at the fledgling settlement there. The surveyor sent to mark out Gladstone, Francis MacCabe , felt so unsafe that he established the camp in an area close to

1155-590: A convey of native canoes causing a large amount of damage and number of casualties. In a high state of anxiety, Strachan later had to abandon his vessel and return to the coast on foot, committing massacres of indigenous people along the way. Strachan was later accused of being a "red-handed murderer who had tramped knee-deep in blood through New Guinea". He applied for protection from Lord Derby and subsequently no charges were laid. A number of reptile species from New Guinea were named in honour of d'Albertis, but most have subsequently become synonyms of other species. Only

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1260-589: A dinner in Sydney with D'Albertis where after having a steak accidentally thrown at him, the Italian "foamed with rage" and standing up in the restaurant with a bottle in his hand threatened to smash the skull of whoever owned up to being the thrower. D'Albertis however was not the first or last to implement such irresponsible plundering actions on the Fly and nearby rivers. Captain Blackwood, in 1846, of HMS  Fly (after which

1365-603: A large congregation of Aboriginal people assembled at the Murray-Darling junction. When investigating another murder of a White man near Menindie , Perry had the ring leader tied to a tree and shot dead as an example in "keeping the blacks quiet". It appears that the Native Police units were dissolved in the Lower Darling and Albert Districts by the early 1860s. Lieutenant Perry occasionally sent several native troopers into

1470-632: A man named Robertson, he was shot by the Native Police. The Native Police deployed to this region operated over a large area that included forays across the Murray into the Tumut region right down to the Wimmera . They worked under their own officers such as Cowan, Walsh and Dana while also under the authority of Commissioners like Smythe, Bingham, Powlett and McDonald. In 1843 and 1844, Commissioner Smythe led large punitive missions with forces including Native Police along

1575-422: A million acre land acquisition. In the early 1830s, the superintendent of the company, Sir Edward Parry , established a private native constabulary to augment a small garrison of soldiers. These black constables, such as Jonathan and William, were involved in dispensing lethal summary justice to Aboriginal people accused of murdering a company employee, and were also permitted to shoot armed runaway convicts. Parry

1680-427: A mission that ranged from Georges Creek, Lagoon Creek and then up Five Day Creek to Moy Buck Mountain. When the Aboriginal camp was discovered the Aboriginal fled in all directions. Later in 1864, there is a record of the murderer named Blue Shirt being captured and handcuffed to the stirrup of a horse belonging to a Native Police trooper. The horse subsequently become frightened and kicked him to death. Names of some of

1785-501: A number of Aboriginal men accused of murder and felony. The nearby Fraser Island was being used as a sanctuary for these Aboriginal people (the Badtjala people). It was not until late December 1851 that the force was ready to search Fraser Island. Walker, Marshall, Doolan with their three divisions of troopers, together with local landholders the Leith Hay brothers and Mr Wilmot set out down

1890-814: A number of dispersals across the Dawson River area and down to Ukabulla (also near Surat) where Mandandanji leader Bussamarai was killed. Collisions also occurred between John Murray 's troopers and Kabi Kabi at Widgee and with Walker's forces and the Bigambul south of Callandoon. Native Police were also employed tracking down Chinese coolie labourers who had run away from the stations of powerful squatter capitalists such as Gordon Sandeman . In 1853 several new Sub-Lieutenants were appointed including John O'Connell Bligh , Edric Norfolk Vaux Morisset , Frederick Keen, Samuel Crummer, Francis Nicoll and Frederick Walker's brother Robert G. Walker. The Sydney Morning Herald described

1995-479: A number of gold prospectors that had been murdered by the local Aboriginal people. The search team seized two Aboriginal informers, and when they tried to escape, they were shot by the native police. As late as the 1920s, native constables or trackers as they by then were called, aided White officers and stockmen in massacres of Aboriginal people. A famous example of this is the Forrest River massacre . From 1839

2100-524: A number of shots, killing and stealing a couple of large domesticated pigs. Chester then proceeded to ransack the long-house of the village, taking ancestral and sacred human remains, weapons and other artefacts for D'Albertis' collection. D'Albertis' second sojourn to the river was on the "Neva" which was chartered from the Government of New South Wales. On board was Lawrence Hargrave , a future pioneer of aviation. D'Albertis again used rockets and dynamite as

2205-470: A river in Papua New Guinea is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Luigi d%27Albertis Luigi Maria D'Albertis (21 November 1841 – 2 September 1901) was an Italian naturalist and explorer who, in 1875, became the first Italian to chart the Fly River in what is now called Papua New Guinea . He undertook three voyages up this river from 1875 to 1877. The first was conducted in

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2310-596: A seasonal deployment of native police based at Boisdale . The closeness of the Border Police and the Native Police is demonstrated by officer Windredge who was employed in both forces in Gippsland. In 1845 and 1846, Tyers led extensive punitive raids with his forces around Lake Wellington , up the Avon River and down to the Lakes region. In late 1846 and early 1847, a rumour began that a shipwrecked white woman had been abducted by

2415-570: A sergeant at Grafton with Morisset was ordered to travel to the Macleay River with six troopers and set up a Native Police station near Kempsey . Squatters in the area had recently placed official requests for a section to be garrisoned on the Macleay. The Native Police camp was located at the old Border Police barracks at Belgrave Flat near Belgrave Falls just west of Kempsey. In 1859, 2nd Lieut. Richard Bedford Poulden (sometimes written as Poulding)

2520-514: A short-lived Native Police force in 1852, which was re-established in 1884 and deployed into what is now the Northern Territory . The colonial Western Australian government also initiated a formal Native Police force in 1840 under the command of John Nicol Drummond. Other privately funded native police systems were also occasionally used in Australia, such as the native constabulary organised by

2625-418: A sixty-foot canoe and utilised it for firewood for the ship's engine. At other places along the river D'Albertis set off dynamite and rockets to both intimidate the indigenous people and to obtain aquatic life for food and specimen material. On their return downriver, they accepted an invitation from native people to enter their village, but Chester and his troopers, "wishing to intimidate them" decided to let off

2730-416: A technique of obtaining aquatic specimens for his collection. His expedition stole many ancestral remains, tools and weapons from the houses of the locals. He also collected specimens of birds, plants, insects and the heads of recently killed native people. Contemporary explorers and colonial administrators of d'Albertis were almost universally critical of the methods employed by D'Albertis in his expeditions up

2835-420: A weapons of fear. He removed intricate bark carvings on trees which he recognised was "perhaps a sacrilege" but did it anyway. Likewise, he stole ancestral bones from sacred long-houses claiming that "I shall turn a deaf ear to this sacrilege..I am too delighted with my prize". The Neva forced its way upstream until brought to a halt by the shallows. They then steamed downriver to a tributary d'Albertis had named

2940-483: The Australian Agricultural Company in the 1830s. 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. The Australian government also organised a Native Police force on Nauru during its administration of the island from 1923 until 1968. The general template for native police forces in Australia

3045-504: The Champion Bay area. This situation gave Drummond complete freedom to subdue the natives around Geraldton in whatever method he deemed appropriate and a massacre of Aboriginal people conducted by the police and armed stockholders at Bootenal swamp near Greenough was the result. In 1865, Maitland Brown was sent on a search expedition through the La Grange and Roebuck Bay areas for

3150-482: The Chevert , was also collecting specimens in southern Papua. The beetle Bironium albertisi Löbl, 2021, is named after D'Albertis, "one of the early explorers of the fauna of New Guinea and Moluccas". The plant genus Albertisia Becc. (1877) is also named after him. Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal troopers under

3255-458: The Condamine River where the "Fitzroy Downs blacks" were routed and another group were "compelled to fly" from the area. One of these skirmishes was described as a dawn raid on an Aboriginal encampment where around 100 native people were killed and two Native Police troopers were fatally injured. Walker found most of the squatters in the region thought the Native Police existed to shoot down

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3360-640: The Darling Downs area was slowing pastoral expansion. As a result, the NSW government passed legislation in 1848 to fund a new section of Native Police based upon the Port Phillip model. Frederick Walker , a station manager and court official residing in the Murrumbidgee area, was appointed as the first Commandant of this Native Police force. Walker recruited 14 native troopers from four different language groups along

3465-708: The Darling River where the first Aboriginal attack occurred 100 miles below Fort Bourke at a place called Moanna, resulting in at least 5 natives being killed by the troopers. In 1849 he mobilised his force north beyond the MacIntyre River to conduct missions to police the out-stations. Once arriving on the Macintyre River on 10 May 1849, the force checked the aggressions of the local Aboriginal people, and when trying to capture six Aboriginal men charged with murder, there were "some lives lost". They were then deployed to

3570-479: The Maranoa Region , and one roving division. While Walker was away, the squatter at Goondiwindi station, Richard Purvis Marshall , assumed command of the Native Police operations. Marshall, with the native troopers and contingents of armed stockmen, conducted punitive raids at Tieryboo, Wallan, Booranga and Copranoranbilla Lagoon, shooting Aboriginal people and destroying their camps. This resulted in an inquiry by

3675-664: The Natural History Museum of Giacomo Doria in Genoa. Later colonial administrators of British New Guinea such as Peter Scratchley , William MacGregor and John Hubert Plunkett Murray were critical of the methods employed by D'Albertis. Although these directors themselves engaged in various repressive and punitive policies against the native peoples, they recognised that the techniques of D'Albertis were very harmful in facilitating British colonisation. Andrew Goldie, an early British prospector to New Guinea, described an incident at

3780-579: The Orara River at Braunstone 10 miles south of Grafton Morisset was given warrants for the arrest of some Aboriginal people who worked as shearers at Newton Boyd. After arriving in the area on a borrowed horse, he wanted to capture them while they were working in the wool shed. When they saw they police they ran, with two being shot and three captured. This resulted in a government inquiry. The other significant punitive raid occurred in East Ballina , where

3885-750: The SS Ellengowan steamer which left from the British colonial port of Somerset on the tip of the Cape York Peninsula . On board were Captain Runcie, Rev. MacFarlane and the Police Magistrate of Somerset, H.M. Chester with six troopers of the Queensland Native Police . Their first stop was Tawan Island where Chester rounded up the inhabitants and warned them against stealing from the missionaries in

3990-635: The argument that ‘uncivilized men’ enlisted ‘in defence of order’ would ‘become the victims of their own zeal’. It was disbanded briefly in January 1838 but reorganised in April of the same year with their new headquarters in Jolimont where the MCG carpark is now situated. Due to funding problems, the force was again dissolved in 1839. These issues delayed reformation of the corps until Superintendent Charles La Trobe indicated he

4095-472: The "wild blacks", so as to prevent shooting each other by mistake. Not long after this, at the request of prominent station manager John Vaughan McMaugh, the Belgrave Flat Native Police barracks was moved to Nulla Nulla station near Bellbrook. After some cedar cutters were hacked to death and others had their skulls smashed in during an ambush, stockmen and native police troopers went out after

4200-454: The 1830s, Aboriginal men around the Newcastle and Port Macquarie penal settlements were regularly used to recapture escaped convicts. Awabakal men such as Bob Barrett, Biraban and Jemmy Jackass would track down the runaways, disable them with spears or firearms, strip them and return them to the soldiers for payment of blankets, tobacco, clothing and corn. In 1830, Bob Barrett was given

4305-460: The 5th Section of the Native Police under 2nd Lieut. Edric Norfolk Vaux Morisset to the Clarence River region. He thought this was a "retrograde step" as he viewed the Aboriginal problem is this area as minor. But under pressure from powerful squatters in the area like William Forster he relented even though the section did not have enough horses. Morisset and his 12 troopers were stationed on

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4410-411: The Aboriginal troopers into White society. Both La Trobe and William Thomas , Protector of Aborigines , expected that the men would give up their traditional way of life when exposed to the discipline of police work. To their disappointment, troopers continued to participate in corroborees and in ritual fighting, although not in uniform. As senior Wurundjeri elder, Billibellary 's cooperation for

4515-744: The Alice River (today known as the Ok Tedi ). Eventually stricken by malaria and crippled by rheumatism in both legs, he admitted defeat and returned to the Torres Strait . This was the final and probably the most eventful of the journeys of D'Albertis up the Fly River. On the first day of June, D'Albertis managed to get his crew and himself involved in a pitched battle with an armed flotilla of native watercraft. D'Albertis himself claimed to have fired about 120 shots in this skirmish which resulted in "some deaths" of indigenous people. None of his crew were killed but

4620-571: The Eumeralla area and at Captain Firebrace's Mt Vectis property. The Native Police based at Portland Bay were ordered to conduct operations across the border at Mount Gambier in South Australia in 1844. Likewise, South Australian police forces at the same time were used to investigate the rape of an aboriginal boy named Syntax near Portland. The officer involved found that when the boy tried to shoot

4725-552: The Fly and more modern accounts, such as Goode's "Rape of the Fly" are equally condemnatory. D'Albertis was born in 1841, in Voltri , Italy. At the age of eighteen he joined Garibaldi 's army and later joined Odoardo Beccari in November 1871 on an expedition to western New Guinea. He reached the peak of Mount Arfak Geb but was compelled by fever to retreat and return to Sydney to recover. In 1874, D'Albertis returned to New Guinea to set up

4830-523: The Lower Darling and Albert districts respectively. Perry and his troopers, while investigating the death of a White man at Baker's station, threatened and watched four Aboriginal people residing on the property into making confessions. While they were being escorted to prison, they escaped, and after refusing to surrender, one was shot dead. The other three managed to escape but were found at Euston where two more were shot dead. Their hands were cut off and presented as proof of their demise. Perry also dispersed

4935-403: The Macleay region. It was reported as a double murder mystery. Local Aboriginal Left-Handed Billy solved the case by stating that there was a Native Police camp at Nulla Nulla and these two people were some of its victims. Billy offered to take the authorities and show them the other places where people were shot. During this period the Lower Darling district extended from near the confluence of

5040-485: The Maranoa River. Governor Fitzroy noted in the 1851 end of year report that a great many blacks were killed, however no official action was taken to change the aggressive functioning of the Native Police. On 18 February 1851, a meeting of magistrates was held at the newly established town of Maryborough . Three Native Police officers, Commissioner Bidwill and squatter Edmund B. Uhr were present, issuing warrants against

5145-644: The Mary River aboard Captain Currie's Margaret and Mary schooner. Aboriginal people in a stolen dinghy were shot at along the way and the boat seized. The force landed on the west coast of the island where the divisions split up to scour the region. During the night a group of Aboriginal men attempted to surprise Marshall's section resulting in two Aboriginal men being shot. Bad weather hampered operations and Commandant Walker subsequently allowed his division to track down other groups of Badtjala without him. This group followed

5250-474: The Moira area of the Murray, down Mitta Mitta creek and along the Edward River. Other collisions also occurred near Tongala. Further down the Murray, punitive operations were also conducted near McLeod's station in 1846, Lake Bael Bael in 1846 and around Swan Hill in 1850. Swan Hill and Echuca (Maidan's Punt) became bases for Native Police operations. A Wemba Wemba man managed to kill a trooper near Swan Hill. He, in

5355-610: The Murrumbidgee was still utilised as a recruitment area for troopers to fight in Queensland with Lieut. John Murray returning to the area as late as 1865 to enlist local Aboriginal men. In 1864, Murray visited the region bringing with him the remaining four living troopers from Walker's first recruitment in 1848. After 15 years service, one of them was lucky enough to be reunited with his father in Echuca . In 1853, Walker reluctantly deployed

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5460-645: The Murrumbidgee with the Murray, up to the Darling and north to near the confluence of the Warrego. The Albert region was the area west of the Darling River . (By the late 1870s this had changed significantly). In late 1853, Stephen Cole, the Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Lower Darling district had organised six troopers for his Native Police based in Euston . This force was involved in arresting European sly-grog sellers. At

5565-399: The Murrumbidgee, Murray, and Edwards Rivers areas. These first troopers were Jack, Henry (both Wiradjuri ), Geegwaw, Jacky Jacky, Wygatta, Edward, Logan (all Wemba Wemba ), Alladin, Paddy, Larry, Willy, Walter, Tommy Hindmarsh (all Barababaraba ), and Yorky ( Yorta Yorta ). Logan and Jack who were both previously employed in the Border Police, were given the rank of corporal. Although most of

5670-584: The Native Police reduced to great effect Aboriginal resistance against squatters in the Macintyre and Condamine regions. Walker returned to Deniliquin in July 1850 to recruit 30 new troopers in order to enable an expansion into the Wide Bay–Burnett region. With these fresh reinforcements, he created four divisions of Native Police, one based at Augustus Morris ' Callandoon station, one at Wide Bay–Burnett, one in

5775-509: The White woman was proved false, but the results for the Gunai were devastating. Tyers estimated that the two punitive groups killed at least 50 Aboriginal people and wounded many more. At the same time, more regular combined Native and Border Police operations resulted in mass killings of Gunai around Boisdale and on the MacAllister River. There was a large punitive operation in late 1846 at

5880-399: The area. To emphasise his point, he ordered his troopers to obliterate a nearby termite mound with rounds from their Snider Rifles . As they began to navigate up the Fly River, D'Albertis had a collision with the native people and after shooting a number of rounds at their watercraft, Chester and his troopers dispersed them causing them to flee in terror. As "a trophy of victory", Chester stole

5985-509: The areas of the Swan and Helena Valleys, was able to capture the perpetrator due to his knowledge of the local tribespeople. As a result, in August 1840 Drummond was rewarded with the title of Inspector in the newly formed Native Police. The Western Australian Native Police was smaller than those of other colonies in that usually only 2 or 3 mounted aboriginal constables were attached to the White officer. It

6090-400: The coast, two miles away from any freshwater. As Walker's force originated in this area, native troopers from outside this region were utilised to punish Aboriginal resistance in the Murrumbidgee. For instance, in 1852, after the murder of an American worker at Deniliquin , Sergeant O'Halloran from Moulamein imported both native and White troopers from Victoria to shoot Aboriginal people as

6195-414: The command of White officers appointed by colonial governments. 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 raids against aboriginals or tribes that had broken

6300-499: The company of another aboriginal man, approached a Native Police camp and induced one of the Aboriginal troopers to go fishing. After walking about half a mile, they held the trooper down and excised his kidney fat, leaving him to die. Native Police operations in Gippsland began in 1843 with the appointment of Commissioner Tyers to the region. Tyers had command of a permanent force of Border Police based at Eagle Point augmented with

6405-436: The establishment of a Native Police Corps were made from as early as 1837 when Captain William Lonsdale proposed legislation for its formation. In October 1837, Christian Ludolph Johannes de Villiers was appointed to command the first official Native Police troopers from their station at Nerre Nerre Warren, in spite of warnings against the use of native police from the House of Commons Select Committee on Aborigines based on

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6510-448: The headquarters was at the Aboriginal Protectorate Station at Nerre Nerre Warren, near to present day Dandenong about 25 kilometres (16 mi) south-east of Melbourne. The force made use of Aboriginal men from the Wurundjeri and Bunurong tribes and was made up of 60 members, three-quarters of whom were "natives". There were two goals in such a force: to make use of the indigenous peoples' tracking abilities, as well as to assimilate

6615-410: The highway veers southeast towards Kiunga , a port town on the Fly River . The Ok Tedi is extremely fast-moving and has a massive capacity. It is situated on a sand bank, which allows for the river to change course quickly without warning. The sand conditions underneath the river and the extremely high rainfall of the catchment area make it one of the fastest moving rivers in the world. The roar from

6720-440: The hull of the "Neva" was riddled with arrows, some of which penetrated through the boards. For most of early July, D'Albertis was involved in daily clashes with native people along the river, shooting some of them dead. On one occasion, D'Albertis found the corpse of one of those killed and decided to decapitate him and preserve the head in spirits for his collection. He later killed one of his Chinese servants for refusing to go into

6825-670: The jungle to shoot specimens of local fauna. D'Albertis killed him by hitting him on the back a number of times with a bamboo cane which broke during the punishment. The other Chinese servants subsequently fled into the jungle, preferring to take their chances in unknown territory than to stay with the expedition. Returning downriver in late October, D'Albertis again had several affrays with indigenous people killing at least seven. In one of these battles, D'Albertis decided to "let them have it, and their blood be on their own heads". After this encounter he became extremely wary, ordering every native canoe to be shot at on sight. During this trip, as with

6930-457: The law and punitive expeditions against Aboriginal people. The Native Police proved to be a brutally destructive instrument in the disintegration and dispossession of Indigenous Australians. 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

7035-412: The local Aboriginal people across to the east coast where they "took to the sea". The force returned to Maryborough in early January 1852 and Captain Currie received a reward of £10 for his contribution. The year 1852 saw further recruitment and expansion of the Native Police to eight divisions. Forty-eight new troopers were signed up mostly from the northern inland rivers of NSW. Lieutenant John Murray

7140-485: The local Crown Lands Commissioner and a vaguely worded official reminder from the NSW Attorney General to only shoot in "extreme cases". In 1851, Commandant Walker with his newly appointed officers Richard Purvis Marshall, George Fulford, Doolan and Skelton conducted wide-ranging and frequent operations resulting in many dispersals and summary killings. Dispersals of large numbers of Aborigines occurred at Dalgangal, Mary River, Toomcul, Goondiwindi and at various places along

7245-402: 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. However, due to the excessively violent nature of the work, the rate of trooper desertion in some units was high. As the troopers were Aboriginal, this benefited the colonists by minimising both the troopers' wages and

7350-420: The main frontier policing force in this colony were divisions of mounted convict soldiers known as the Border Police . However, in the late 1840s with the end of convict transportation looming, a new source of cheap and effective troopers were required to subdue resistance along the ever-extending frontier. The need was especially apparent in the north as conflict between squatters and Aboriginal people toward

7455-444: The mouth of the Snowy River involving the forces being split into 3 groups to surround and engage Aboriginal people residing in the estuary area. The Native Police Corps then continued upstream along the river. The brutality of these Gippsland Aboriginal men is demonstrated by the Protector Thomas being able to describe how they killed one man, two women and six children, returning with fragments of their flesh to eat, or returning with

7560-492: The mummified severed hands of the defeated as trophies. In the late 1830s, Western Australia was in a similar situation as the eastern colonies in that the regular Mounted Police force were proving expensive and increasingly ineffectual in subduing resisting Aboriginal people. This culminated in 1840 with the murders of a White woman and her child in York. John Nicol Drummond , a young man who had grown up amongst Aboriginal people in

7665-413: The murderers. Again another battle ensued and in the end there were a great number of dead and wounded Dunghutti. The creek where this occurred was named Waterloo Creek (halfway between Dyke River and Georges Creek) as a result of the carnage. Four prisoners were taken. In 1863, Senior Constable Nugent took control of the Native Police at Nulla Nulla. In September 1864, he and his troopers were involved in

7770-411: The native police included searching for missing persons, carrying messages, and escorting dignitaries through unfamiliar territory. During the goldrush era, they were also used to patrol goldfields and search for escaped prisoners. They were provided with uniforms, firearms, food rations and a rather dubious salary. However, the lure of the goldfields, poor salary and Dana's eventual death in 1852 led to

7875-425: The natives so they would not have to. Walker advocated a method of "bringing in" the Aboriginal people, allowing them onto pastoral stations, where they could obtain a lawful means of a livelihood. Those who stayed away were consequently regarded as potential enemies and were at high risk of being targeted in punitive missions. Walker's measure of success was the resulting increase in land values. These first actions of

7980-409: The natives who assisted in the police" and advised Morisset that he had "directed £50 subject to detailed accounts of its expenditure" to be at his disposal. Musquito was a Hawkesbury Aboriginal man who was exiled first to Norfolk Island in 1805, then to Van Diemen's Land in 1813. He proved to be a valuable asset to the government there in tracking down bushrangers. He later became a renegade and

8085-463: The official disintegration of his Native Police Corps in January 1853. During its existence, there were three main areas of activity of this corps: Portland Bay, Murray River, and Gippsland. Divisions of the Native Police would be deployed to these areas in the winter of each year until 1852 and spend the rest of the year mostly garrisoned at the Narre Narre Warren barracks. Winter was chosen as

8190-479: The operations of Lieutenants Marshall and John Murray along the Burnett River as "taking and shooting hosts of murderers, never stopping, never tiring". New barracks were built at Rannes , Walla and at Swanson's Yabba station at the top of Yabba Falls . Squatters Holt and Hay pursued an overland path to the taking up of lands toward Port Curtis . Two men accompanying them were killed by Aboriginal people and as

8295-459: The others, D'Albertis regularly engaged in dynamite fishing , claiming that "I think dynamite is..the best means to use, especially among coral reefs". Once back in the Torres Strait, two other deserters from his expedition brought charges against D'Albertis for murdering his Chinese servants. The police magistrate, H.M. Chester, a colleague of D'Albertis, promptly dismissed the charges and jailed

8400-600: The period of active duty as the target Aboriginal people were more sedentary in the colder periods and therefore much easier to find. Native police were called upon to take part in operations in the Victorian Western District in 1843. Operations in this year included attacks upon the Gunditjmara and Jardwadjali at the Crawford River, Mt Eckersley, Victoria Range and at Mt Zero. Upon return to Melbourne one of

8505-422: 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. The first government-funded force was the Native Police Corps, established in 1837 in the Port Phillip District of what is now Victoria . From 1848 another force

8610-438: The proposal was important for its success, and after deliberation he backed the initiative and even proposed himself for enlistment. He donned the uniform and enjoyed the status of parading through the camp, but was careful to avoid active duty as a policeman to avoid a conflict of interest between his duties as a Wurundjeri ngurungaeta . After about a year, Billibellary resigned from the Native Police Corps when he found that it

8715-569: The python carries d’Albertis’ name today. Several of these species were described by the German naturalist Wilhelm Peters and Giacomo Doria , the Italian naturalist and founder of the Natural History Museum of Giacomo Doria . Only Leiopython albertisii (the white-lipped python) is currently recognised as a valid species, the other three reptiles being synonymised within species described earlier, ironically two of which were described by entomologist Sir William John Macleay whose rival expedition on

8820-527: The region and John Macarthur sometimes appeared at public functions with a bodyguard of uniformed Dharawal and Gandangara men. In 1824, at the conclusion of the Bathurst War against the Wiradjuri , Governor Brisbane sent Major James Thomas Morisset , commandant of the colonial forces at Bathurst , a letter congratulating him on his efforts. In this letter, Brisbane outlines his desire to give "rewards to

8925-519: The region. In the late 1830s, the NSW government found it was having trouble financing the NSW Mounted Police which was a corps of mounted soldiers that since 1825 operated as the main enforcers of colonial rule in frontier areas. Officials looked at cheaper alternatives and came up with two solutions. One was the Border Police , which was a mounted force of armed convicts under the command of

9030-458: The river can be heard for many kilometres through the dense jungle of the district . The pristine river was devastated by the Ok Tedi environmental disaster , when the enormous open-pit copper/gold Ok Tedi mine discharged massive amounts if mining waste directly into the river. Until its seizure by the Government of Papua New Guinea , the mine was owned by BHP . This article related to

9135-468: The river is named) engaged in unapologetic raiding of villages on the river, including bombardment their houses. Also, a few years after D'Albertis' voyages, Captain John Strachan made an expedition up the nearby Mai Kussa river which was even more destructive than the Italian's. Strachan, who seems to have been in a chronic state of irrational paranoia and insomnia, improvised a torpedo-like weapon against

9240-539: The same time, Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Albert District, G. M. Perry, had organised another six Native Police troopers based at Moorana, an administrative town that used to exist just west of Wentworth . By the late 1850s the jurisdiction of the native troopers had transferred from the Crown Lands department to the Native Police proper, with E. M. Lockyer and A. T. Perry being appointed 2nd Lieutenants for

9345-441: The steamer SS Ellengowan and the other two in a smaller ship named the "Neva" which was chartered from the Government of New South Wales . Throughout the three voyages, D'Albertis was consistently involved in skirmishes with the various indigenous people living along the river, using rifle-fire, rockets and dynamite to intimidate and, on occasions, kill these local people. He also frequently employed destructive dynamite fishing as

9450-454: The subsequent operations of this force over the following 60 years occurred in what is now Queensland, Native Police were stationed in various parts of New South Wales and patrolling continued there until at least 1868. These areas included Kempsey/Macleay River, Grafton/Ballina (Clarence River), Murrumbidgee, Lower Darling/Albert and Upper Darling/Paroo regions. This force was consolidated and trained by Walker at Deniliquin before traveling to

9555-432: The troopers and their officers were placed under the command of the local Commissioner for Crown Lands, who would then seek out and capture or destroy the dissident groups and individuals. In addition to Native Police, the Commissioner also had the troopers of the Border Police and NSW Mounted Police as well as armed volunteer settlers at his disposal to conduct punitive raids on Aboriginal people. Other more minor duties of

9660-520: The troopers conducted an early morning raid on Aboriginal people sleeping on the slopes near Black Head. This resulted in at least 30-40 deaths and many wounded. Complaints were made to the government about the massacre but no action was taken. Edric Morisset later became Commandant of the Native Police based in Brisbane and was replaced on the Clarence by 2nd Lieut. John O'Connell Bligh . A few years later when

9765-399: The troopers posted to the Macleay region include Carlo, Quilt, Paddy and Dundally. Nulla Nulla barracks appears to have closed in 1865 when Henry Sauer bought the property and turned it into a dairy farm. In 1885, 36.4 hectares of the property was gazetted as an Aboriginal Reserve. In 1902 the skeletons of a woman and child with shot holes in their skulls were found on Taylors Arm Mountain in

9870-615: The troopers stated about an incident in which 17 Aboriginal men had been killed by the corps. One of the Native Police troopers stated With reduced reports of attacks in the Western District following two years of policing, two new troopers were signed up from the Port Fairy area in 1845. Although 1843 appears to be the year of the largest casualties from the corps in this region, operations in other years up to 1847 resulted in further mass fatalities namely at Lake Learmonth, Cape Otway ,

9975-492: The two Polynesian men for 16 weeks under charges of mutiny. D'Albertis wanted the men executed, but begrudgingly accepted the sentence. Not long after, D'Albertis returned to Europe with his bounty of stolen goods. His cousin, fellow explorer Enrico Alberto d'Albertis , housed many of Luigi's specimens at Castello D'Albertis . The castle is now home to the Museum of World Cultures. His natural history specimens from New Guinea are in

10080-522: Was also different in that the officers were given monetary rewards for capturing wanted people and that they were placed under the control of the Native Protector. However, extrajudicial killings by the police upon Aboriginal people still occurred during the 1840s. The force also became less formalised in its command structure to the point where, in 1854, Drummond concurrently held the positions of Native Protector, magistrate and Superintendent of Police in

10185-421: Was appointed to the 4th Division, Lieut. Blandford to the 3rd Division and Sergeants Skelton, Pincolt and Richard A. Dempster were also appointed as officers in charge of other divisions. The Traylan barracks on the Burnett River near the now-abandoned site of Ceratodus, north of present-day Eidsvold, was established while the other major barracks, besides Callandoon, was at Wondai Gumbal near Yuleba . Sgt. Dempster

10290-592: Was deployed to Belgrave Flat with his troopers from the Upper Dawson area in Queensland. Poulden was previously an Ensign in 56th Foot who fought in the Crimean War , and was the great-grandson of the Earl of Devon . In addition to performing patrolling duties, he also came for the purpose of recruiting more troopers. In 1859 he conducted a raid on Aboriginal people living at Christmas Creek near Frederickton . He captured

10395-478: Was himself tracked down and shot in the groin by another Hawkesbury aboriginal named Teague. Teague was sent by Hawkesbury settler Edward Luttrell to capture Musquito on the promise of a whaleboat as payment. Teague never received the boat and Musquito was hanged in 1825. In the 1830s, John Batman also used armed Aboriginal men from the Sydney region such as Pigeon and Tommy to assist in his roving parties to capture or kill indigenous Tasmanians . Up until at least

10500-494: Was later officially accused of offering rewards on the heads of certain Aboriginal people, which he unequivocally denied. By 1841, the new superintendent P. P. King still employed black constables, but their duties may have been limited to dingo culling. Also in the 1830s, Major Edmund Lockyer a magistrate in the Goulburn region , employed at least one Aboriginal constable who captured murderers and gangs of armed bushrangers in

10605-673: Was organised in New South Wales , which later evolved into the Queensland Native Police force. 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. It existed until around 1915, when the last Native Police camps in Queensland were closed. Native Police were also utilised by other Australian colonies. The government of South Australia set up

10710-401: Was responsible for several large scale dispersals in 1852. The first was at Wallumbilla where an ex-trooper named Priam and a number of others were shot dead. Dempster then traveled to Ogilvie's Wachoo station near St. George and shot a large number of Aboriginal people with the aid of a man named Johnson who was the superintendent of the property. Johnson also shot dead a White storeperson in

10815-713: Was the sepoy and sowar armies of the East India Company . However, the more compact forces of the Cape Regiment in southern Africa and the Kaffir and Malay Corps in Ceylon are a closer comparison. Before the creation of the first official Native Police forces, there were some informal and privately funded examples of utilising Aboriginal men as enforcers of land claims by European settlers during European colonisation. Armed Aboriginal men were used to capture runaway convicts in

10920-415: Was to be used to capture and kill other natives. He did his best from then on to undermine the corps and as a result many native troopers deserted and few remained longer than three or four years. The main duty of the Native Police was to be deployed to areas around the Port Phillip region where Aboriginal resistance to European colonisation was unable to be controlled by armed settlers. Once in these areas,

11025-405: Was willing to underwrite the costs in 1842. A significant factor in the restoration of the force was the successful capture of five Tasmanian aboriginal people near Westernport in 1840 by local Aboriginal men who were attached to a party of Border Police and soldiers. Henry EP Dana was selected to command the corps in 1842. Except for a brief period where the corps was based at Merri Creek ,

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