Australian native police

Australian native police were law enforcement groups of Aboriginal people recruited by governments from the 1830s to the 1850s. In many cases they were chosen to help keep the peace between settlers and Aboriginal people, but their skills in tracking suspects were also of importance to Colonial powers in Australia. The young men were usually recruited from areas well away from areas they patrolled to avoid kin relationships. While in the corps, they were prohibited from participating in many traditional activities, although they could hunt, fish and grow food. Membership in the corps was seen as a way to indoctrinate the men into Western culture. The police corps were significant because they were among the first Aboriginal–settler interactions.

Background

For thousands of years, Aboriginal peoples lived in near-isolation from outsiders. Some European explorers and traders visited in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Captain James Cook explored and mapped the coasts and claimed the area known as New South Wales for Britain in 1770. His later voyages in the Pacific Ocean piqued interest in Britain.

The First Industrial Revolution (circa 1760–1840) was changing Britain. Machines were putting laborers out of work, leading to increased poverty. Desperately poor people often turned to crime to survive. The government established colonies in places where resources were plentiful and sent convicted felons to provide free labor. Rebellion in the American colonies forced Britain to look for another destination for criminals.

British forces established a penal colony in 1788 at Sydney. Terms ranged from several years to life. Free settlers with land grants also arrived to farm. About 90 percent of the convicts were loaned out to settlers as manual laborers.

The British proceeded to develop other colonies on the continent as explorers mapped larger areas. Such settlements were needed to help the British government maintain its claim to the vast continent. To supplement the few immigrants from Britain, the government encouraged released convicts to settle rather than return to Britain. Most accepted the offer, which included free land, seeds, tools, livestock, a year’s rations and convicts to provide free labor.

Britain has a long history as a colonial power. In African colonies, British leadership believed the cultures were so different that the best way to govern was through existing institutions and leaders. This indirect rule method, which led to the creation of indigenous police corps in Africa, was later adapted in other colonies.

Impact

As more land was enclosed under pastoral leases by increasing numbers of settlers, the Aboriginal peoples began to starve. They were prevented from gathering food as they had for centuries. For example, colonists destroyed the yam fields in the Yarra basin. The Aboriginal people became increasingly dependent on settlers for potatoes and other food. The scarcity of options led to some violent confrontations.

Colonial leaders needed to find ways to defuse conflicts. They also wanted a corps of troops who could track suspects and criminals. Captain Christaan de Villiers, who had led a group of indigenous police in South Africa, was recruited to command the first official Native Police Corps. Formed in October 1837, it was based in Nerre Nerre Warren, Port Phillip. His initial effort was unsuccessful, and the corps disbanded in January 1838. Three months later, de Villiers re-established the troopers in Jolimont. Local authorities did not provide sufficient funding for de Villiers to maintain the corps consistently for several years. In 1849, local Aboriginal men working with soldiers and Border Police aided in the capture of five Tasmanian Aboriginal people. This success prompted better funding of the Native Police.

Native Police officers were armed and travelled by horse. They performed a multitude of duties, primarily aiding in tracking and apprehending suspects. They often worked with the Border Police, Mounted Police, military troops and armed volunteer groups. When they were sent to an occupied region, the troopers and their officers operated under the command of the local commissioner for Crown lands. A frequent cause of conflict was illegal settlement on Aboriginal people’s lands.

In the Port Phillip area, the Native Police were based at Narre Narre Warren. The men were permitted to plant and tend gardens and to hunt and fish. Other than their tracking skills, they were forced to give up their other traditional activities. They were banned from associating with Aboriginal people who were not members of the Native Police as well as what were called the lowest classes of settlers.

After de Villiers was pushed out by political enemies in 1839, the newly created Aboriginal Protectorate was put in charge of Aboriginal people in the region. Three years later, Henry Edward Pultney Dana formed a new Native Police corps, again based at Narre Narre Warren. He recruited twenty-five young men from western and central Gippsland tribes. Dana commanded the corps from January 1842 to November 1852.

The Colonial government charged the troopers with stopping what it viewed as Aboriginal people’s aggression toward settlers. Membership in the corps was also a means to separate young Aboriginal men from their traditional culture and immerse them in Western culture. Under Dana, the Native Police corps was credited with increasing friendly relations between settlers and Aboriginal peoples. However, the ranks of his corps of original recruits diminished rapidly. Nine deserted and others were dismissed, until only eight of the first group remained in good standing. Some picked up habits such as alcoholism from the British officers who were expected to serve as role models to the younger men.

In 1851, the Native Police were dispatched to maintain order in the gold fields of Victoria. Dana angered many of the diggers when he ordered the troopers to collect license fees imposed by the government. After Dana’s death the following year, his corps was disbanded in 1853.

The longest-active Native Police corps was Queensland’s Native Mounted Police, which operated from the late 1840s until the early twentieth century. White officers led detachments of about six Aboriginal troopers in tracking suspects and stopping conflicts.

The men of the Native Police corps reportedly were demoralized by having to arrest and shoot fellow Aboriginal Australians. Researchers estimate that Native Police troopers killed between 24,000 and 41,000 Aboriginal people in Victoria. Killings often occurred when the men were dispatched to force Aboriginal people off their lands to make way for colonists. Surviving children were often given to settlers to work as servants. Orphaned boys were even recruited for the corps.

While Native Police in some cases bridged cultures, studies have found that they were frequently used to drive Aboriginal people off their land. Many of the young men recruited were negatively affected by their involvement.

Bibliography

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