Everything about Native Police Corps totally explained
From as early as 1837, a
Native Police Corps was established in the
Port Phillip District of the
Australian colony of New South Wales (now
Victoria). It made use of
Aboriginal men as
trackers and to supplement the numbers of white policemen. Several attempts to achieve this were made; one of the more successful was that of
Henry EP Dana between 1842 and 1852, around 25 kilometres southeast of Melbourne. This Corp 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 people's tracking abilities, as well as to assimilate the individuals into white society.
The duties of the native police included searching for missing persons, carrying messages, and escorting dignataries 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 the official disentegration of his Native Police Corps in January 1853.
Other native police forces were also established in what are now Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Use of native police in massacres
Native police were often called upon to take part in
massacres of other Aboriginal people. This was often possible because the white police could take advantage of long-standing hostilities between different tribal, or language, groups. However, sometimes there was no relationship, amicable or otherwise, between the native police and the victims.
Some examples include a killing in 1846 in the
Snowy River of eight Indigenous people by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police.
In Queensland, southern tribes were used in skirmishes involving northern language groups.
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