Australian Native Police

Australian native police like units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command usually of a single white officer, existed in several Australian colonies during the nineteenth century. Yet there were really only two forces formerly budgetted and organised, and deployed at the frontier by the government for long term use. The first was the Native Police Corps established in 1837 in the Port Phillip District of the then Australian colony of New South Wales (now Victoria) and the second was deployed in the northern districts of New South Wales, the later colony of Queensland in 1848. However, the latter force, known predominantly simply as the "Native Police Force" (sometimes called the "Native Mounted Police Force") of Queensland, was by far the largest, most notorious and longest lasting of them all. It existed from 1848 to at least 1897. Other native police like systems were also occasionally used both in New South Wales and in the colonies of South Australia, Western Australia and in Northern Territory (then part of the colony of South Australia), but with the exception (it seems) of a small unit briefly existing in South Australia, they were informally organised often private initiatives, not formerly established and deployed as a government financed frontier force.