Australian Native Police - Queensland

Queensland

The Native Police Force in Queensland (sometime referred to at the 'Native Mounted Police', but entitled 'Native Police Force' in all parliamentary and government documents) came into effect on 17 August 1848 under the command of Frederick Walker, to be deployed beyond the settled districts. By November Walker had recruited 14 native troopers from four different tribes and different language groups from the Murrumbidgee, Murray and Edwards Rivers areas and was making preparations for leaving the Murray River district for the Macintye country. His force travelled up the Darling river arriving on the Macintyre River on 10 May 1849 and were first deployed in that area and the Condamine to great effect in reducing aboriginal attacks and resistance against squatters.

In Queensland, southern tribes were used in skirmishes involving northern language groups. One of the sub-inspectors was Thomas Coward (1834–1905), after whom Coward Springs, South Australia is named.

A killing of a station cook near Durrie on the Diamantina in 1888 led to a reported attack by a party of the Queensland Native Police led by sub-inspector Robert Little. The attack was timed to coincide with an assembly of young aborigines around the permanent waters of Kaliduwarry. Great gatherings of aboriginal youth were held at Kaliduwarry on the Eyre Creek on a regular basis and attracted juveniles from as far away as the Gulf of Carpentaria to below the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. On this occasion an estimated two hundred aborigines were killed.

Queensland's Native Police Force was arguably the most controversial force of its kind in colonial Australian history. John G. Paton wrote in 1889 that, two years previously, Samuel Griffith, the Premier of Queensland, "had these blood-stained forces disbanded for ever." This, however, is not entirely true, Griffith did not disband the force during his term in government, it was only gradually disbanded during the mid to late 1890s.