The story of outback native mounted police
Making a Difference : Outcomes of ARC supported research | Revealing more about these sites is fostering a better understanding of the nature of frontier conflict, new understandings of the Aboriginal and settler experience, and contributing to global studies of Indigenous responses to colonialism. Image: Josephson’ s ointment pot lid being excavated from a rubbish pit at the Boralga (Laura), Native Police camp, Cape York. Image credit: Flinders University. 41 Most of the Native Police campsites were located well away from towns in the middle of nowhere, especially in south western Queensland. Even armed with historic maps for their location, the precise locations of many of the camps has long remained a mystery, with some perhaps never to be found. The project, funded through the ARC Discovery Projects scheme, has uncovered dozens of campsites used by the early Native Mounted Police that are dotted in some of the remotest parts of Queensland. Of the almost 200 Native Mounted Police sites referred to in historical records, this project has supported the location of almost 20. An archaeological project led by Associate Professor Heather Burke at Flinders University is shedding new light on what is a contentious chapter in Australia’s history: the long operating Queensland Native Mounted Police. In the early days of European settlement in Australia, the policing system was very different from what exists today. Australian native police units typically consisted of recruited mounted Aboriginal troopers who were usually under the command of white officers, existing in extensive base camps.
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