‘It’s the Way it Shatters that Matters’: The Use of Glass by Aboriginal People in NMP Camps

02/18/2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

By Lynley Wallis Most people are well aware (at least in some general manner) of the momentous impact that the arrival of Europeans had on Aboriginal peoples and their ways of life in Australia. What is sometimes less acknowledged are the innovative ways that Aboriginal peoples adapted to the availability of new resources such as […]

“I am, Sir, &c., Tom Coward”

02/04/2019.Reading time 38 minutes.

By Heather Burke Thomas (Tom) Coward was described as many things throughout his life: a ‘thoroughly good explorer’, an ‘experienced bushman’, ‘remarkable and interesting’, tyrannical, irascible, belligerent and domineering. He is one of the better documented NMP officers, chiefly because in his later years he seems to have told his life story to anyone who […]

The Unwanted Arm: Westley Richards 20g Double Barrel Pinfire Carbine

01/21/2019.Reading time 23 minutes.

By Tony Pagels This blog tells the story of a weapon purchased in 1867 specifically for the Native Mounted Police (NMP): the Westley Richards breech-loading, double-barrelled, 20 bore, Lefaucheux-action, pinfire carbine (Figure 1). This weapon possessed a number of advantages over the percussion single- and double-barrel, muzzle-loading carbines the NMP were using at the time. […]

Archaeologist Nights: A Tale of One Thousand and One* Artefacts

01/07/2019.Reading time 14 minutes.

By Uschi Artym *Actually, it’s a tale of 3600 artefacts, or thereabouts, and counting! I’m happy to report that, after 18 long months, the cataloguing of artefacts from the Boulia Native Mounted Police (NMP) site is almost complete. While the process has been lengthy — and at times tedious — cataloguing is arguably one of […]

‘The Art of Cookery is in a Most Barbarous State’*: Food on the Frontier

12/20/2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

By Heather Burke Jane Fyfe, who accompanied her husband Alexander to his large pastoral run on the Mackenzie River Central Qld in 1862, neatly summed up the state of food on the frontier when she complained in a letter to her aunt: … We have plenty of fish and game and splendid mutton but nothing […]

Building an Online Database about the Native Mounted Police

12/08/2018.Reading time 21 minutes.

By Lynley Wallis As 2018 draws to a close (though we do have one more Christmas themed blog post to come…) we thought it was time to let you know about another initiative of our Native Mounted Police (NMP) project: an online database that we are hoping (or planning … we’re not sure which is […]

Masculinity and Sexuality on the Colonial Frontier

11/09/2018.Reading time 14 minutes.

By Cherrie De Leiuen Hubert Durham was born in Wales in 1854, the son of Major Philip Francis Durham, a wealthy Englishman. In 1877 he signed on as a Sub-Lieutenant in the 1st Royal Lancashire Militia, resigning his commission in May 1882. Shortly after that he emigrated to Australia, and joined the Native Mounted Police […]

The Many Meanings of ‘X’

10/26/2018.Reading time 20 minutes.

By Tony Pagels The annotation ‘XXX’ can have numerous meanings. For centuries illiterate people have used an ‘X’ in place of a signature on contracts and agreements, or to make their mark. This was a regular occurrence in depositions given by illiterate workers to Native Mounted Police (NMP) officers, as well as by many of […]

When Bureaucracies Kill

10/12/2018.Reading time 23 minutes.

By Heather Burke Cecil Fulford Hill was 21 years old when he was speared by Aboriginal people near Rannes station in central Qld in 1865. Along with Henry Kaye (1881), George Dyas (1881) and Marcus Beresford (1883), Hill was one of only four NMP officers to be killed while on patrol, although many more were […]

Friendships on the Frontier: Exploring relationships between Officers and Troopers of the NMP

09/30/2018.Reading time 22 minutes.

By Heather Burke The relationship between white officers and the Aboriginal troopers who served under them is one of the most perplexing and elusive of all interactions within the Native Mounted Police (NMP). What those relationships were like, the bases around which they were constructed, and how they played out day-to-day would have been as […]