Reading the Rockhampton Letter Book

10/20/2021.Reading time 15 minutes.

We’ve complained before about the general lack of records detailing the day-to-day realities of NMP life. This is most apparent in the lack of surviving Patrol Diaries and Camp Diaries from the Force’s 80 year existence. When at the Queensland State Archives recently, however, we came across a catalogue reference to a “Letterbook – police”, […]

Uniform Buttons of the Native Mounted Police in Queensland, 1852–1904

09/03/2020.Reading time 26 minutes.

By Nic Grguric The stranger turned round and revealed a rather prepossessing face, and I noticed a row of glittering buttons, which at once proclaimed the native police officer (Queenslander, 25 January 1879, p.109). A considerable assemblage of uniform buttons were recovered from the archaeological fieldwork carried out at six Native Mounted Police (NMP) sites […]

“I suppose I have had more experience amongst blacks than any other man of my age in this colony”[1]: Wentworth D’Arcy Uhr Part I

03/04/2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

By Frank Uhr My name is Frank Uhr, and I am a 70-something historian living in Brisbane, following and thoroughly enjoying the adventures of the Archaeology on the Frontier team as they help open the veil on men who served in the Qld Native Mounted Police (NMP). You see, my great grandfather Wentworth D’Arcy Uhr (Figure […]

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 […]

Treachery or a Matter of Survival? The Attempted Murder of Sub-Inspector Brabazon Stafford

07/20/2018.Reading time 21 minutes.

By Heather Burke .. six of the Native troopers at the Laura [have] done their level best to disperse Sub-inspector Stafford and his camp-keeper … the occurrence shows vividly the dangers to which Native Police officers are exposed from their own men, who when they break the bounds of discipline become so many wild beasts […]

Shots Fired … But in What Direction and How do we Know?

06/21/2018.Reading time 16 minutes.

By Tony Pagels The role of the Native Mounted Police (NMP) was to control and disperse Aboriginal opposition to ensure European settlement was a success in Queensland (Qld). This was achieved by the Force having the best available weapons and employing military-type tactics. But when a firearm was discharged 140 years ago how can we […]

“All Mere Youths” When Taken Away: Recruiting Aboriginal Boys and Men to the NMP Part III

05/25/2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

By Lynley Wallis and Heather Burke We have previously written about the processes of recruiting Aboriginal men to the NMP (Recruiting Part 1 and Willing Volunteers?). However, we didn’t have room there to consider another element of the trooper experience: the interpersonal relationships that existed, both amongst the troopers, and between them and the officers […]

Willing Volunteers? Recruiting Aboriginal Boys and Men to the NMP Part II

05/13/2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

By Lynley Wallis, Heather Burke, Bryce Barker and Noelene Cole In an earlier post we considered some of the mechanisms through which Aboriginal boys and men may have been enticed, or forced, to join the NMP. In this post, we consider what is perhaps the most perplexing type of “recruitment” of these men: that of […]

Recruiting Aboriginal boys and men to the NMP: Part I

04/13/2018.Reading time 16 minutes.

By Lynley Wallis, Heather Burke, Bryce Barker and Noelene Cole One of the infamous euphemisms in historical documents relating to the Native Mounted Police (NMP) is “dispersal”. This word has now been convincingly demonstrated to actually refer to the shooting and killing of Aboriginal people (Richards 2008). We suggest here that another euphemism is the […]