Attempts to Reform the Native Police (1852)

During the early part of 1851, the total number of men enlisted in the Native Police Corps reached a high of 60, of which 45 were Aboriginal troopers. With the rapid onset of the gold rush, however, this situation changed. Officers and troopers of the Native Police were suddenly assigned to more and more duties on the goldfields. For many of the long-serving troopers, this was a marked departure from the kind of patrolling on the frontiers that had suited them in the past. It also brought members of the Native Police into contact with the new opportunities for instant wealth that were attracting thousands to the goldfields. As a result, many of them began to leave. Their commander, Henry EP Dana, struggled to keep the Corps in existence, let alone effective.

The decline of the Native Police began in 1851. In November of that year, Dana wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe about the resignation of three of his non-commissioned officers (Sergeant Major Richard McLelland, Sergeant Owen Cowan, Corporal William Stanes). Dana noted that these men had not signed the yearly agreement and therefore could not be prevented from leaving. He was concerned that he would find great difficulty in replacing these men. The usual agreement for non-commissioned officers was for a period of 12 months, and the records of these agreements show that they received between 25 and 40 pounds per year in payment.

On 14 February 1852, Dana again wrote to La Trobe about the condition of his Native Police, admitting that the Corps was 'in a very disorganized state' and that it would take at least another three months to reform it. Dana lists a number of reasons why many of his men had decided to leave. In his view, non-commissioned officers were not paid enough in comparison with those in other police forces. With rates of pay so low, the government could not expect to stop them from going off to find their fortune on the goldfields instead. As Dana observes, it was this 'extraordinary revolution of the times which has followed the discovery of Gold in this Colony' that led all but one officer and one non-commissioned officer to leave the Corps by the beginning of 1852. Dana had difficulty finding suitable applicants to replace the experienced men who had left. It was also going to be a challenge to ensure the discipline and regulation of the Aboriginal troopers under new officers who did not yet command their respect and loyalty. Not surprisingly, many of the longest-serving and best troopers also decided to leave the Corps, and there was little that Dana could do to stop this.

Rapid reform was needed if the Native Police were to continue as a policing unit. From the beginning of 1852, Dana began to initiate this reform with the approval of La Trobe. Among the changes was a reduction in the number of Aboriginal troopers and a corresponding increase in the number of Europeans. In addition, Dana proposed that any new Aboriginal troopers should be recruited only from areas outside Melbourne or Geelong.

Over the next few months, Dana continued the process of reforming the Corps and reporting his progress to La Trobe, even as the number of members in the force continued to fall. In April he wrote that there had been further desertions and two deaths. The Corps now numbered only nine, and he did not place much faith in those who remained. Dana claimed that it was a struggle to find good Aboriginal men for the Corps as most were unwilling 'from the facility they now have, of making money, by working for the settlers, and also from their frequenting the gold workings'. As a consequence, he continued to work out an alternative recruitment arrangement that would include more European troopers and the employment of Aboriginal men only as trackers. In his view, fewer Aboriginal men were needed in the Corps because the colony was now relatively free of conflict between Indigenous people and the settlers. By May, Dana was forwarding proposed accounts of payments and costs for the reformed Corps. He sought approval for paying European troopers and non-commissioned officers a base wage of 4 shillings per day. He also detailed how he would distribute two teams between Gippsland and the Murray River district, and leave some troopers in Melbourne in case of emergencies.

In July 1852 Dana began to organise what he called the Kilmore Patrol, for which he needed to recruit ten men and acquire five horses. He received permission from La Trobe on 20 July to proceed with this plan and purchase what was needed. By 26 July, Dana reported that the Mounted Patrol for the Kilmore district was ready to be placed on duty and awaited further orders on how it was to be deployed in the field. He proposed the following rates of pay for the members of the new patrol: officer in charge to receive 10 shillings and 6 pence per day, and troopers to receive 6 shillings per day. In August, reinforcements for the Kilmore Patrol were sought, numbering one corporal and three troopers. Also in August 1852, Dana organised an additional patrol to be stationed to the north of Deep Creek (a tributary of the Maribyrnong River extending north from Bulla). This was to be placed under the command of his brother, William Dana, and its role was to 'patrol the several lines of road between Melbourne and Gisborne'.

Henry Dana's struggle to transform the Native Police Corps for service in the new colony ended on 24 November 1852 when he died of pneumonia at the Melbourne Club. As the Native Police Corps was never formally established by sanction of the New South Wales legislature, it is not possible to give a firm date as to when it ceased to exist as a policing unit. The death of the commanding officer and the formation of the Victoria Police Force in 1853, which brought together all the functions previously performed by separate policing units, are the best indicators we have for when the Corps disbanded.