The Native Police Corps
References: Books and Photographs
* Fels, Marie Hansen, Good Men and True - The Aboriginal Police of the Port Phillip District 1837-1853, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1988.
This is the definitive book on the native police. It covers all aspects of their history and is written with meticulous attention to detail. The book also contains a very comprehensive bibliography of both published and unpublished material.
* Brennan, Niall. Chronicles of Dandenong, The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1973.
Chapter One is largely concerned with the Native Police stationed at Rowville.
Bridges, Barry. The Native Police Corps, Port Phillip and Victoria 1837-53, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol 57 No 2 June 1971.
This article deals with the thinking behind the establishment of the Corps as well as the ongoing political debates about its effectiveness in terms of both its policing role as well as its affects upon the aboriginal troopers themselves.
Finn, Edmund. The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, Ferguson & Mitchell, Melbourne, 1888.
Writing under the pseudonym of Garryowen, Finn relates the accounts of expeditions to locate the white woman believed to be living with the Gippsland aborigines in Chapter 45. There are numerous other references to the activities of the Corps and its leaders, Henry and William Dana and William Walshe.
Knox Historical Society Inc holds the following photographs of the Native Police Corps in their collection: Nos 00011, 00042, 00854, 03278-03284.
Clark, Ian D.(Ed) The Journals of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate, Heritage Matters, Melbourne, 1998.
Published in five volumes, this work reproduces the diaries of the Chief Protector with carefully researched explanations of the people, places and events that Robinson noted daily. They also contain his many sketches of aborigines and their activities. There are numerous references to the Native Police Corps and entries noting his visits to the depot at Narre Narre Warren.
Feely, J.A. Index to the Argus 1846-1854, Library Council of Victoria, Melbourne, 1976.
There are entries for Aborigines (including many reports of the search by the Native Police Corps for the white woman with the Gippsland tribes); Dana, Henry Edward; Dandenong (barracks for the mounted police); Native police; Thomas, William. Microfilms of the relevant newspapers are held at the State Library of Victoria.
* Jones, Michael. Prolific in God's Gifts, Allen & Unwin, North Sydney, 1983.
Chapter two provides a good short account of the native police.
Boldrewood, Rolf. Old Melbourne Memories, George Robertson and Co, Melbourne, 1884.
Chapter eight relates how Boldrewood (real name Thomas Browne) calls in the native police to deal with aborigines who had stolen food from his hut.
* Fels, Marie Hansen, The Dandenong Police Paddocks - Early Use as Native Police Headquarters and Aboriginal Protectorate Station, 1837-53, Department of Conservation & Environment, Occasional Report No. 25, Volume 1, Melbourne, 1986.
This contains a detailed account of the Corps at Rowville. Appendix 1 contains comprehensive biographical details of an important member of the Corps, Corporal Buckup. Appendix 2 has examples of correspondence held in the Public Records Office on the Native Police.
* Fels, Marie Hansen, The Dandenong Police Paddocks - Land History and Use 1851-1988, Department of Conservation and Environment, Occasional Report No. 25, Volume 2, Melbourne, 1990.
There are many references to the Corps as well as to the Police Stud, significant horses, and the Queensland Blacktrackers.
* Rhodes, David. The Dandenong Police Paddocks - An Archaeological Survey, Department of Conservation & Environment, Occasional Report No. 25, Volume 3, Melbourne, 1990.
Contains many maps, plans and illustrations of the site of the Corps headquarters at Rowville.
'My heart is breaking' - A Joint Guide to Records about Aboriginal People in the Public Record Office of Victoria and the Australian Archives, Victorian Regional Office, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1993.
There is a brief history of the Corps as well as a first hand account of a battle fought between a detachment of the Corps and 200 aborigines beside the Murray River.
Bride, Thomas Francis (Ed.), Letters from Victorian Pioneers (1898), Currey O'Neil, Melbourne, 1983.
William Thomas lists and comments on a number of the members of the Corps on pages 70-78. Governor La Trobe pays a tribute to the commandant of the Corps, Henry Dana, following his "premature death" on pages 266-269.
* Blake, Les J. Captain Dana and the Native Police, Neptune Press, Geelong, 1982.
This is an easily read account of the corps under Dana's leadership. It devotes much space to the search for the lost white woman who was supposed to be living with the Gippsland Aborigines.
Gardner, P.D. Through Foreign Eyes - European Perceptions of the Kurnai Tribes of Gippsland, Ngarak Press, Ensay, Victoria, 1994.
There are references to the corps and to the native police cemetery at Rowville.
* Winzenreid, Arthur. Scoresby - A Student's Guide to its History, Scoresby Historical Resources Centre, Scoresby Secondary College, 1984.
Contains a simply written section on the Native Police Corps.
Pike, Douglas (Ed). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 1788-1850, MUP, 1966.
There is an entry for Henry Dana - the most successful of the Corps commanders - on page 278.