A special post from Casey Cardinia Libraries staff member and local history enthusiast - Kate Davis.
**Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this article contains the
name of deceased persons. **
Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve in Endeavour
Hills is one of the most important post-contact Indigenous sites in Victoria.
It was the original site of the first Native Police Corps in Victoria, which
recruited Aboriginal Australians to police the local area, in an effort to integrate
the Indigenous population into European settled society.
 |
Drawing of the Native Police Corps,
from Public Record Office Victoria.
The concept of a Native Police Corps was
first proposed by Captain Alexander Maconochie in 1837, as a tool for
assimilation of Indigenous peoples and compensation for use of their land (1). Billibellary
Ngurungaeta, an elder of the Wurundjeri-willam peoples, was enlisted by the
European settlers to help recruit Indigenous men (2). These men were taught
English and military discipline, which the European settlers hoped would be
passed on to their families.
The Native Police Corps site was established
in October 1837 (3). The site sat along the Dandenong Creek and bordered the lands
of the Ngaruk-willam people of the Boon wurrung language group. It is recorded
that the site was suggested by ‘some of the 15 Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung men
who enlisted initially,’ (4) who knew the area as Nerre Nerre Warren. The Corps
was commanded by Christiaan de Villiers at this time. Within 10 weeks though,
de Villiers had resigned.
3 years later, the site was given over to the
newly- created Aboriginal Protectorate, as their base for the Westernport area.
The role of the Aboriginal Protectorate was ‘protection and civilisation’ of Indigenous peoples; assimilation and destruction of their culture. The
Assistant Protector, William Thomas, took up residence at the site in October 1840, with the intention of creating an agricultural station for Indigenous peoples to live and work on. Thomas was unsuccessful and
gave up in 1842 (5).William Thomas, Assistant Aboriginal Protector.
Image from State Library.
At the same time, a decision had been made to
reform the Corps, this time led by Sir Henry Dana, with
cooperation from
Assistant Protector Thomas (6). By 1851, 9 years later, the Corps would consist
of 60 men, 45 of whom were Aboriginal, the other 15 European (7).Sir Henry Dana. Image from State Library.
Records from 1848 show that daily activities included
patrolling, locating individuals, checking passes, carrying messages and escorting
travellers. It can be assumed that these activities remained largely the same
over the entire existence of the Corps. From 1849 onwards, the Corps was commanded
to patrol gold reserves in Port Phillip, and during 1850 and 1851, served as
guards at Pentridge prison in Coburg (8).
The Indigenous men who joined the Corps did
not, as had been hoped by the Europeans, abandon their traditional lifestyles.
The Europeans in the Corps proved to be particularly bad influences also, with
alcohol abuse being prevalent (9).
Indigenous Significance
The significance of the site for Indigenous
peoples extends beyond the Corps though. It was also the death and burial site
of Bungelene, an Aboriginal elder from the Gunai/Kurnai areas in Gippsland. He
was arrested in 1848 for the alleged kidnapping of a white woman and died in
custody on November 21, 1848 (10).
**The
story of the alleged kidnapping presented in this article is from records of printed
material created by European settlers – it must be acknowledged that these
records include no Indigenous recollections. **
According to an article published in The
Australian, in 1847 2 white women and 5 white men had been shipwrecked on the
coast in Gippsland. Upon reaching land, they had stayed with the ‘Paul Paul’ tribe. A few days in, the ‘Parberry Long’ tribe
visited and took one of the women, spearing the white men, the other woman
remaining behind. The women who remained behind was killed shortly afterwards.
The kidnapped woman was taken by an Indigenous man named Patko, and then was
allegedly stolen by Bungelene and taken into the mountains (11).
Excerpt from article written by C. J. de Villiers (who we can assume is the same
Christiaan de Villiers formerly of the Native Police Corps) published in The
Australian, paragraph 8.
Some years later, another article re-told of
the alleged kidnapping. According to this article, the woman had been perhaps
identified as a Miss McPherson. After the initial expedition which lasted 3
months, the government despatched a second party who returned not with the
woman, but with Bungelene, leader of the tribe they believed had taken the woman,
along with his 2 sons. Bungelene died while in custody at the site of the
Native Police Corps. Shortly after, one of his sons escaped to the bush, while
the other was removed to an Aboriginal station and raised by European settlers.
Bungelene was buried at the site (12).
Excerpt from article published in The Cornwall Chronicle, paragraph 7.
From
these records, we can suppose that the knowledge of these events was never
fully understood and as such, the persecution of Bungelene and his sons perhaps
lacked evidence. It can also be assumed that Bungelene’s death was due to poor
treatment while in custody. Regardless of how these events unfolded, Bungelene
was ripped away from his country and culture, as were his 2 sons.
End of the Native Police Corps
In 1853, the Native Police Corps was made
redundant due to several factors, most notably the founding of Victoria Police
and the death of Sir Henry Dana, their leader. Many of the Corps members went
on to employment in the new gold exploration fields.
The site was then utilised by Victoria Police
for breeding and training horses for their mounted branch, until July 1931 –
hence the name Police Paddocks, and the naming of nearby Stud Road.
Digitised Diary
The Public Record Office has a fantastic
resource for those wanting more of an insight into the day-to-day activities of
troopers in the Corps; a fully digitised diary from the Native Police Corps
lasting from 1845 to 1853. Access it here!
Footnotes
1.1 1. City
of Yarra, ‘Native Police,’ The Aboriginal History of Yarra [webpage],
2021, para. 1-2 https://aboriginalhistoryofyarra.com.au/8-native-police/
2. Ibid.
3. Presland, G., ‘Dandenong Police Paddocks Reserve: the most
historically significant post-contact Indigenous site in Victoria’, Royal
Historical Society History News, Issue 354, June 2021, p. 7, https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/digital-RHSV_June_News_2021.pdf
4. Ibid
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Public
Record Office Victoria, ‘Native Police Corps,’ Public Record Office Victoria
[webpage], 2021, para. 4 https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/VA4759
8. Ibid, para. 2-3
9. City of Yarra, op. cit., para. 3.
10. Presland, G., loc. cit.
11. De
Villiers, C. J., 'Country News', The Australian (Sydney, NSW: 1824 - 1848),
2 March 1847, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37128202
12. Gordon, A. 'Victoria', The Cornwall
Chronicle (Launceston, Tas.: 1835 - 1880), 25 June 1859, p. 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65732271
Images
Capt. Dana, De Balk, Eugen Wilhelm Ernst, photographer,
1866, State Library of Victoria, Accession no: H2013.315/1.
William Thomas, Davies & Co., photographer, 1860, State
Library of Victoria, Accession no: H2002.87.
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