Native Police Corps at Nerre Nerre Worran

 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.

William Thomas, Assistant Aboriginal Protector.
Image from State Library.

 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).

At the same time, a decision had been made to reform the Corps, this time led by Sir Henry Dana, with

Sir Henry Dana. Image from State Library.

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).

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.