The Black Tracker
Swart bloodhounds of the fenceless West,
Black gallopers that lead the Law,
To whom your victims stand confessed
By every lightest line they draw;
The hawks that high above you sail
Have eyes less keen to pierce the blue,
The dingo on his hunting trail
Runs slacker in the chase than you!
Your naked fathers, seeking food
By signs upon the sand grew wise,
And tracked their quarry till it stood,
And bore it home, a hard won prize.
Now, clothed and horsed and paid in gold,
Ye rid across the self-same sands
To track the outlaw to his hold
And leave him in his foreman’s hands!
With head upon your horses mane,
With eyes intent on every clue,
By swamp and river, ridge and plain,
Ye follows as the fates pursue.
Behind you, blood on spur and heel
And foam on chain and rein and ring,
With hands that tighten on their steel,
Ride fast the troopers of the King!
The killer’s threat is in your eyes
The falconer’s and the hunters pride;
Athwart your brow a vengeance lies,
Unborrowed from the band ye guide.
The hate that shaped your fathers spears,
The blood-lust of a thousand years
Comes back to fan your hearts to fire!
Yet I have seen your passion sleep,
Your hate and lust and anger die,
When, stirred by human love as deep
As ever moved a mothers sigh,
Ye rode upon a gentler trail
And followed, through the scrubland wild,
In sorrow that ye scorned to veil,
The footprints of a lost bush child!
By Will H Ogilvie
Leonora Police Tracker – 1901
Soon after the founding of the colony of Western Australia, aboriginal people were employed by the Western Australia police. In the early days they were not termed trackers and some did a full range of policing duties. They were called various names in early reports, for example Native Constables and Police Assistants – or just plain constables, like settler police officers.
For the most part they worked with aboriginal people to prevent acts of violence and theft. Sometimes they worked as ordinary town constables, such as the unnamed man recruited at Albany in 1840. By the year 1854 the word trackers became more common; they were employed in both Perth and Fremantle, not just in the bush.
As the decades rolled by their roles became more specialised. They helped hunt down and catch murderers, thieves and other criminals, to find lost or missing persons and – before the mid-1900s – to manage and move patrol equipment and act as interpreters in court. One perhaps underestimated aspect of tracker work was diplomacy – acting as ‘in between’ men when patrols were moving through relatively unknown country.
Trackers were not contract employees or official members. They were casual workers and were attached to individual police officers. The latter officers received a special allowance from the WA Police and had to use it to pay for the food and clothing of the tracker and his family. If money was needed for extra expenses, police officers were required to pay out of their own pockets.
Because of the periodic nature of their work, which could at times fade out as police personnel moved on or working needs changed, records pertaining to trackers were badly kept. For many no records of any kind survive, but the same is true for a great many non-aboriginal law enforcement officers operating in the 1800s and right up until fairly recent times. Time and various policy decisions have not been kind to police personnel records.
Peter Conole
WA Police Historian (Retired 2013)
Aboriginal tracker with policemen and prisoner.
Moya Sharp
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Hi Moya.. When my stepfather was transferred as Sergeant in Charge of Southern Cross police station, in 1941, he inherited the black tracker as part of the “staff” there. His name was Paddy, came from way up north of W A still had tribal scars on his chest, could throw a boomerang in the police yard,had no idea how old he was , & taught me how to play cards. He cheated nearly all the the time . He had to stay around till lunch time each day, then he was free to go. He would go to the native camp on the edge of S X where he would play cards with the rest of his pals who no doubt cheated as much as he did. I still have some photos of him standing with me & holding my hand. I was 12 . Paddy was quite a lot of fun.