ABC LNL talk and podcast, 3 September 2026, between Professor Heather Burke of Flinders University and David Marr of the ABC. Foreshadowing publication of the book Buried: Archaeology, Frontier Conflict and the Queensland Native Mounted Police (Sydney University Press) by Burke, Lynley A. Wallis and Bryce Barker.
The Queensland Native Police existed from 1848 to 1928, first facilitating the pastoral and then the mining expansion of Queensland. The force had white officers and Indigenous troopers, the latter drawn from outside the regions where they worked.
The archival documentation of the force tends to the bureaucratic (orders put in and received and the like) rather than the use of force, though instances of the latter were frequently not recorded. Perhaps 160 campsites, temporary or long-lasting, have been identified and Burke and associates have concentrated on excavating a few of these. There are not many contemporary photographs of sites.
The team has looked for artefacts from bullet cartridges and uniform buttons to everyday items such as cooking containers. They have even found child's toys in part of camps occupied by officers' families.
There is very little evidence of prosecution of troopers. David Marr's Killing for Country has evidence of the role of white officers in particular.
Heather Burke and Lynley Wallis are among Defending Country's distinguished Supporters.
Other Heather Burke and Lynley Wallis writing.
More on their website, 'Frontier Conflict and the Native Mounted Police in Queensland'.
The Queensland Native Mounted Police operated for 80 years, from 1848 until 1928. It was organised along paramilitary lines, consisting of detachments of Aboriginal troopers led by white officers. It operated across the whole of Queensland and was explicitly constituted to protect the lives, livelihoods and property of settlers and to prevent (and punish) any Aboriginal aggression or resistance. This was often accomplished through violence in many forms, leading Henry Reynolds to characterise the NMP as “the most violent organisation in Australian history”.
This database derives from a four year long project to explore the archaeology of the NMP. It is the only publicly available historical and archaeological dataset of their lives and activities. The excavations conducted for this project were the first archaeological investigations of any Native Police force operating anywhere in Australia. (from the website blurb)
Picture credit: book cover detail
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