MODERN policing methods are so much different to what they used to be, and nothing highlights that more than a new website and historical display launched on Friday
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The history of Aboriginal Trackers is in focus following a joint initiative between NSW Police Force Aboriginal Coordination Team and Native Title Services Corporation.
The website and historical display will showcase the history of Aboriginal Trackers in New South Wales, looking at who they were and where they came from, while recognising their unique skills and the pivotal role they played within the NSW Police Force.
Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie, APM, corporate sponsor and portfolio holder for Aboriginal relations, said this is a great way for the NSW Police Force to acknowledge the contribution Aboriginal Trackers have made to policing.
“It is a way for the NSW Police Force to recognise the significant role Aboriginal trackers, or ‘black trackers’ as they were better known, have played in law enforcement since colonisation,” Asst Comm McKechnie said.
“The idea for this website came about at our 150 years celebrations in Dubbo a couple of years ago, which is ironic because a lot of the trackers were based in Dubbo and the wider western area.
“These men were exceptionally skilled in hunting, gathering and tracking and were significant in helping to solve a lot of cases, arrest notorious bushrangers and locate people lost in the bush.
“These people knew their countries. There was no technology like we have today, it was just phenomenal work done by these people.
“The likes of Alec ‘Tracker’ Riley and Frank Williams come to mind, and that association continues because until recently one of Frank’s descendants Nick Williams worked with the police out at Bourke.”
It is mainly the work of Dr Michael Bennett from the Native Title Services Corporation, who has already compiled about 40 stories.
“In total there about 200 trackers in total and the idea is to have all of their stories on the site,” Asst Comm McKechnie said.
“Not only does it show the close ties between police and the Aboriginal people dating back to the very beginning of policing, but it can also be a tool used to educate and be a resource for school children and those with a keen interest in Australian history.
“Dr Bennett hopes to update the website with maybe one story a week, so it will be a constantly evolving site that people can come back to over and over.”
‘Pathfinders: the History of NSW Aboriginal Trackers’ can be found at: www.pathfindersnsw.org.au/nsw-aboriginal-trackers/ and explores this history of Aboriginal Trackers in NSW from 1862 through to 1973 when the current NSW Police Force was established and the last tracker, Norman Walford, retired.