FREDERICK WALKER: Commandant of the Native Police
Paul Dillon
Hardback, 500 pages, $59.95
ISBN 9781925501957
Release Date: June 2018
This is the first and only complete biography of Frederick Walker, 1820 to 1866. Mr Walker's life was one of isolation, hardship and rejection. As Commandant of the Native Police, he was the man who stood at the front line of Australian history with his true and trusty sable force. He was much abused in his day by the squatters for his careful and clement handling of Aborigines, ami des noirs. He is still much abused and neglected today and stands accused of many high crimes and misdemeanours against humanity and the aboriginal natives of Australia. These are all gross slanders and monstrous calumnies. This treatise on his life and times is a complete defence to these infamous allegations, backed with pages of original sources.
After being driven from his command of the Native Police by petty minded squatters and disloyal officers, he took up the worthy profession of a run-hunter and opened up much grazing land in southern and central Queensland, in particular, Plant Downs. He was readily enlisted in the search for Burke and Wills, the forever lamentable tragedy of Australian heroism lost to the unforgiving Outback. Frederick Walker's final act was in the service of the State of Queensland in surveying a telegraph line from Townsville to Burketown for the purposes of an overseas telegraphic link to India. He now lies in a bush grave where he fell on the road to Floraville, Leichhardt River, Queensland. Walker was a bushman par excellence, an Aboriginal Whisperer beyond comparison and an explorer without equal.
Contents
Preface
What have I got to apologise for?
Chapter 1—Birth of a Nation
Chapter 2—Native Police
Chapter 3—Assessment of Native Police
Chapter 4—Dismissal
Chapter 5—Aborigines caught and killed
Chapter 6—Walker, the Civilian
Chapter 7—In Search of Burke and Wills
Chapter 8—Frederick Walker’s Journal
Chapter 9—Telegraph Line
Chapter 10—Letters to the Press
Chapter 11—Native Police Operational Correspondence
Bibliography
About the Author
Paul Dillon, the author, holds a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) degree from the Australian National University, a diploma of Law from the Supreme Court of New South Wales and was called to the Bar of New South Wales on 23 May 1986. He has practised as a Barrister at Law in the Criminal Division of the superior courts of Queensland at Townsville for twenty years as counsel of the accused. He retired from the Law in 2005.
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