Joseph Murray

Joseph Murray, son of George Murray of Gundabooka, was born at Bourke in about 1890.  A talented horseman who stood over six feet tall, he was recruited by the police to work at the Redfern police stables soon after the end of WWI.  The police relied on Murray to break in many of their new horses.  Murray treated horses...

Eric Mumbler

Eric “Nugget” Mumbler was born at Kempsey in about 1916 to Harold Mumbler from the NSW south coast and Jane Drew of Pelican Island on the lower reaches of the Macleay River. Eric was living at Kempsey in September 1937 when he married Helen Donovan who also had ties to the south coast and Nambucca Heads.  The couple raised a...

Peter Wandy

Peter Wandy was born in Western Australia in the early 1880s, possibly in the Kalgoorlie-Coolgardie district, which is approximately 550km east-north-east of Perth.  As a young man he was the tracker at Kalgoorlie for four years before picking up work on a cattle station.  Peter quickly left after suffering physical abuse at the hands of the boss.  He moved to...

Edward Bowers Bennett

Edward Bowers Bennett, son of Englishman Edward Bennett and Aboriginal woman Elizabeth Woods, was born at Pilliga in about 1882.  He married Mary Ann Goulding, daughter of Irishman Michael Goulding and Aboriginal woman Mary Ann Hall at Coonabarabran in 1903.  The couple raised three daughters and a step-son who was sadly killed on the Western Front in World War I....

Porters Retreat

Trackers were employed at Porters Retreat (approximately 70km south-south-east of Bathurst) from at least 1903 to 1916 and probably later[ref]SARANSW Police Salary Registers.[/ref]. The settlement was originally known as Glencoe and changed its name in about 1908 to Porters Retreat. As can be seen in the accompanying plan, by 1914 the tracker was living in a hut adjacent to the...

Broughton

Broughton (also known as Toodwick, an anglicized version of his Aboriginal name) was an Aboriginal man from the lower Shoalhaven River in the vicinity of Coolangatta Mountain, or Cullunghutti as it was originally recorded.  Born in the late 18^th century, he worked as a young man for Charles Throsby of Liverpool and later as a...

Milparinka Police Station

The first police station at Milparinka was established in 1881, not long after the discovery of gold at Mount Poole and the subsequent opening of the Albert Goldfield.  Thousands of miners flocked to the area and six policemen were posted at Milparinka to help control them.  The stone police station shown in the accompanying photograph was constructed in 1885.  Trackers...

Silverton

Aboriginal trackers worked at Silverton police station from January 1884 until October 1890.  They were initially based in a small timber and iron structure that also served as the gaol.  The more substantial police station and gaol shown in the photograph were completed in 1889, only one year before the last tracker departed Silverton.  The gaol itself was only used...

Sam Hall

Sam Hall (also known as Sam Hull) was born in Gowen County (between Gilgandra and Coonabarabran) in about 1845.  Little is known about his life personally or professionally.  It is likely he was a tracker in the Coonamble district although his name is yet to be found in official records.  In later years, he lived on the Aboriginal reserve at...

Taree

The attached photograph was kindly provided by Matt Howard whose grandfather was a policeman at Taree in the early 1900s.  The inscription tentatively identifies the subject as George and dates the photograph to approximately 1912.  According to official records, trackers were not employed at Taree in 1912 or at any time in the 20^th century.  Pathfinders invites members of the...

Monty Tickle

Information about Monty Tickle’s origins are sketchy, but according to his death certificate he was born in about 1900 at Cloncurry, Queensland, to Friday Tickle and Topsy.  It is not known when he came to NSW, but by 1921 he was the tracker at Orange in the central-west of NSW.  In August of that year he investigated the illegal slaughter...

Henry Cleveland

Henry Cleveland (also known as Harry) was born at Cleveland Bay near Townsville in about 1864.  He knew little of his mother (she may have passed away when he was an infant), but probably lived for several years with his father, brother and sister.  From a young age, Henry was adopted by a white family who took him to Adelaide. ...

Mount Boppy

Mount Boppy probably has the record for the shortest tenure of a tracker in NSW.  A small gold-mining settlement 50 kilometres east of Cobar in Ngiyampaa country, a tracker was based at Mount Boppy for only the month of January 1904.  Known only as Jack, he had previously served as the tracker at Cobar and then moved on to Mount...

Byrock Police Station

Trackers were employed at Byrock Police Station from 1884 to at least 1938.  The career of the first Byrock tracker, Jack Todhunter, was tragically short.  He contracted typhoid fever two months after starting the job.  He was transferred to Dubbo Hospital when his condition deteriorated and he passed away there on 10 March 1885.  Little is known about Todhunter.  He...

Fred Briggs

Fred Briggs, a Gumbaynggirr man, was born at Farquarhar’s Creek near Nymboida in about 1866 to Thomas Briggs and Mary.  His tracking prowess came to prominence when he found Edward Blaxland, his employer, in mountainous country on Marengo Station in the mid-1880s.  Briggs was working as a stockman at the time.  His first official employment as tracker was at Blicks...

Peter Hogan

Peter Hogan was born in the New England district of New South Wales, probably in the 1840s.  He later travelled to the Darling Downs in Queensland where he was baptized.  After returning to New South Wales he worked as a tracker for the police from 1864 to 1866 and was involved in the pursuit of Ben Hall’s gang of bush...

Tommy Ryan

Tommy Ryan, a noted Aboriginal stockman on the Upper Clarence between Grafton and Yulgilbar, was born in about 1860.  It is likely that he was a Bundjalung speaker.  He never worked as a tracker , but his run-ins with police meant that several trackers were sent after him. His story is significant because of his ability to repeatedly escape custody....

Alexander Ward

Alexander Ward (also known as Alexander King) was born at Bingebah Station on the western fringe of the Pilliga Scrub on 5 September 1887.  He was the son of William King, an Aboriginal stockman born at Coonamble, and Jane Ward of Windsor in western Sydney.  He married Stella Duncan of Coonamble at Burra Bee Dee Aboriginal Station in July 1916. ...

Ngarigu

The Ngarigu (also Ngarigo) language was spoken on the Monaro Plains in southern NSW at places such as Delegate, Bombala and Jindabyne.  It is closely related to languages spoken in the Canberra district and others on the south coast of NSW.  Some surviving speakers settled on the Aboriginal Reserve at Delegate in the late 19th century before moving to the...

Billy Nicholls

Billy Nicholls was born at Tabulam in about 1869, possibly to Billy Nicholls Senior who was a gold miner in the Tabulam district and an Aboriginal woman named Ellen Walker.  Billy started as the tracker at Copmanhurst on the Clarence River in September 1908 replacing Carty Cregg.  Previously, Billy had worked as a stockman for George Barnier at Moleville (12km...

Jack Simpson

Jack "Smart Gui" Simpson was born along the Barwon River between Boorooma and Brewarrina in about 1880. Little is known about his parents, Jack Simpson Snr and Louisa Khan. Louisa is thought to have moved to Orange where she passed away. Jack told stories to his family of tracking Jimmy and Joe Governor in 1900 after the Breelong massacre near...

Jambie Lawson

Jambie Lawson (also known as Jemmy, John or Jack) was born at Croagingalong in eastern Gippsland in about 1850 to Wothango and Loah.  He was an important informant to ethnographer A.W. Howitt about Maap people who he said occupied the territory to the east of the Snowy River and as far as the Victorian coast.  He may have attended the initiation...

Charlie Hammond

Charlie Hammond, son of Charlie Hammond Snr and Maria, was born on Wiradjuri country at Goolagong near Forbes in the 1870s.  He was the tracker at Dubbo in 1902 and 1903.  In May 1903 he helped arrest a man suspected of burning down a shed at Spicer's Creek to the east of Dubbo.  The suspect's boots matched the prints at...

Tracker Jack Patten

This article is reproduced with the kind permission of the team at Koori History.  See the original article written by John T. Patten at https://koorihistory.com/tracker-patten/   John James Patten, known as Jack Patten, was born in the Snowy Mountains of Victoria at Corryong in 1874. He was the eldest son of John Patten, a man for whom there is...

William Rutherford

  William Rutherford was born at Jimenbuan on the southern Monaro in NSW on 2 February 1892.[ref]Sydney Mail 14 December 1932[/ref]  His parents were William and Elizabeth (Bradshaw) Rutherford.  William later moved to Delegate with his parents, where he briefly attended school.  His father provided the majority of his education. William joined the NSW police force at Delegate in 1909,...

Bundjalung

Bundjalung, sometimes Yugambeh-Bundjalung, was a language spoken on the far north coast of NSW and in south-eastern Queensland.  Linguists have identified at least 19 dialects including Gidhabal (spoken on the upper Richmond River), Wehlubal (spoken at Baryulgil on the Clarence River) and Bandjalang (spoken at Coraki and Evans Head).  Bundjalung is a living though endangered language, with fluent speakers living...

Walter Williams

Walter Williams, a Bundjalung man, was born at Bonalbo in the 1890s to Lansbury Williams, a renowned stockman and tracker, and Emily Charles.  Lansbury Williams probably spoke the Gidhabal dialect of Bundjalung.  Walter was also the great-grandson of King Bobby and Queen Jinny Little who both had strong ties to Yulgilbar Station on the Clarence River.  Before taking the job...

Whyman McLean

Whyman McLean, the son of Archibald McLean and an Aboriginal woman known only as Louisa, was born at Morago near the Werai Forest in about 1860.  There were many knowledgeable Aboriginal men in the district and it is likely that Whyman learned tracking skills from them when growing up.[ref]See The Memoirs of H.M. Eastman held by the Central Murray Regional...

Alexander Farrell

Alexander Farrell was born at Armidale in 1868.  His mother was an Aboriginal woman known only as Polly.  In 1898 he was appointed as the tracker at Nowendoc, replacing Billy Beck who had moved to Walcha.  One of Farrell's first jobs was to investigate a case of pig stealing on the Cooplacurripa River.  Less than two years later in September...

Jack Cave

Jack Cave was born in Wiradjuri country in the Bathurst district in about 1865.  He grew up on local properties and learned the skills of a horse breaker.  Around the turn of the century he moved to the Walgett district and took up the job of tracker at Mogil Mogil in 1900.  He was later the tracker at Glencoe from 1904 to...

Tommy Pearce

Working at Mount McDonald from June 1882 until the end of 1884, Tommy Pearce’s career is unusual in that it provides evidence that trackers sometime took a holiday.  On Friday 27 April 1883, he passed through Carcoar “en route” to Dubbo for a “leave of absence”.  The purpose of his trip or why the destination was Dubbo – perhaps he...

Mount McDonald

The Police Station at Mount McDonald near Cowra was staffed by trackers from 1883 to 1886 and probably earlier.  Part of the Milburn Creek Gold Field, trackers played an important role in guarding the gold escort, a coach which traveled to Carcoar and sometimes Blayney carrying the miner's finds.  The tracker accompanied the escort and stayed overnight before returning to...

Dubbo Police Station

In 1862, police from the new amalgamated force were stationed at the new stone Court House and lock-up in Macquarie Street.  A new station and lock-up were constructed in Brisbane Street in the early 1870s.  Police barracks were constructed on Erskine Street in 1877 along with stables and quarters for the tracker.  The police paddock was nearby at the northern...

Mungo Park

The drought and depression of the 1890s may have forced some Aboriginal men to travel further afield than usual to obtain work and support.  Mungo Park, born at Chatsworth on the Clarence River in 1870 to Ned Parker and an Aboriginal woman named Eliza, tracked for five years around Moree in the mid-1890s.  His first assignment was at Meroe where...

James Boney

James Boney, the son of Harry Boney and Kate Coventry, was born at Wollomombi in about 1870.  He was initiated at Guy Fawkes at a ceremony attended by Aboriginal people from the Macleay River, Bellinger River, New England tableland and Tenterfield.[ref]Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser 24 December 1926[/ref]  He worked as the tracker at Hillgrove where he once pursued...

Jack Cook

Jack Cook was born at Gloucester in Worimi country in about 1838 and grew up to be a talented stockman.  As a young man, he handled horses for Thunderbolt the bushranger.  He was later employed as a tracker, but did not actively pursue Thunderbolt whose partner was an Aboriginal woman named Mary Ann Bugg who also came from the Gloucester...

Trial Bay

Fourteen Aboriginal men were hired in November 1887 to look for Mr Francis Scott who went missing at Trial Bay near Arakoon.  It is probable that the many of the trackers were residents of the nearby Pelican Island Aboriginal Reserve which was gazetted in 1885.  Some of the named individuals have strong cultural connections to the Kempsey district and Dunghutti...

Jack Redtank

Jack Redtank, the son of Ngiyampaa speakers Jimmy Keewong and Kitty Narrangie, was recognised as being one of the best trackers in NSW in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. His talents were brought to the attention of the authorities by David Harris, a European bushman who lived with Emily Keewong, Jack's sister. Jack's first job aged 16 was...

About

Pathfinders NSW — A History of NSW Aboriginal Trackers is a project by Dr Michael Bennett, Historian at NTSCORP.  It is based on research conducted for a project funded by the Heritage Office of NSW (now incorporated within the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage). The website explores the history of Aboriginal trackers who worked for the current...

A General History

Pathfinders book

Billy Dargin

Billy Dargin was born on the Bogan River in about 1843.  Nothing is known about his parents, but it was recorded at the time of his death in 1865 that he obtained his surname through working for Peter Dargin, a squatter who owned land in the Bathurst district and further west.  Dargin is common Aboriginal surname from the Bogan River...

Walgett Police Station

Trackers were employed at Walgett for over 100 years.  One of the earliest trackers was Jackey Bundah who in 1877 pursued and captured his brother-in-law Charley Combo.  He was severely beaten by other local Aboriginal men for his breach of customary law.  There were many other trackers with traditional ties to the district including Tom Hickey (born Walgett 1878) who was...

Braidwood Police Station

Braidwood Police Station was established by 1838. By 1863 it was Head Station of the Southern District.

Tracker Tommy of Broken Hill

An Aboriginal man named Tommy was the tracker at Broken Hill from the early 1890s through to 1910.  Unfortunately, little is known about his personal details.  His surname was not recorded in official documents or in the press.  He participated in numerous investigations in the Broken Hill district, including the pursuit of robbers who stole a safe from the Commercial...

Tracker Tommy of Brewarrina

  Tracker Tommy was based at Brewarrina in 1874 and throughout the year he undertook a variety of jobs.  Unfortunately, no personal details about Tommy are known at this time [ref]An Aboriginal man known as McElligott’s Tommy was arrested on suspicion of having killed another Aboriginal man at a camp near Brewarrina in July 1876 (Maitland Mercury and Hunter River...