Mudgee Police Station View the Map

Trackers were placed at the Mudgee Police Station for almost a century.  George Miranda was part of the team who captured Foley, one of the robbers of the Mudgee mail in October 1863.  A newspaper report indicates that he shared in the reward of £500 [ref]Sydney Morning Herald 24 October 1863.[/ref]. Many of the early trackers are known only by their first name and little is known about their lives.  Tommy, for example, was the tracker from 1888-1892.  He previously worked at Cassilis.  Once at Mudgee, patrols sometimes took him as far as Coolah [ref]Cassilis Police Diary of Duty and Occurrences SRNSW 7/2654.[/ref]. Nothing more is known about his life.  The tracker shown in the photograph from the late 1800s is unnamed.

A prominent tracker who worked at Mudgee in the late-19^th and early-20^th centuries was James Gillis McDonald.  His most famous case was the pursuit of Jimmy and Joe Governor in 1900.  Jimmy Governor fired a bullet at James which ricocheted off his saddle.  During the pursuit, Aboriginal residents of Wollar, including members of the Governor family, were brought into Mudgee.  Some of the men were kept in the lock-up before being transferred to Brewarrina Aboriginal Station.

Trackers continued to be employed at Mudgee into the middle decades of the 20^th century.  They included Darcy Peckham [ref]SRNSW Police Service Register for Darcy Macquarie Peckham.[/ref] (a former student of Alex Riley), Robert Robinson [ref]SRNSW Police Service Register for Robert Henry Robinson.[/ref] (1949-1950) and Raymond Perry [ref]Mudgee Guardian 14 March 1989.[/ref] (1950-1959).