History of the Native Police Force in Queensland, its formation, development and disbandment; the violent conflict between police, colonists and Aborigines; government policy towards Aborigines and the law; prejudice. An appendix identifies by name Aborigines who served in the police.

History of the Native Police Force in Queensland, its formation, development and disbandment; violent conflict between police, colonists & Aborigines; govt. policy towards Aborigines Aborigines & the law; prejudice; Appendix identifies by name Aborigines who served in the police.

From the Victorian period to the present, images of the policeman have played a prominent role in the literature of empire, shaping popular perceptions of colonial policing. This book covers and compares the different ways and means that were employed in policing policies from 1830 to 1940. Countries covered range from Ireland, Australia, Africa and India to New Zealand and the Caribbean. As patterns of authority, of accountability and of consent, control and coercion evolved in each colony the general trend was towards a greater concentration of police time upon crime. The most important aspect of imperial linkage in colonial policing was the movement of personnel from one colony to another. To evaluate the precise role of the 'Irish model' in colonial police forces is at present probably beyond the powers of any one scholar. Policing in Queensland played a vital role in the construction of the colonial social order. In 1886 the constabulary was split by legislation into the New Zealand Police Force and the standing army or Permanent Militia. The nature of the British influence in the Klondike gold rush may be seen both in the policy of the government and in the actions of the men sent to enforce it. The book also overviews the role of policing in guarding the Gold Coast, police support in 1954 Sudan, Orange River Colony, Colonial Mombasa and Kenya, as well as and nineteenth-century rural India.

The publication of this book in 1981 profoundly changed the way in which we understand the history of relations between indigenous Australians and European settlers. Describes in meticulous and compelling detail the ways in which Aborigines responded to the arrival of Europeans.

In mid-nineteenth-century Britain, there existed a dominant discourse on what it meant to be a man –denoted by the term 'manliness'. Based on the sociological work of R.W. Connell and others who argue that gender is performative, Robert Hogg asks how British men performed manliness on the colonial frontiers of Queensland and British Columbia.

As Europeans moved into new lands in Queensland in the 19th century, violent encounters with local Aboriginals mostly followed. Drawing on extensive original research, Timothy Bottoms tells the story of the most violent frontier in Australian colonial history.