The Secret War: A True History of Queensland's Native Police

Abstract

An authoritative and groundbreaking contribution to the study of Australian colonial history, this record reveals little-known information about a brutal police force of Aborigines that operated under the command of white officers on the Queensland frontier during the 19th century. Arguing that these native patrols-which are charged with killing large numbers of indigenous people in Australia-were a key part of a colonizing tactic used successfully across the the British Empire, this examination exposes native involvement in the white settlement of Australia, the cover-up of the murders by the native police forces, and the approval of the killings by government officials of the time.