Trackers

At left is Senior Constable Tom King, standing and Sub-Inspector 
Stanhope O'Connor, is seated. On top rail is Barney or Gary Owens, 
then Jack Noble and on the top rail, Hero. Next are Superintendent 
J. Sadler and the Police Commissioner Captain Standish of Victoria. 
Seated are two unnamed trackers from Mackay.

Source: http://www.brumbywatchaustralia.com/

The Aboriginal Trackers, or 'Black Trackers' (or yet again - Native Troopers) as 
they were known in 1880 were an important part of the story of Glenrowan.

The trackers who went present at Glenrowan were under the command of 
Stanhope O'Connor from the Queensland police force.

 
    It was these trackers that Ned referred to when he admitted 
wanting to derail the train in order to kill the 'Black Devils'.

    The trackers were so good at their work that they were Ned's 
only real fear. He knew that given a chance that they could capture him. 
They were never given such a chance.

    They were treated poorly from start to finish and did not even 
manage to get their share of the reward despite comments such as below:

Ovens & Murray Advertiser...No. 4839

Saturday March19, 1881.

A BLACK TRACKER IN GAOL.—One of the black trackers who took part 
in the Kelly Glenrowan tragedy, is in Townsville gaol for murdering his wife.

Source: www.nedkellysworld.com.au (archives)

What the Royal Commission said about the trackers.

THE QUEENSLAND TRACKERS

Early in December 1878 Mr. D. T. Seymour, the Queensland Commissioner, offered to 
place a number of native trackers at the service of the Victorian Government. The proposal 
did not meet with acceptance at the hands of Captain Standish. After the Jerilderie raid, 
however, the necessity for employing skilled trackers became obvious, and the Chief Commissioner's 
objections were overcome upon the representations of his officers. A telegram, dated 
15th February 1879. was accordingly despatched to Mr. Seymour, at Brisbane, asking him 
to send down a party of eight trackers, under the command of a competent officer. The terms 
as regards remuneration and mode of working the contingent were soon arranged, and, on the 
6th of March ensuing, Inspector O'Connor and his blacks arrived at Albury, where they were 
met by Captain Standish, who accompanied them the remainder of the journey to Benalla. 
Mr. O'Connor's instructions were that he was to obey the orders of Captain Standish, and 
co-operate with the members of the Victorian or New South Wales police, with whom he 
might be required to serve, while at the same time he was to communicate as opportunity arose 
with the Commissioner of Police in Brisbane. In fact, however Inspector O'Connor may have 
been regarded, he never held the position of an officer in the Victorian police. He stood in the 
relation of a volunteer, subject to the regulations and discipline of the force for the time being, 
simply holding the rank of an officer in a foreign service, his commission being recognized as a 
matter of courtesy by those with whom he was co-operating. In Mr. Seymour's memo., 
Inspector O'Connor was expressly informed that "he merely went as an assistant and that the 
conduct of affairs was  entirely in the hands of Captain Standish and his officers; and that, in 
obeying orders, he freed himself from responsibility for anything beyond his own acts." 
Mr O'Connor was not appointed to any particular position in the Victorian police; he was 
sworn in and remained exclusively in charge of the Queensland trackers. The arrangement 
was anomalous, and much of the difficulty and misunderstanding that afterwards arose might 
have been avoided had Mr. O'Connor been gazetted an officer in the Victorian police. 
For some months after the arrival of the Queensland trackers cordial relations appear to 
have subsisted between Captain Standish and Inspector O'Connor. Then dissension arose, 
and much bitterness of feeling was engendered in consequence of a personal quarrel with 
one of the officers. On the 11th of March, a week after the arrival of the trackers, they 
were despatched with Mr. O'Connor in pursuit of the gang. As showing the friendly feeling 
entertained towards him at this period, it may be mentioned that he was placed in command 
of the party alluded to, although he was accompanied by Superintendent Sadleir, an officer 
of higher grade. Mr. O'Connor was desirous of going out with only a few Victorian troopers 
attached to his party, but the Chief Commissioner, for certain reasons, was averse to this 
arrangement, and sent a much larger number. This expedition, which was intended to test 
the powers of the trackers, resulted in demonstrating their usefulness to some extent; but, 
at the same time, it showed that, being natives of a warmer climate, they were not well adapted, 
even when supplied with suitable clothing and covering at night, to endure severe weather or 
the physical hardships incidental to carrying on operations in the ranges. They returned to 
quarters earlier than was expected, principally owing to this circumstance. Corporal Sambo, 
one of the contingent, died in a few days afterwards, having succumbed to the effects of 
congestion of the lungs. On the 16th of April following, Mr. O'Connor and his party again 
proceeded in pursuit, but on the fifth day out they were recalled by the Chief Commissioner 
for the purpose of placing the trackers at the disposal of Superintendent Hare, who was 
supposed to have obtained an important clue to the whereabouts of the gang in the Warby 
Ranges. This appears to have been the last occasion upon which, during the period Captain 
Standish remained in charge of the district, Inspector O'Connor went out in command of a 
party. This, together with the fact that the Chief Commissioner declined to work the trackers 
in accordance with the views of Mr. O'Connor, no doubts served to bring about the 
estrangement which arose between those officers. The Chief Commissioner at no time 
refrained from expressing his disparaging estimate of the value of the Queensland trackers. 
They had been engaged contrary to his wishes and his judgment. He believed them to be 
wholly unsuitable for tracking in broken and mountainous country, more especially as they 
required a considerable quantity of impedimenta, could work but slowly, and were therefore 
the more liable to attract observation. In a district like that in which the pursuit was conducted, 
and having to cope with men who frequently rode from 60 to 70 miles in one night, it was 
believed by Captain Standish that the trackers were utterly useless, and that their engagement 
was an idle expenditure of money. In withholding information from the officer in charge of the 
trackers, in connection with the search of Cleary's house, a slight was thereby implied; and, 
by making Superintendent Hare a party to the transaction, the Chief Commissioner adopted 
the most effectual means of sowing discord amongst the officers. He also deliberately informed 
Mr. O'Connor that he intended to catch the Kellys without his assistance; and, by his general 
demeanour, according to the evidence, displayed a want of kindly and generous feeling towards 
Mr. O'Connor, who as a stranger and a volunteer sent specially by the Government of a 
neighbouring colony to assist the Victorian police, was the more entitled to courtesy and 
consideration. While Captain Standish entertained this opinion of the trackers, it must be 
noticed that Mr. Hare, Mr. Sadleir and other competent authorities who had practical 
experience of the value of their work, bore favourable testimony to their abilities and usefulness.

News on the Trackers:

The Sunday Times Perth    

Nov 18, 2001 

 
Old `King´ is linked to bushranger Kelly.

KATE MURRAY
A 120-year-old breastplate to be auctioned on Wednesday could be linked
to Australia's most infamous bushranger.
The plate is believed to have belonged to an Aboriginal tracker who
helped hunt down Ned Kelly.
The breastplates, also called kingplates, were given to Aborigines to
recognise faithful service or exceptional duty.
The plate is engraved with the name ``King Narla´´ and the words
``police tracker´´ and ``Glenrowan''.
Auctioneer Jim Noble of Noble Numismatics in Sydney said the plate was
the only one known to have been given to a police tracker.
``Normally they were given to Aborigines working on farms or stations by
the farm owner,´´ Mr Noble said.
``Some were given as specific rewards, rather than just for service on
the station. That´s what we think this is for.´´
The plate is also stamped with the Queen's mark and a government
arrowhead -- marks which Mr Noble said were not usually seen on
kingplates.
Mr Noble estimates the plate is worth about $5000.

Source: The Sunday Times Perth Western Australia.

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Tracking down a just reward

March 30 2000

Ned Kelly had an intense dislike for blacktrackers, once referring to them as "little black devils".

The bushranger had reason to fear them. It was only when blacktrackers were called in from 
Fraser Island and Cape York that the Kelly Gang was finally crushed during the shoot-out with 
police in the Victorian town of Glenrowan in June 1880, ending a two-year rampage which had 
begun with Kelly shooting dead three policemen.

The volunteer trackers, employees of the Queensland Native Police, were lured by the promise 
of a cut of the then staggering reward of £8,000 offered for Kelly's capture, dead or alive. Six 
headed south to join the Victorian police hunt but one, Sambo, died of a lung infection soon 
after arriving in chilly Melbourne.

They tracked Kelly, his brother Dan, and gang members Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, until their 
police contingent cornered the fugitives in the Glenrowan Hotel.

The armour-clad Kelly, the only one of the four to survive the shoot-out, was jailed and hanged, 
aged 25.

Now, 120 years later, descendants of two of the trackers, Jack Noble and Gary Owens, or Barney, 
whose Aboriginal names were Wannamutta and Werannabe, are still waiting for a share of the reward.

A seven-year legal battle between the descendants and the Victorian and Queensland governments 
resumes in the Queensland Supreme Court today.

The descendants, Kurt Noble and May McBride, of Fraser Island, say Noble and Owens never 
received the £50 they were each promised.

After calculating compound interest of 12 per cent and adding damages, they are claiming 
$42 million for each tracker. The money would be spent on community projects to benefit the 
trackers' 1,000-odd living descendants.

That the case is still before the courts says much for the tenacity of John Lee Jones, an 
Aboriginal pensioner from Brisbane with no legal training who has doggedly pursued it through 
six hearings.

Though advised by sympathetic lawyers, Jones appears alone in court, arguing complicated 
legal points against the silks hired by Victoria and Queensland, both keen to avoid an outcome 
which could open a flood of claims over the estates of deceased Aborigines and Islanders.

Many legal experts said the action was doomed to failure when it was launched in 1994, but 
it splutters on. Last April, the Queensland Court of Appeal, by 2-1, found it "was not useless 
or futile" and struck down a Supreme Court decision that the descendants had no right to 
represent the dead men's estates.

Today, the Supreme Court will hear an application from Jones for an order requiring the two 
States to release bank accounts and other information which, he says, they have kept secret, 
claiming public interest immunity and legal privilege and other grounds. The Court of Appeal 
said material presented to it supported claims that Owens and Noble were each entitled to a 
share of the reward on the capture of Kelly and that no money was ever paid to them.

But the descendants face a number of difficulties. First, May McBride, 82, is now hospitalised 
with dementia. Then there is the statute of limitations and the problem of establishing whether 
the Crown has a continuing legal responsibility in respect of the trackers' estates. Like most 
Aborigines at the time, neither left a will. And as the dissenting appeal court judge said in his 
report: "The facts are now so old that it is hard to establish them ..." But it is not in dispute that 
the Victorian police were keen to have the trackers in the hunt for Kelly, and that money was no 
barrier.

The then Police Commissioner, F.C. Standish, in an 1879 telegraph to his Queensland counterpart, 
D.Y. Seymour, pleaded for the trackers along with "someone accustomed to manage them".

After approval from Queensland's Colonial Secretary, Seymour agreed on condition they be 
volunteers, receive extra pay, and be "assured of a fair share of the reward offered". Standish 
agreed they would get their reward if they "succeed in leading to capture or death of the outlaws".

At Glenrowan, Noble and Owens, along with the other trackers and their Queensland commander, 
Sub-Inspector Stanhope O'Connor, were in the thick of the day-long gun battle. The appeal court 
said material shows or suggests the pair had been under heavy fire and had "acquitted themselves well".

Within days of the gunsmoke clearing, 92 people, including Noble and Owens, applied for a share 
of the reward. The claims were assessed by the Victorian Police Rewards Board, and its report 
listed Noble and Owens simply as "Jackey, native tracker" and "Barney, native tracker".

But the board felt "it would not be desirable to place any considerable sum of money in the hands 
of persons unable to use it" and it recommended that "the sums set opposite to their names be 
handed to the Queensland and Victorian governments to be dealt with at their discretion".

The descendants claim both governments failed in their duties as trustees for the trackers 
by not paying them.

Contrary to the Victorian Police Commissioner's assurances, but in line with the reward board's 
recommendations, the money owed to Noble and Owens was paid to the Queensland government.

The Court of Appeal said while material supported claims that the money was never passed on, 
it was not possible to say if this happened through default on the part of the Queensland government.

White police from Victoria and Queensland, some not even at Glenrowan, had no difficulty receiving 
their rewards, which were substantially higher than the trackers. But in a rare gesture for the times, 
O'Connor refused to accept his £236 reward in protest at the treatment of his Aboriginal colleagues.

Repeated attempts were made to have the money paid to the trackers who, the Court of Appeal 
agreed, had risked their lives in the pursuit of law-breakers.

In an 1898 letter to the Queensland Police Commissioner, the then Aboriginals Protector, 
Archibald Meston, said Owens, whom he regarded as "thoroughly reliable", had told him that 
in response to repeated requests, he was assured the money was on its way. Meston believed 
Owens had been done "serious wrong".

The descendants say the reward was to help the trackers' "retirement with dignity". Instead, 
Noble, Owens and their families were incarcerated in Aboriginal confinement camps because 
they could not show visible means of support when they retired.

"Their children and their descendants were deprived of their rightful inheritance," says the 
descendants' claim.

Where to now? According to the Court of Appeal, the claimants may have a case in equity, 
if not in common law.

The court made clear they needed to be formally made administrators of the estate. Jones 
says efforts to obtain the letters are continuing, but he is meeting resistance from the 
Queensland Public Trustee Office.

It has yet to be established if the claimants have the legal standing to sue on behalf of the estates.

There are other problems. The court said the statute of limitations would be a difficult hurdle. 
The court did note that in Australia the statute of limitations cannot be relied on to justify striking 
out an action as an abuse of process.

At the end of the day, courts will be mindful of the possible implications if the case succeeds. 
As the dissenting appeal court judge suggested in his report, it would then "appear that any 
descendant of a person who died intestate, however long ago, may bring an action claiming 
to represent the estate".

The claimants will need to establish the extent of any liability of the Victorian and Queensland 
governments. For instance, did Victoria discharge its indebtedness by paying the rewards to 
Queensland? It remains uncertain whether the Victorian government was required by law to 
accept the recommendations of its rewards board.

Was Queensland obliged to pass on the money? If Victoria and Queensland fail in their 
concerted endeavours to stop the case proceeding to a full hearing, expect a good deal 
of buck-passing between them.