Border Police of New South Wales

In 1839, the British colony of New South Wales was expanding rapidly. Settlers with large herds of sheep and cattle were pushing beyond the official limits of location into the grasslands that had been carefully maintained for thousands of years through Aboriginal firestick farming. Conflict with resident Aboriginals and disputes between the pastoralists in these frontier areas forced the NSW government to legislate for a new policing body that would control these issues. This force was called the Border Police.[1]

The Border Police was organised into a number of sections and these were deployed to the various districts along the frontier. Each section was under the authority of the Commissioner for Crown Lands for that particular district and each commissioner had about 10 troopers to enforce colonial rule. In order to reduce the cost of the force as much as possible, the troopers were taken from the population of convicts that existed in the colony at that time. The convicts assigned were usually ex-soldiers who had been transported to Australia due to crimes of military indiscipline. They were supplied with horses, equipment and rations, but were otherwise unpaid and had to construct their own barracks. The force was funded by a levy imposed on the squatters who were grazing their livestock on the Crown Lands in the frontier regions. Due to the paramilitary nature of the Border Police, conflict with Aboriginals was inevitable and there are multiple instances of mass shootings of Indigenous peoples by this force. With the end of convict transportation to NSW in 1850, the Border Police was dissolved in the late 1840s.[2]

Districts of Operation

In 1844, the Border Police operated in 15 districts throughout the colony which included areas that are now part of Victoria and Queensland as these colonies were not separated from New South Wales at this stage. The districts were Maneroo (Monaro), Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, Wellington, Bligh, Liverpool Plains, New England, Darling Downs, Macleay River, Clarence River, Moreton Bay, Portland Bay, Western Port, Gippsland, Murray.

References

  1. ↑ "No. 27. " An Act further to restrain the unauthorised " occupation of Crown Lands, and to provide " the means of defraying the expense of a " Border Police."". New South Wales Government Gazette (405). New South Wales, Australia. 6 April 1839. p. 393. Retrieved 12 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ O'Sullivan, John (1979). Mounted Police in NSW. Rigby. pp. 35–45.
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