City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYcountry. He did, however, dress in the uniform in the evenings and perform his own drill,marching between his mia mia and Thomas’ tent. In 1844, the Corps relocated to Narre NarreWarren. At this time Barak enlisted as an officer, probably the most well known member of theCorps (Fels, 1988:235).In 1853, the Native Police Corps was disbanded. However, Aboriginal involvement with thePolice continued in the later nineteenth century.Aboriginal TrackersDuring the hunt for the Kelly gang following the Stringybark Creek murders in 1878, theVictoria police employed local Aboriginal men to help track the gang. Many of these mencame from Coranderrk and William Barak was among these. Six trackers were also broughtfrom Queensland to assist in the chase and this began a lengthy period of Victoria Policecontracting Queensland trackers (Presland, 1998:27). This formally began in 1881 and lasteduntil the 1960s.After originally being sited at Dandenong, the Victoria Police Stud Depot was moved toBundoora Park in 1931. The Trackers were accommodated at the stud farm in a two roomeddwelling, a former railway fettlers hut that still stands at the site today. The first two trackerswho stayed there were Norman Brown and Billy Roma (Presland, 1998:72).From that time to 1953, when the stud facilities were moved to Westmeadows, around 15Aboriginal trackers lived and worked at the Bundoora depot, including Tim ‘Tippo’ Powder,George Rigby, Bowman Johnson and Charles Williams (Presland, 1998:163-4). Their maintask was tracking criminals or lost people, however, they were also required to distribute forageto the horses, clean stables and perform livestock handling tasks as well as some domesticlabour with the stud master (Presland, 1998:96).The role was an isolated one, and became increasingly lonely as the Victorian Policecomplement of Trackers was dropped from two to one. The personal activities of the Trackerswere generally heavily circumscribed by the force. The men generally lived by themselves asrequests for wives or family to move to Victoria were generally denied by Victoria Police,although Charlie Williams’ wife and daughter lived with him at the Bundoora depot for a briefperiod, but this was an exception (Presland, 1998:121).It is not known whether any of the trackers had connections within the broader FitzroyAboriginal community, but it is known that trackers such as Tim Powder would often spendtheir off-duty day at favourite hotels in Fitzroy (Presland, 1998:121). Trackers also regularlyhiked into Reservoir for their shopping. Jeanne Primmer, who grew up in nearby Reservoirremembered:Also when we swam in the creek, the black trackers from the Police Paddock in Bundoora used tocome across on the stepping stones as we called them. They’d be all dressed in their best clothes togo to Reservoir for their shopping. They didn’t speak to us and always crossed quietly on the stonesas we were swimming (Jones, 1994:89).Maintaining law and order in DarebinDarebin’s first police station was opened in 1854 in temporary quarters on the Police Reservein Walker Street in the Township of Northcote. A bluestone police station and residence wasbuilt in Walker Street in 1861. It was designed under the Public Works Department’s ChiefArchitect, William Wardell. The police station highlights the government’s attempt to makethe township, now Westgarth, the centre of the Northcote district. However by this stage themain settlement was already at Rucker’s Hill. The police station remained in use for thirtyyears and continued as a police residence until 1938. In 1891, a new red brick police stationwas built in the centre of Northcote, in James Street, just around the corner from the CourtHouse (Lemon, 1983:50, 96, 104, 112; Butler, 1992).Many years later, a former army drill hall in Green Street Westgarth became the headquartersof Victoria’s Police Bands.87