Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised that the following article

contains the names and images of deceased Indigenous people.

The Unheard Voices of Glenrowan

In the early hours of Monday 28 June, 1880, the small, unassuming town of Glenrowan in
northern Victoria found itself under siege. The Kelly Gang, led by the infamous bushranger
Ned Kelly, had taken a number of hostages at the Glenrowan Inn following the murder of
Aaron Sherritt at the hands of two of its members. Already wanted for a series of previous
crimes, it did not take long for the Victorian police force to mobilise and surround the gang.
What followed was one of the most famous gunfights in Australian history, which resulted in
the destruction of the Kelly Gang, and the capture and hanging of Ned.

Despite being one of the most well-known and widely publicised events in Australian history, it
is a little-known fact that there were five Aboriginal men who were members of the
Queensland Native Police involved at the Glenrowan siege. Who were these men? Why were
they there? Most importantly, why have we never heard of them?
This is their story.

Aboriginal Tracking

The skill of tracking is one that has long

been an integral part of Aboriginal
Australian culture, way before the arrival
of the first European settlers in the late
eighteenth century. Having evolved as a
hunter-gatherer society, being able to read
the landscape became important to the
Fig. 1: The footprint of an emu.
survival of the Aborigines.

The amount of information that an

From an early age, Aboriginal children are
taught to recognise the tracks that
different bushland animals leave, as well
as the footprints of their mothers and
siblings.i
experienced tracker can interpret from a
set of animal footprints is astonishing, and
can include details such as a mammals
gender, age, and whether or not it is
carrying young.ii

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It is no wonder then, that the European
settlers in Australia took note of this rare
ability that the Aborigines possessed and
utilised it to their advantage. An Argus
article written in 1937, while also
demonstrating the racial attitudes of the
time, expresses a great deal of awe
towards the Aborigines tracking abilities:
The prowess of the tracker gives a
direct denial to those who would belittle
the mentality of the Australian aborigine
(sic). Primitive the aborigine
undoubtedly is In bushcraft there is
probably no type of human being who
The usefulness of this ability was not lost
on the various police forces throughout
the colonies who would employ Aboriginal
men to track both wanted criminals and
lost individuals.
One of the first recorded instances of
Aboriginal trackers being utilised by the
Victorian Police was in 1853, when two
escaped convicts from Van Diemens Land
fled to Victoria and began to commit
crimes in the colony.vi The trackers were
able to lead the police to the men who
were holed up in a hideout in the Gisborne

could excel him.iii region.vii

During the Victorian gold rush in

particular, the skills of Aboriginal trackers
became invaluable to stockmen. As many
of their workers deserted the pastures in
the hunt for gold, the trackers were
needed to assist in locating any cattle or
sheep who had wandered astray.iv

Fig. 2: Chromolithograph of Native Police c.1864.

The trackers ability to follow animal
Rather than repeatedly having to locate
footprints was also entirely transferable to
willing Aboriginal men to do tracking work,
those left by humans. As with those of
various police forces throughout the
large game mammals, the trackers could
colonies decided it would be more
determine a persons weight, height, gait,
beneficial to establish a permanent
and speed from their footprints.v
contingent of Native Police, who would
serve as sworn members on the force.viii

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Send the Trackers

It seems particularly unusual, then, that

the Victorian police would request the
assistance of native trackers from the
colony of Queensland in tracking down the
Kelly Gang. Why not simply use Aborigines
from Victoria? There are a few reasons for
this, the first being that there simply were
not that many Koori men left in the state.
The 1877 indigenous census found a
Fig. 3: Native Mounted Police of Queensland in
population of only 489 adult males of both their uniforms with a white officer c. 1900.
full and part-blood in the whole of
Victoria.ix
This meant that while the Kelly Gang were

While this number may seem sufficient to running rampant in the northern part of

draw from for tracking purposes, the fact the state, there were no officially

of the matter was that there was a general employed Koori trackers working for the

deficit of Koori experience in Victorian Victorian police, with a solid quarter of a

police work. There had been three century since the last manifestation of the

incarnations of the Native Police Corps in Native Police Corps. When it came to

the state, which had only lasted a total of tracking a group as dangerous and

roughly fifteen years before being officially notorious as the Kelly Gang, the Victorian

disbanded in 1853.x From that point on, if police needed trackers who were

the Victorian police needed trackers they experienced in both working with police

would simply employ Koori men as they and using defensive weapons.

needed them.

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 Fig. 4: The Queensland Native Police Contingent sent to help track the Kelly Gang c. 1879.
Sitting on the fence from left to right are Troopers Jimmy and Barney. Standing in the middle of them is Trooper
Hero, and seated on the ground from left to right are Troopers Johnny and Jack.

barracks, and managed to escape with an

The Chief Commissioner of Victorian
estimated 2,000.xii
Police, Frederick Standish, was known to
be particularly stubborn about accepting
Six Aboriginal men of the Queensland
the assistance of Native Police members
Native Police were called to the task, and
from another colony. The previous
were accompanied to Victoria by the
December, he had in fact refused the offer
Senior Constable of Police, Tom King, and
of a group of native troopers being sent to
Lieutenant Stanhope OConnor. The men
Victoria to aide in the tracking of the Kelly
were given the names Hero, Johnny,
Gang.xi
Jimmy, Jack, Barney, and Sambo, with the
latter being a corporal.xiii
The tipping point for Standish having to
concede to government pressure and seek
The party met Standish in Albury, where
the help of the Queensland native
OConnor was sworn in as a Sub-Inspector
troopers was the Kelly Gangs raid on the
of Victoria Police.xiv Standish and OConnor
town of Jerilderie on 8 February 1879,
then proceeded to Benalla ahead of King
where they cut telegraph wires,
and the troopers, who remained in Albury
imprisoned the local police in their own
to rest.xv They eventually arrived in Benalla
on 10 March 1879, and began their work

4
the very next day with an expedition which
was designed to test their tracking
abilities.xvi
Fig. 5: Portrait of Lieutenant Stanhope OConnor c.
1880.
Tragedy Strikes
On 19 March 1879, just nine days after
their arrival in Benalla, disaster befell the
trackers. Despite all the men being
provided with oilskins and black leather
leggings to protect them from the
elements, Corporal Sambo had fallen
seriously ill following one of the groups
first outings into the field.xvii
It was determined that he had developed
inflammation of the lungs, and despite
receiving medical attention in the Benalla
police barracks, Sambo sadly passed away
aged 25.xviii
5
The few newspaper articles which made
brief reports on his death all stated that he
had contracted his illness en route to
Victoria.xix However, during questions
regarding the late trackers funeral
expenses, Standish revealed in a letter to
Assistant Commissioner Nicolson that
Sambo contracted his illness while he was
on active duty in the ranges, and not
during transit as was otherwise
suggested.xx
Fig. 6: Memo between Assistant Commissioner
Nicolson and Frederick Standish regarding the
burial expenses of Corporal Sambo c. 1879.
One particular article published in
Brisbanes Telegraph portrays Sambo as a
bit of a rapscallion. The author writes that
he ...had committed every sort of crime
but was tried and acquitted due to lack of
evidence, and subsequently persuaded to join
the native police.xxi Regarding Sambos work
for the force they offer more praise, stating
that ...he was a good fighter, and a splendid
xxii
tracker.
Sambo was buried in the Benalla Lawn and
Memorial Cemetery in an unmarked
paupers grave.xxiii In 1993, over one
Fig. 7: Memorial headstone for Corporal Sambo at Benalla Cemetery.
The Last Stand
Following the death of Sambo, Hero was
promoted to the position of Corporal, and
business went on as per usual for the five
remaining trackers.xxv
Over the course of the next fifteen
months, the trackers were largely
unsuccessful in tracking the Kelly Gang.
This is said to be partly due to the fact that
Ned himself was fearful of the Native
Policemens tracking abilities, resulting in
the gang going largely underground in
order to avoid being tracked.xxvi
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hundred years after his death, a memorial
was placed at the approximate location of
Sambos burial site, while his body is
reported to have been exhumed and
returned to his native homeland in
Queensland to be laid to rest.xxiv
There was also a level of internal
politicking amongst the Victorian Police
which saw the ever-stubborn Standish
becoming obstructive to the tracking party
by withholding potentially vital
information from them and refusing to
allow OConnor to go with them on
expeditions.xxvii
After many fruitless expeditions, Standish
was finally allowed to give the order to
have the native troopers sent back to
Queensland.xxviii The men left Benalla for
Melbourne on 25 June 1880, and were
awaiting sea passage back to Queensland
when the extraordinary news reached OConnor and the trackers boarded a
them that Aaron Sherritt had been hastily organised train with a party of
murdered by members of the Kelly Gang in police and four journalists.xxx
Beechworth.xxix

Fig. 8: Wood engraving of the siege site at Glenrowan c. 1880. The native troopers and OConnor were located
at the indicated red circle.

actually trooper Jimmy, who received a

Upon arrival in Glenrowan, the troopers bullet graze to the head.xxxiii
and OConnor took position in a ditch
directly in front of the Glenrowan Inn
where the Kelly Gang were holed up.xxxi
What followed was the infamous gunfight
between police and the gang, which led to
the deaths of a few civilians, three out of
four members of the gang, and member of
police Francis Hare, and the subsequent
capture and hanging of Ned Kelly.xxxii One Fig. 9: Wood engraving detailing some of the
objects, people, and casualties of the siege at
of the only other police casualties was Glenrowan c. 1880. Pictured top left is trooper
Jimmy with a bandage on his head.

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Aftermath
Surprisingly enough, following the siege,
Standish appeared to have a change of
heart towards the trackers and had
requested for them to remain in
Victoria.xxxiv This request was denied,
however, and the five men returned to
Queensland.

They had been promised a reward of 50

each for their role in the destruction of the
Kelly Gang, however upon review, The
Kelly Reward Board concluded that it
would not be desirable to place any
considerable sum of money in the hands of
persons unable to use it. Each of the
trackers reward money was instead
Fig. 10: Table taken from The Kelly Reward Board
handed to the Queensland and Victorian report, showing the five Aboriginal mens names
governments to be dealt with at their and promised reward at the bottom.

discretion.xxxv For all their bravery and governments for the money that each of

sacrifice, those five Aboriginal men never their ancestors never received. Calculating

saw a single cent of that money.
To add insult to injury, upon their return to
Queensland, the men were placed in
confinement camps with their families for
compound interest and adding damages,
the families were seeking a grand total of
$84 million dollars.xxxvi
The legal battle was still running seven

the rest of their lives.
In 1993, over one hundred years after the
last stand, the descendants of two of the
trackers engaged in a legal battle against
the Victorian and Queensland
years later in 2000, and to this day the
descendants of those incredible Aboriginal
men have not received any of the money
that was wrongly confiscated from their
ancestors.
By Jessica Greenley

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i
Aboriginal Trackers, Australian Government [website], (2016) < http://www.australia.gov.au/about-
australia/australian-story/aboriginal-trackers>, para. 4 accessed 10 Oct. 2017.
ii
Ibid. para. 5.
iii
Bushcraft versus Crime: Black Trackers Skill Helps the Police, Argus, 9 June 1937, 10, in Trove [online
database], accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
iv
Fred Cahir, Black Gold: Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850-1870 (Australia: Australian
National University E Press, 2012), 48.
v
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers (Melbourne: Victoria Press, 1998), 8.
vi
Fred Cahir, Black Gold, 47.
vii
Ibid.
viii
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers, 13.
ix
Ibid. 49.
x
Ibid.
xi
Ibid. 23.
xii
The Kelly Outlaws at Jerilderie, Kyneton Guardian, 12 Feb. 1879, 2, in Trove [online database], accessed 17
Oct. 2017.
xiii
The Black Trackers and the Kelly Gang, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 15 July
1880, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 20 Sept. 2017.
xiv
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers, 23.
xv
Ibid.
xvi
Ibid. 23-24.
xvii
Ibid. 24.
xviii
Friday, March 21, 1879, Brisbane Courier, 21 Mar. 1879, 2, in Trove [online database], accessed 5 Oct.
2017.
xix
Death of a Black Tracker, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 29 Mar. 1879, 12, in
Trove [online database], accessed 5 Oct. 2017; Friday, March 21, 1879, Brisbane Courier, 2; Maryborough,
Telegraph (Brisbane), 26 Mar. 1879, 3, in Trove [online database], accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
xx
PROV, VA 724 Victoria Police (including Office of the Chief Commissioner of Police), VPRS 4965/P0000 Kelly
Historical Collection - Part 1 Police Branch, unit 2, Memo re: burial expenses of deceased Sambo, late
Queensland Native Policeman.
xxi
Maryborough, Telegraph (Brisbane), 3.
xxii
Ibid.
xxiii
Garrie Hutchinson, In Memoriam: A Guide to the History and Heritage of Victorias Cemeteries (Richmond,
VIC: Hardie Grant Books, 2014), 177.
xxiv
Ibid.
xxv
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers, 24.
xxvi
The Kelly Gang, Argus, 22 May 1880, 5, in Trove [online database], accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
xxvii
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers, 25.
xxviii
The Kelly Gang, Argus, 5.
xxix
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers, 48.
xxx
Paul Terry, The True Story of Ned Kellys Last Stand: New revelations unearthed about the bloody siege at
Glenrowan (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2012), 157.
xxxi
Kelly Reward Board (1880-81), 3.
xxxii
Paul Terry, The True Story of Ned Kellys Last Stand, xviii xix.
xxxiii
Ibid. 174.
xxxiv
Gary Presland, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers, 48.
xxxv
Kelly Reward Board, iv.
xxxvi
Tracking down a just reward, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 Mar. 2000,
<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/19/1032054903829.html>, accessed 6 Oct. 2017.

9
References
Primary Sources
Bushcraft versus Crime: Black Trackers Skill Helps the Police, Argus, 9 June 1937, 10, in
Trove [online database], accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Death of a Black Tracker, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 29 Mar.
1879, 12, in Trove [online database], accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Friday, March 21, 1879, Brisbane Courier, 21 Mar. 1879, 2, in Trove [online database],
accessed 5 Oct. 2017.
Kelly Reward Board (1880-81),
<https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/papers/govpub/VPARL1880-81No85.pdf>, accessed 22
Sept. 2017.
Maryborough, Telegraph (Brisbane), 26 Mar. 1879, 3, in Trove [online database], accessed 5
Oct. 2017.
The Black Trackers and the Kelly Gang, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General
Advertiser, 15 July 1880, 4, in Trove [online database], accessed 20 Sept. 2017.
The Kelly Gang, The Argus, 22 May 1880, 5, in Trove [online database], accessed 15 Oct.
2017.
The Kelly Outlaws at Jerilderie, Kyneton Guardian, 12 Feb. 1879, 2, in Trove [online
database], accessed 17 Oct. 2017.
Secondary Sources
Aboriginal Trackers, Australian Government [website], (2016)
<http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/aboriginal-trackers>, accessed
10 Oct. 2017.
Cahir, Fred, Black Gold: Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850-1870 (Australia:
Australian National University E Press, 2012).
Hutchinson, Garrie, In Memoriam: A Guide to the History and Heritage of Victorias
Cemeteries (Richmond, VIC: Hardie Grant Books, 2014).
Presland, Gary, For Gods Sake Send the Trackers (Melbourne: Victoria Press, 1998).
Terry, Paul, The True Story of Ned Kellys Last Stand: New revelations unearthed about the
bloody siege at Glenrowan (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2012).
Tracking down a just reward, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 Mar. 2000,
<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/19/1032054903829.html>, accessed 6 Oct. 2017.

10
Images
Figure 1: Tann, John, Footprint of an emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) [image], (9 Jan. 2009) <
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emu_footprint_1.jpg>, accessed 16 Oct. 2017.
Figure 2: Samuel Thomas Gill, Native Police, c. 1864, in Trove [online database], accessed 16
Oct. 2017.
Figure 3: Creator Unknown, Native Mounted Police with white officer [image], (1900) <
https://ehive.com/collections/3606/objects/553894/native-mounted-police-with-white-
officer>, accessed 17 Oct. 2017.
Figure 4: Creator Unknown, Queensland Native Police contingent, Kelly Gang [image], (1879)
<https://ehive.com/collections/3606/objects/553299/queensland-native-police-contingent-
kelly-gang>, accessed 22 Sept. 2017.
Figure 5: William Edward Barnes, Sub Inspector OConnor in charge of Queensland Black
trackers, c. 1880, in Trove [online database], accessed 17 Oct. 2017.
Figure 6: PROV, VA 724 Victoria Police (including Office of the Chief Commissioner of Police),
VPRS 4965/P0000 Kelly Historical Collection - Part 1 Police Branch, unit 2, Memo re: burial
expenses of deceased Sambo, late Queensland Native Policeman.
Figure 7: Creator Unknown, Sambo [image], (2017)
http://www.benallacemetery.com/cemetery/surname/sambo/7407, accessed 22 Sept. 2017.
Figure 8: Creator Unknown, BIRDS EYE VIEW OF GLENROWAN, c. 1880, in Trove [online
database], accessed 22 Sept. 2017.
Figure 9: Creator Unknown, INCIDENTS SKETCHED AT GLENROWAN, c. 1880, in Trove [online
database], accessed 22 Sept. 2017.
Figure 10: Kelly Reward Board (1880-81), v.

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