Frederick Walker (14 April 1820 – 19 November 1866) was a British public servant of the Colony of New South Wales, property manager, Commandant of the Native Police, squatter and explorer, today best known as the first and much feared Commandant of the death squads known as the Native Police Force that operated in the colonies of New South Wales and Queensland. He was appointed commandant of this force by the NSW government in 1848 and was dismissed in 1854. During this time period the Native Police were engaged in what was known as “dispersals” of other indigenous people from their lands and were active from the Murrumbidgee/Murray River areas through the Darling River districts and into what is now the far North Coast of NSW and southern and central Queensland. Despite this large area, most operations under Walker's command occurred on the northern side of the Macintyre River (i.e., Queensland). Detachments of up to 12 troopers worked on the Clarence and Macleay Rivers in NSW until the early 1860s and patrols still extended as far south as Bourke until at least 1868. After his dismissal from the Native Police, Walker became involved in the pastoral industry as a squatter, as well as organising a private native police force and leading a number of expeditions into Northern Queensland.
Early years Walker was born in Hampshire, England in 1820. His father, John Walker, an officer in the British Army, lived until 1837 and was a landholder at Purbrook Park. His mother, the French-born Maria Teresa Henrietta Swinburne, was a daughter of Henry Swinburne, and granddaughter to Sir John Swinburne 3rd Baronet. Frederick's sister, Harriet Walker, was married to Reginald Yorke, a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy. Two other siblings of Frederick were apparently handicapped. It has been claimed that Robert George Walker, who also became a Native Police officer, achieving the rank of first lieutenant in 1861, was also a brother but it has been argued that this officer was not a relative.Collins, Patrick J (2009-05). Richard, Frederick and Robert: three militant Walkers on the Maranoa frontier. In Queensland History Journal. 20 (10), 495–519.
Frederick emigrated to Australia by the Ceylon in 1844 and was shortly after employed on William Charles Wentworth's massive Murrumbidgee River station Tala (also known as Yanga) where he served as superintendent. In the same year, he was made a corporal in the paramilitary Border Police unit based in the Murrumbidgee District. In 1845, Walker was appointed as Clerk of Petty Sessions in Tumut and in April 1847 he attained the same position at Wagga Wagga. On 18 August 1848 he was appointed "Magistrate of the Territories and its Dependencies" and Commandant of newly established Native Police ForceBell's Life in Sydney 12 August 1848, page 2; Maitland Mercury & Hunter River Advertiser, 23 August 1848, page 3 on the recommendation of his former employers William Charles Wentworth (1790–1872) and Augustus Morris (1820?–1895), both members of the New South Wales Legislative Council.
Native Police Walker had attracted attention, it was later stated, by his capacity to engage local Aborigines, understand their culture, speak their language and use this to secure peaceful coexistence between them and the white settlers. He also had previous practical experience in the Murrumbidgee District of using intertribal hostility for the benefit of colonisation. In 1847, Walker was called upon by frontier squatter Edmund Morey to punish the local Tati Tati people for interfering with the formation of his Euston pastoral station on the Murray River. Walker set out with two armed Aboriginals named Robin Hood and Marengo from the neighbouring Edward River tribe. At Lake Benanee, with the aid of other squatters they shot dead a number of Tati Tati in a skirmish that ended the tribe's resistance. Walker appears to have obtained his Aboriginal name of Morum Billak or Muroo Billi while living in the Murray River area. There is conjecture as to the actual meaning of the name but it has been stipulated to mean either Long Legs or Big Nose.
The Native Police Force that Walker was to command was formed in August 1848 in the Deniliquin area on the Edward River and commenced training later that year. Fourteen 15- to 25-year-old Aboriginal troopers were picked from four different Murrumbidgee tribes, by all accounts a well drilled and highly disciplined band greatly committed and attached to their Commandant who remained exceedingly proud and protective of his men. Subsequently, Walker travelled with his force up the Darling River, arriving at the Macintyre River (at the present-day southeastern border of Queensland) on 10 May 1849. Once arriving on the Macintyre River on 10 May 1849, the force aggressively pacified the local aboriginals resulting in "some lives lost". They were then deployed to the Condamine River where the "Fitzroy Downs blacks" were routed and another group were "compelled to fly" from the area.
Walker found most of the squatters and magistrates in the region thought the Native Police were there to shoot down the natives so they wouldn't have to. Walker encouraged the squatters to admit the local aboriginals onto their runs so that they could be easily observed and controlled. This was done and Walker's measure of success was the resulting increase in land values. These first actions of the Native Police reduced to great effect Aboriginal attacks and resistance against squatters in the Macintyre and Condamine regions. Walker was successful in ending the attacks of the Bigambul people in the Macintyre district. His stated aim was their annihilation, and by 1854 only 100 of the Bigambul people were left alive.
Walker expanded the Native Police force during the early 1850s into the Wide Bay-Burnett, Maranoa, Clarence River, Macleay River, Dawson River, Port Curtis and Darling Downs regions. They conducted wide-ranging and frequent operations resulting in many dispersals and summary mass killings. Governor Fitzroy noted in the 1851 end of year report "that a great many blacks were killed," however no official action was taken to change the aggressive functioning of the force.
On 11 October 1854, Walker referred to his report from 2 January 1854, of a collision between the Wide Bay Aboriginal people and the Native Police when the group had resisted the passing of the police at Obi Creek. The cause of the collision had been unknown. Although a wanted Aboriginal man named Durobberee was present, Walker had not thought this sufficient. The Aboriginal people easily escaped. Walker later reported he had discovered that the real reason was to prevent the police from observing a runaway convict named Gilberry. Walker wrote that he had arranged a plan for his capture. It had appeared strange to Walker that none of the patrol parties had ever discovered the tracks of this man as the track of a white man was different from that of an Aborigine. However, this could be explained as some of the women followed Gilburri and covered his tracks.
A large contingent of Native Police troopers were used in an invasion of Fraser Island. Walker with Lieutenant Richard Purvis Marshall and Sergeant Doolan and three divisions of troopers, together with local landholders set out from Maryborough. The force landed on the west coast of the island where the divisions split up to scour the region. Marshall's section shot a number of Badtjala and captured several. Bad weather hampered operations and Commandant Walker subsequently allowed his division to track down other groups of Badtjala without him. This group chased the local Aboriginals across to the east coast where they mustered them into the ocean. When the first overlanding pastoralists entered the Port Curtis area, the 1st Division of Native Police under Commandant Walker was sent into the region to "have a month's sharp shooting."
The size of the Native Police expanded further in 1854 to 10 Divisions and as a consequence their violent methods were becoming increasingly noticeable. Supporters of the force had to defend charges of "wanton cruelty" perpetrated by the force by justifying the need of "cutting a lane to the culprit through the bodies of his defenders". Further official complaints to the government in Sydney of massacres of peaceful "station blacks" by the Native Police were brushed off in parliament by the Attorney-General as unfounded or exaggerated. Embarrassing information like these reports and further complaints from squatters, such as William Forster, who felt they didn't get enough protection from the force, as well as certain financial irregularities, pushed the NSW Government into organising an inquiry into the Native Police. Commandant Walker was suspended from duty in September and the inquiry, to be held in Brisbane, was set for December. The inquiry was closed to the public and the report was kept secret for two years and even then only fragments of information were released. It revealed that Walker arrived at the inquiry completely drunk and surrounded by nine of his black troopers. The troopers were denied entry, and after an attempt to continue with proceedings, the inebriation of Walker forced an adjournment to the inquiry which was later quickly and conveniently abandoned altogether. An attempt by 2nd Lieut. Irving to confront Walker, resulted in the ex-Commandant drawing a sword against him. Eventually, Walker wandered off and was subsequently dismissed from the Native Police. He was later apprehended at Bromelton, charged with the embezzlement of £100 and sent to Sydney.
Run-hunter and private militia By 1857, Walker was back on the northern frontier of European colonisation in Australia, employed on Serocold and Mackenzie's Cockatoo station. Here he formulated plans with squatter George Serocold to examine land for occupation in the upper reaches of the Comet River. He set out with another squatter named Wiggins and three Aboriginal men, two of whom were Peabody and Jamie Sandeman, to hunt for these pastoral runs. On returning to Cockatoo, Walker's camp was attacked by local Aboriginals at Conciliation Creek in the Zamia Valley. Walker received two severe spear wounds and with difficulty made his recovery at nearby Palm Tree Creek station owned by squatters Scott and Thompson. At this time the Hornet Bank massacre occurred and Andrew Scott requested assistance from the now recovered Walker to assist with the protection of his newly acquired land. Walker recruited ten of his ex-Native Police troopers and formed a private militia that roamed the Dawson River area conducting punitive missions against local Aboriginal groups. Walker used Hornet Bank station as a base and travelled as far as Mount Abundance during his patrols. His troopers included Larry, Boney, Jingle, Billy, Coreen Jemmy and Coreen Neddy. The troopers were actively recruited from the discharged members of the Native Police and were financed by local squatters unhappy with the government run force. George Serocold described the situation as a Border War and even called for the importation of the Cape Mounted Rifles from Africa to give a lesson to "these savages as will enable us to gain our moral ascendency, let them be made to feel the miseries of war". The Queensland Government eventually determined that Walker's private militia was illegal and ordered its dissolution in 1859. William Wiseman, the Commissioner for Crown Lands in the region, was sent to the Dawson River to enact the order. He found that Walker's troops were conveniently already dissolved and working on Andrew Scott's Hornet Bank and Pollet Cardew's Eurombah stations as shepherds earning £35 per annum. Frederick Walker was also employed as overseer and ex-Native Police officer Ross was superintendent.