The Secret War: A True History of Queensland's Native Police
By (Author) Jonathan Richards
University of Queensland Press
University of Queensland Press
3rd March 2008
Australia
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Indigenous peoples
Police and security services
363.209943
Short-listed for NSW Premier's Literary Award Gleebooks Award for Cultural & Literary Criticism 2009
Paperback
320
Width 155mm, Height 226mm, Spine 24mm
426g
Aboriginal troopers - led by white officers - formed Queensland's Native Police- a much-feared force that was responsible for the deaths of large numbers of Aboriginal people. Secretive by nature, their workings have long been misunderstood. They would often burn their victims and not report their 'dispersals' - a euphemism for mass murders and reprisal killings. But historian Jonathan Richards has spent years studying and documenting the force's brutal dispossession of Aboriginal people from their land. The Secret War is the culmination of his work and is the latest salvo in the History Wars that sees historians, politicians and writers arguing over the extent of Indigenous deaths in frontier clashes. It is an authoritative and groundbreaking contribution to our country's white settlement history.
Authors Bio, not available