Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 01:23
Cheers Dave. Yes you would have met Jack Bohemia there. He lived in the 1.5 story dwelling at the back of the
police station from 1970 until his death in 1994. His memory is still celebrated by the WA
Police.
"We happen to know a good deal about one tracker who became part of WA
Police folklore. Jack Bohemia (his aboriginal name was Nyibayarri) was born at Bohemia Downs Station very early in the 1900s. He learned the work of a stockman on the station and became a trusted drover who worked on cattle drives to
Broome and
Darwin.
He did some tracking work for the
police as early as 1922. Then in 1938 his mother died. Jack Bohemia left the station afterwards and was recruited as a tracker by Sergeant Laurie O’Neill of
Fitzroy Crossing. He spent over thirty years working for
Kimberley police officers. His exploits included finding lost people, catching thieves and horse rustlers and helping to arrest people who over-used alcohol.
Jack Bohemia also went on leper patrols with the
police, which involved taking those cursed with the illness or venereal disease to
Derby for medical treatment. By the late 1960s he was living in partial retirement. He received a pension and continued to do
police work on some occasions, such as helping to track down a murderer in 1980.
In 1970
the Governor of Western Australia presented tracker Jack Bohemia with the British Empire Medal for his great
services to the community. Later some of his friends in the WA
Police arranged for him to be flown down to
Perth to meet a member of the Royal Family. Soon afterwards, as part of a reform process to improve
police-aboriginal relations, a decision was made to introduce a permanent and
well regulated system for the training and employment of Aboriginal
Police Aides. In 1975 the first group of these Aides finished a period of instruction and began their work. Within a short time afterwards the tracker system faded away.
http://policewahistory.org.au/html_pages/Tracker_System.html
Hope you and Pauline are travelling this year. Let's speak soon. Mick
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