In the Name of the Law: William Willshire and the Policing of the Australian Frontier

Mounted Constable William Willshire commanded a corps of Native Police in Central Australia during the 1880s. Notorious for the violence of his patrols, he was eventually tried in 1891 for the murder of two Aboriginal men, and was posted to an even more remote frontier in the Top End. During his time in the Territory, Willshire wrote of his experiences in several extraordinary memoirs. Part murder mystery and part courtroom drama, his story illuminates unfolding issues of race and nationalism in colonial Australia on the eve of Federation.