Reading the elusive letter of the law: policing the South Australian frontier

Abstract

This paper considers the nature of policing policy and practice against Aboriginal people on the frontiers under South Australian jurisdiction over the nineteenth century. The principle ofassimilating Aboriginal people into peaceful settlement as British subjects was a civil ideal founded on contradictory aims that frequently surfaced in interpretations of police duties under the law. In practice, the letter of the law could be fulfi'lled when conditions were amenable; yet the conditions of the frontier were often not amenable, and the reality of Aboriginal resistance required that police employ violence to impose peace.