As a child living in Queensland, Barry Port learned to look for lost cows and horses. “Now when anyone gets lost, we get called out and go and look for them,” he said in an interview in 2009. “It’s better if you go straightaway, before it gets wandering away too far.”

Port was a respected Lama Lama elder and the last First Nations tracker officially working for Australian police. Until his retirement in 2014, he helped the police find drug dealers, escaped prisoners, and other people who had gone missing. In 1997, for example, he followed footprints from sandals to help find three runaways who had jumped from a ship at sea, swam to shore, and escaped the police for weeks.

A Tradition of Tracking

Thousands of years ago, the First Peoples came to the continent now known as Australia and learned about its different landscapes, animals, and plants. During this time, the First Peoples of Australia became experts and caretakers of the land. They could track and follow the path of animals for miles as they traveled across the country. These skills and traditions would be passed down for over a millennia.

In 1788, the Gadigal people spotted 11 ships out in the ocean. The ships were transporting British colonists and prisoners. This “First Fleet” would be followed by many others over the next 80 years. Some of these prisoners would escape and disappear into the bush, or wildness. The British colonists realized that the skills and knowledge of the First Peoples of Australia could help them find prisoners on the run. The men who tracked down these prisoners for the British were known as Aboriginal trackers.

After a series of gold rushes in the 1850s, more and more escaped prisoners began to roam the bush, robbing coaches and homes. In Australia, these men and women became known as bushrangers. In 1862, the New South Wales Police Force officially began using First Nations trackers to find these bushrangers.

Many trackers and bushrangers became popular figures in Australian folklore. In 1865, tracker Billy Dargin took part in a famous early morning shootout that killed bushranger Ben Hall, who had committed over 100 robberies in only two years. Afterward, the superintendent of police praised Dargin for his “coolness, courage, and determination.” The job of a tracker was incredibly dangerous. These brave men were often pursuing Australia’s most sneaky and deadly criminals.

Mixed Motivations

Many trackers found themselves caught between two worlds. They worked for the Australian police but remained part of the communities whose lands had been taken by the colonists. In some cases, they were forced to track down family members who had become bushrangers. One early tracker named Broughton, also known as Toodwick, worked for a Scottish-born businessman, capturing escaped prisoners. When Broughton was asked to find one of his close relatives, he led the pursuers the wrong way! As a police tracker, Broughton was able to use his position to help his family.

The Skills of a Tracker

Trackers paid close attention to details, which often helped them find what they were looking for. In one case, Alexander Riley followed the tracks of a horse-drawn cart—which had driven through the area months earlier. His sharp eye led to the capture of Albert Moss, who murdered three men in the late 1930s.

Trackers used their skills not only to find criminals, but to save lives. In the 19th century, hundreds of people went missing, lost in the bush. Tracker Jackey Bundah famously picked up the trail of a missing person and followed it for over 15 miles. Bundah found the missing man, Robert Jennings, still alive. If it weren’t for trackers like Bundah, hundreds of missing adults and children would not have survived.

The Last Tracker

Tracking is a skill that has been built over millennia and passed down through the generations. For over a century, the trackers pursued dangerous criminals, found wandering cattle, and searched the country looking for missing persons. The last official First Nations police tracker, Barry Port, died in 2020. Today, Australian police can use technology like helicopters and satellites to find escaped prisoners. All the same, the trackers’ legacy lives on in books, movies, folklore, and Australia’s shared history.