ABSTRACT
At the time of European settlement of Australia in 1788, Indigenous people occupied the entirety of the continent. To the settlers, Australia was a terra nullius, an unknown and uncultivated wasteland, and the Indigenous inhabitants were considered inferior because they had not made productive use of the land. is justied the removal of Indigenous people to enable a swi uptake of the land to establish European models of order and productivity. e colonial police were central to the process of land dispossession as they were charged with ensuring the safety of the new settlers. At the same time, police were responsible for protecting Indigenous people. is involved surveillance of and intervention into family life, monitoring Indigenous movements, and management of nances and rations (Hogg and Carrington 2006).
