DESERT POLICE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20904, 11 July 1933, Page 15

DESERT POLICE.

\ EXCITING TASKS IN I AUSTRALIA. CHASES THAT LAST FOR MONTHS. i.TB.OH our. own correspohdbxt.) SYDNEY, July 3. Rides of hundreds of miles after unlive murderers, attacks by savage aborigines, hunger and lack of water --these things are all in the life of members of the mounted constabulary of Australia whose duties are centred in mid-Australia and in the | Northern Territory. There are five | mounted police stationed at the l "capital" of Central Australia, Alice j Springs, and one of these, Mounted I Constable A. Cameron, who reached Sydney this week on holiday, had I some interesting tales to tell of his j experiences and those of his comI rades. | Constable Cameron has been stationed at Aiice Springs for 21 years, and tliere was a suggestion of the Canadian North West Mounted in bis statement: "When we are after a man wc go out and we stop out until we get him." Not long ago Cameron, with two black trackers, chased a maurauding tribe of blacks form west of Alice Springs for months until they finally caught them at Liverpool river, near the Queensland border. The chase was carried on for 860 miles, and during it. another tribe ambushed the police party. One of the trackers was wounded, but continuous rifle fire put the attackers to flight. The district that has to be patrolled by the five men at Alice Springs covers an area of 200 square miles by 300. Horses, some of which are able to go for three days without water, are used, and camels have been the means of transport in some of the desert areas. When going out on patrol, or on a chase, the police usually take enough food for a month, but it frequently happens that this is not enough, and the food supply is then supplemented by shooting wild turkeys or wallabies. North Australia is alive with fowl of every description. "I think the worst time I had out there was two years ago," said Cameron. "Two trackers and I were out after some natives in desert country when we ran out of food. For two days, with the temperature 120 degrees in the shade, I had to Jive on water alone. "I have great faith in the aborigine, and left alone I am sure he is all right. He will get on far better without missionaries to put new ideas into his head. Remember, I am speaking after 21 years' experience among the most uncivilised of them. It is a great life out there, and I would sooner be at the Springs than in all the cities in Australia put together."