LONELY POST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 8

LONELY POST

OUTBACK POLICEMAN , . SUPERVISION OF LUGGERS " . NO&TH AUSTRALIAN COAST [from our own CORRESPONDENT! SYDNEY. Oct. 9 A policeman with probably, the lone, liest duties in Australia will leave Darwin within the next few days for King River, on the coast of the Arnhem - Land aboriginal reserve, where he will be stationd for the next three months. His sole companion will be a blacktracker, and his neighbours "Rill rb© wild Myall blacks. Constable Peter Riley, the policeman selected to take charge of the first watering and fuelling base established under the recently-passed * aboriginals' ordinance, to ensure that Darwin lug. . gers land in the reserve under proper supervision, carry stores for four months. He will have to construct his own shelter, and, with the approach-of the wet season, will have an unenviable existence. For weeks at a stretch he will not see another white man, and only when the Larrakia is carrying out her periodical patrol of the northern. coastline will he see "another white fate. All the crews of Australian-owned lug. gers which will'use the watering base are Japanese and Malayans. The mouth of the King River, where he will establish his camp, abounds in swarms of the house fly, and even the blacks have given up the unequal task of beating off the myriads of flies that thrive in the vicinity. Mosquitoes, too are particularly vicious, and Constable Riley will be equipped with large quan. tities of fly and mosquito exterminating liquids, in addition to plentiful supplies of medical .stores. Although he will be located at his lonely station for a three months' ■ term, he is carrying four months' sapplies, and it is probable that he will spend his Christmas with the blacks, miles from civilisation. Game, howl ever, abounds, and he is. at least, ' assured of duck and geese for his Christmas dinner. . When the wet season sets in the majority of luggers will return to Darwin, and Constable Riley will be the only policeman on the 1000 miles of coastline that bounds the northern ex« tremity of the aboriginal reserve. *