The moral world of the Native Mounted Police

The Native Mounted Police (NMP) was a crucial force in the violent overturning of the Aboriginal polity and economy in nineteenth-century New South Wales (including Victoria), Queensland and the Northern Territory. However, the absence of a documentary record of its outlook and motives makes the NMP a puzzle for historians who strive for a complete cast of characters in the great drama of colonisation. Without questioning recentmoral disgustat the brutal effectiveness of the NMP, this article explores ways to characterise the men of the NMP as moral beings; as agents struggling to find a place in a radically and rapidly changing social order. Drawing on extant scholarship, the article presents three ways to frame NMP agency: as an opportunistic and self-interested survival tactic; as an expression of loyalty to a protective colonial order; and as enacting precolonial enmities among Aboriginal people themselves. The article suggests that each of the three perspectives is plausible, so none is advocated over the others. The more important choice for historians is to take the NMP seriously - not to overlook its existence and not to simplify characterisation of its members.