The Conscripts

THE DRUM NO.26 – December 1989.
THE SECRET WEAPON
Assistant Commissioner McNeill and Police Aide Gavin SPENCER attended at the 64th World Association of Detectives Conference held in Sydney in September this year.

There were over 160 Detectives from West Germany, Canada and other European countries when our representatives addressed the conference.

Mr McNeill spoke on the Northern Territory Police Trackers, and Gavin spoke on learning how to track. Parts of those speeches have been reproduced for the interest of readers.
There are many tales to be told about the ability of Police Trackers in tracking criminals and rescuing lost persons. ln Alice Springs as a young detective in the late 60's on almost every job that I went to, I took as my scientific man, the Police Tracker. I was very much aware of trackers ability to read tracks and recognise people from their footprints.
In the Top End, at a settlement on Bathurst Island, I had tested aboriginal school children in their ability to read tracks by having two children walk around under a tree out of sight and without the knowledge of other children. I would then bring the other children over to the tree and ask them to name who had left the tracks behind. 10 out of 10 was the average score. These children were between 7 and 13 years of age.
In the mid 60's a similar experiment was conducted by a visiting Indian expert, Inspector T.K . Lahiri, of Calcutta, at a settlement called Hooker Creek . There he was given a demonstration of trackers' ability to track over bare rock surfaces. This demonstration was performed by Police Tracker Henry Jagamara and the Inspector reported as follows:
"I then segregated Henry under close watch and asked two aborigines to walk over the surface barefooted, and subsequently with riding boots on. To me there appeared to be no observable mark (no footprint outlines or outlines of part of a footprint on, those rough hard boulders). On being called, Henry methodically tracked the bare footprints almost step by step and the shoeprints similarly and later on correctly named the aborigines. He was not previously aware that these aborigines had walked over the boulders nor was he aware that they had been in or departed from the area. This almost uncanny power left me thunderstruck."
Inspector Lahiri was also intrigued by the ability of the tracker to accurately state the time elapsed since the footprint was made and his ability to nominate sex and height from the foot prints alone.
In Alice Springs I have witnessed Police Tracker Teddy Egan Jungala at the scene of a stolen motor vehicle, walk around the motor vehicle, find a footprint and exclaim `that one belong to Tommy Nugamara. A quick trip to the local aboriginal camp located Tommy Nugamara who quickly admitted to having stolen the vehicle. Tales of this nature abound.
There is a classic tale of Police Tracker. Larry Jabaltjari in 1971 tracking an escapee from Alice Springs prison and, whilst following his tracks along the riverbank in an area known as the eastside, Larry suddenly declared that he had found his wife's tracks . Whilst this was very interesting we were more interested in arresting the escapee and told Larry not to worry about his wife but to follow the escapee's tracks. However Larry declared he would not follow the escapee's tracks until he found out what his wife was up to.
We consequently followed Larry's wife's tracks to an abandoned building near the riverbank where we found his wife with a European ringer (stockman, cowboy) engaged in some extramarital activities. The ' European ringer took off with great haste and Larry's wife was admonished in no uncertain manner by her husband. Larry resumed tracking and indeed we caught the escapee the same day.
On another occasion, in area some 130km from Alice Springs, between two settlements known as Hermannsburg and Areyonga, a Police constable was driving across a riverbed when the Tracker riding in the back of the utility banged on the roof and asked the constable to stop. On doing so the constable was informed by the Tracker that in the riverbed he had observed his father's track. The constable turned the vehicle around, went down the riverbed on directions from the Tracker^- and sure enough camc across a group of aborigines amongst whom was the Tracker’s father . The father and son had not seen each other for something like three years.
GAVIN’S SPEECH
Since I left school at Yuendumu I started working as a motor mechanic, Youth Worker and Social Security Officer for Yuendumu Community, then the Assistant Manager for the Mining Company.
In 1985 the Community nominated me to be a Police Aide and I started work as a Police Aide until 1988 when I resigned to take over as Manager of Yuendumu Community Store and then took up employment as a Field Officer for the Royal Commission Into Deaths In Custody. I was approached by Police to become an Aide again in Alice Springs which I took and am now doing shift work in General Duties.
Learning to Track
Basic Tracking is taught by the women when the children are about 6 or 7 years old to look for bush tucker like small animals and grubs.
When the children are about 10 or 11 they join the hunting party with the men to track and hunt larger animals like kangaroo, emu, snakes, perenti and wild cats.
They are taught how to know which direction the animal is going, how old the tracks are and what type of animal they are tracking.
They are also shown how to hide and to get close to the animal they are hunting by covering their body with mud and tracking towards the wind because the animal can smell the body sweating.
They are also shown how to throw spears and boomerangs.
Tracking
As the boys go through initiation they are shown how to track animals, humans and dreamtime stories.
1. They are shown tracks made by animals and people.
2. How old the tracks are.
3. What country they are in (skin group).
4. What sex animals are by checking the droppings.
5. Checking in rough country by chipped stones, stamped insects and ants and broken brush.
6. When tracking people they are taught:

- How old the tracks are

- If person is man or woman

- If person is old or young

- To know if something is wrong like limping or staggering

- To learn if person is big or little or heavy or light And to learn how to think like the person he is tracking.

To maintain the skill he must use it as often as he can. If he doesn't use it all the time he is lost.
Recently I was called on by a Sergeant, to track some footprints left near some stolen vehicles. The vehicles were new and only recently stolen from a yard in Alice Springs.
I began tracking the footprints and; the Sergeant asked me if they were; aboriginals or white fellas. I told him, they were white fellas but I don't think the Sergeant believed me. I followed the tracks through rough country for about six kilometres to house in the outer suburbs of Alice Springs. The offenders were inside and as a result 2 white men were arrested for the offences.
The Sergeant was surprised to see they were white men as I had told: him earlier.
Another time I was off duty and I was called on to, look for a missing lady from a settlement close to Alice Springs. She had been missing for about five days. I located her tracks quickly as she had a funny walk. The tracks were very old, making it hard to track but after many kilometres through scrub and rough country I located her but unfortunately she, had passed away.
Gavin Spencer

JABALTJARI

1925 WAS A VERY FINE YEAR
Some extraordinary members were sworn in the year ending 30 June 1925:
R. Reid 15-09-1924

V.C Hall 05-11-1924

G.C.H. Stott 18-12-1924

W.C. Littlejohn 03-04-1925

T.C.V. Fitzer 13-04-1925

J.J. Lyons 15-05-1925

J.W. Nichols 15-05-1925

WANTED

Stories and/or Photographs of Historical Interest suitable for publication in this newsletter

A little girl asked her mother, 'How did the human race appear?'

The mother answered, 'God made Adam and Eve and they had children

and so all mankind was made.'

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question.
The father answered, 'Many years ago there were monkeys from which

the human race evolved.'

The confused girl returned to her mother and said, 'Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys?
The mother answered, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his.
Subject: Irish Humour
Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!"
Miraculously, a parking place appeared.
Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."

Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal, and says to the first man he meets, "Do you want to go to heaven?"

The man said, "I do, Father."
The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall."
Then the priest asked the second man, "Do you want to go to heaven?" "Certainly, Father," was the man's reply.
"Then stand over there against the wall," said the priest.
Then Father Murphy walked up to O'Toole and said, "Do you want to go to heaven?"

O'Toole said, "No, I don't Father."

The priest said, "I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole said, "Oh, when I die, yes, I thought you were getting a group together to go right now"
*************************************
Gallagher opened the morning newspaper and was dumbfounded to read in the obituary column that he had died. He quickly phoned his best friend, Finney.

"Did you see the paper?" asked Gallagher . "They say I died!!"

"Yes, I saw it!" replied Finney . "Where are ye callin' from?"
***************************,r******t*
An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut

The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.

He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?" "Just water," says the priest.

The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?"

The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
***,r*************************************

Walking into the bar, Mike said to Charlie the bartender, "Pour me a stiff one - just had another fight with the little woman."

"Oh yeah?" said Charlie, "And how did this one end?"
"When it was over," Mike replied, "She came to me on her hands and knees. "Really," said Charles, "Now that's a switch! What did she say?"
She said, "Come out from under the bed, you little chicken."
**********************************************
Flynn staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy.

He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Nancy.

He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step. As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful.
Managing not to yell, Flynn sprung up, pulled down his pants, and looked in the hall mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and bleeding. He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place he saw blood.

He then hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed.

In the morning, Flynn woke up with searing pain in both his head and butt and Nancy staring at him from across the room.
She said, "You were drunk again last night weren't you?"

Flynn said, "Why you say such a mean thing?"

"Well, "Nancy said, "it could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly ..... . it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror.

Rejig following to include extracts from McAdie’s report. Mark McAdie has been re-elected president of the NT Police and Historical Society; Sean Parnell is Vice President. Other office bearers are Secretary and public officer, Pauline Williams; Treasurer, Chantel Fischer.

Committee Members:

Barry Frew, Denzel McManus, Kym Chilton, John Wolthers, Deidri Hurwood.

SHADES OF SHERWOOD FOREST

(Image Courtesy of Graham Rees )

The repeated misnaming of a road honouring late Superintendent Wilson Coleridge Littlejohn in Darwin’s Litchfield Shire took on the aspect of a struggle by Robin Hood and his merry/angry men against the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham. In maps and a road sign, his name was given as two words - Little John. NT Police Museum and Historical Society committee member Denzil McManus spotted the error two Darwin telephone directories ago.

He had led the move to have Superintendent Littlejohn commemorated in Darwin through the Place Names Committee. McManus firmly believed Littlejohn, a New Zealander, who spent 31 years in the force and was in charge of police who rescued Mrs Petrov from her KGB escorts at Darwin Airport, deserved local recognition.

In April l985, aged 86, Littlejohn attended the Centenary Celebrations of the Heavitree Gap Police Station in Alice. Denzil McManus was at the function, went over, introduced himself to Littlejohn, seated, who at first did not recall him, but then beckoned him over and said, “ I remember you.” In subsequent years, McManus had discussions with Littlejohn’s daughter, Margaret, a nursing sister, about having her father commemorated in some way. Thus began the schizoid subdivision saga of Superintendent Littlejohn.
Presenting a case to the NT Place Names Committee several years ago, Denzil was assured that Littlejohn would feature in a future new subdivision. The NT telephone directory containing a street directory and maps ran with Little John Road, Girraween. McManus, who served in the finger print section, took on the facial appearance of Will Scarlet, and angrily pointed the finger of scorn at the Place Names Committee. In its defence, the Committee said it was not guilty and that the offending directory entry was a misprint which would be rectified.
However, ever - vigilant Denzil discovered the new 2008/ 09 NT directory repeated the crime against Littlejohn at Girraween. McManus again blew the trumpet alerting his band of supporters, including the secretary of the NT Retired Police Association, Graham Rees, against officialdom’s latest atrocity in the rural area. Rees drove out to Girraween and found that while one sign correctly stated Littlejohn Road, another pointer ran with the offending Little John. By now, officialdom seemed to be speaking with forked tongue.
Long bows were restrung and unfortunate Magpie Geese plucked for arrow flights to once more rescue Superintendent Littlejohn. McManus agreed the situation was beginning to sound like an episode from Sherwood Forest, but could not work out who was Maid Marion (?), although several retired police officers could easily fill the part of jolly Friar Tuck. Eventually McManus and Rees were informed by the Place Names Committee that the Litchfield Shire Council would arrange for the offending sign to be replaced by the correct monicker.

Despite this assurance, Denzil, like a true Sherwood Forest desperado, continued to harass officials, in the nicest possible way, when he went to the shire office to pay his rates. As a result, he received a telephone call from a curt council official who tried to blame the subdivision developer for the misnomer. Denzil handled the situation with typical diplomatic aplomb : “ Just fix it.”

McManus pointed out that beefy Littlejohn, who joined the force in Darwin in l925, had given yeoman service to the Territory, once operating out of a tent in Alice Springs and with his wife, had lived in a slab hut with a dirt floor. He recalled that while he ( McManus) was on duty at Bennett Street Police Station, Darwin, Littlejohn had appeared with two struggling combatants from a nearby pub brawl. One was in a headlock and the other subdued by an arm lock. On another occasion, Littlejohn had physically ejected a reporter from his office. This really wasn’t such a big deal because in recent years a NT Government minister wrapped the chord of a tape recorder about the neck of an A BC reporter in Darwin and made headlines round the world.