News

By Peter Cameron

Lt. Colonel Samuel Need an officer in the 27/24 Dragoons stationed in India, married an Indian woman. She was most likely the daughter of Saadat Ali Khan II, an Indian Princess, and had a number of children by her including a son, Johnston Need. When Lt. Colonel Need returned to England with his brood they weren’t accepted by British Society and the sons were disinherited.

Johnston Need changed his name to John Johnstone and left England migrating to Australia becoming a land owner in Richmond, Tasmania in 1835.

He married Annie Easton and had a son named Robert Arthur by her. John left Tasmania for the Victorian Gold Rush in the early 1840’s at which time he settled in Warrnambool.

He travelled to England several times in the 1850’s at which time bought a cased 1849 Colt Pocket revolver No. 3746. In 1850 he took Robert, aged seven to England and placed him in school there. John was a good shot and the story goes that he shot an escaped and dangerous convict. In 1860 Robert returned to Victoria seeking work in the pastoral industry. John Johnstone died in Warrnambool in 1882.

In 1862 aged 22, Robert left for Queensland and worked on properties for a time. He then joined the Native Mounted Police consisting of white officers in command of armed and mounted Aboriginal troopers. Their duty was to conduct punitive raids on Aboriginal tribes and communities that interfered in colonial expansion. He was appointed Sub Inspector in 1867 and carried out numerous punitive raids on the aborigines for various matters from theft to murder of whites. There were many murders and other atrocities carried out by native people in the areas of Queensland under his control. These offences were revenged by the punishments handed out by the NMP.

In 1873 Johnstone accompanied George Dalrymple on his Northeast Coast Expedition supported by thirteen Native Police troopers. After leaving Cardwell and exploring Mourilyan Harbour they sailed north th Gladys Inlet. Here Dalrymple named the river entering the Inlet the Johnstone River after his companion.

The area was well populated by Aboriginals and Johstone and his troopers forcibly removed them from their camp in order to occupy it themselves. A large number of Aborigines living in the area were encountered and dispersed over 2/3 days. On one occasion, an Aboriginal man was forced into a river and taken by a crocodile. This was typical of the treatment handed out to indigenous people by the Native Mounted Police.

During his service with the Mounted Police he had many opportunities to discover new plant and animal specimens which had not been previously noted. The most important of these was a Freshwater Crocodile which he found in numbers in the Herbert River. It was named for him by Gerard Krefft, Curator of the Australian Museum. The name was erroneously listed as “crocodilus johnsoni” but was later amended to “johnstoni”.

He continued in this role until his retirement in 1881.He was appointed as Police Magistrate at Winton. He was transferred as Magistrate to Ingham, then to Bundaberg and finally at Maryborough. After retiring in 1891 he ultimately moved to Toowong, a Brisbane suburb where he died on 16 January 1905.

Whether Robert carried and used this revolver is not known, it came from John Johnstone’s Great Grandson, Dr. J.W. Johnstone who had a practice in Fitzroy, Victoria.