Goulburn Evening Penny Post (NSW : 1881 - 1940), Wednesday 23 August 1933, page 2


MONTY BYRNE Tracker's Death ABORIGINAL'S CAREER The death occurred last night, after a long illness at the Goulburn District Hospital, of Thomas Mon-tague (Monty) Byrne, who had been attached as black tracker to the Goulburn Police Force for many years. He was 59 years of age. Known to many people in Goul-burn as "Monty," he was attached to the Police Department for more than 30 years, having been stationed at Young as black-tracker for about 20 years prior to being transferred to Goulburn. Monty was a full-blooded Queens-land Aboriginal, but came to N.S.W. at an early age. He showed marked ability as a black tracker, especially in his younger days, when his ser-vices in this direction were availed of more frequently than after his trans-fer to Goulburn. While here, how-ever, he was of great assistance to the police on many occasions. In ad-dition, he was an expert horseman, and it was with keen regret that he saw the horses attached to the police at Goulburn replaced by motor trans-port. Byrne had a strange and adventur-ous initiation into the life of the white man, and for him it must have been a somewhat terrifying experi-ence. About 1885, two Brisbane men Henry and James Keyes, brothers, were working on a claim on the Queensland side of the New South Wales border. They were perpetu-ally worried by a number of aborigi-nes, who used to congregate around them and their camp. The dogs of the aborigines, especially, gave a great deal of trouble and were a con-stant source of annoyance. In addi-tion to this, camp articles were con-tinually disappearing. The brothers hit upon a scheme. They secured a number of water melons and gouged them on in the usual manner, cutting holes to repre-sent the eyes, nose and mouth of human heads. At night they lit candles in them. It was too effective, for the abor-igines cleared out, leaving behind them the then very young "Monty." The brothers waited several days, but the blacks never came back and the brothers were compelled to take on the task of looking after the young aborigine. After leaving the north they went to Gunning Flat, near Cowra. The prospectors placed the lad, for he was now four years old, in a sugar bag and warned him that at no time was he to hold his head out of the bag while they were travelling in the train. So the boy was brought to the homestead, where he remained for 20 years doing odd jobs, such as looking after the children. He was given an education and religious training. He finally joined the Police Force as a tracker in 1900.

Monty was always popular with various members of the force at Goul-burn, whether it was the superin-tendent or police constable, and dur-ing the time he was stationed here he attended the send-offs given each of the superintendents at the latters' special invitation. General regret was expressed by the police to-day at his passing, and according to one he was a most trustworthy, honest, and re-liable man, and had given good and faithful service to the department during the whole time he was at-tached to it. Monty was a single man and, so far as is known, he had no relations in N.S.W. All the available police have arranged to attend his funeral this afternoon, the cortege being timed to move from SS. Peter and Paul's Cathedral at 3 p.m. for the Ken-more Cemetery. Police will act as pallbearers.

The Rotary Club entertained con-sular and trade representatives, the Governor, the Federal Attorney-Gen-eral, and the Minister for Commerce. Mr. Latham said that to ensure peace international relations must be based on goodwill towards the world in general.