Augustus Lucanus or August Lucanus (1848 – 18 January 1941) was a police officer and businessman in British colonial

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He played an important role in facilitating the colonisation of various goldfield regions in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. As both a police officer and civilian, Lucanus helped lead numerous

punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beha ...

s against

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

resulting in multiple

massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...

of these people.

Early life

Lucanus was born in what is now

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1848. He fought in the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

of 1870, serving with the

Uhlan Uhlan (; ; ; ; ) is a type of light cavalry, primarily armed with a lance. The uhlans started as Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, Lithuanian irregular cavalry, that were later also adopted by other countries during the 18th century, including Polis ...

division of German army. He later decided to emigrate to the British colony of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

arriving aboard the ''Herschel'' in

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

on 12 January 1877.

Northern Territory

In February 1878, Lucanus moved to the recently established colonial outpost of Darwin in the

of the British colony of

. A month later he was appointed as a constable in the

Northern Territory Police Force The Northern Territory Police Force is the police body that has legal jurisdiction over the Northern Territory of Australia. This police service has 1,607 police members (2021-22 financial year) made up of 83 senior sergeants, 228 sergeants, 912 ...

. He was initially posted to the goldfields at Yam Creek and then later to the nearby goldfields at Pine Creek. He was involved in licencing and maintaining order amongst the prospectors. He was wounded when stones were pelted at him during a disturbance between Anglo and Chinese diggers in 1880. In 1882, the head stockman at

Elsey Station Elsey Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its traditional owners are the Mangarrayi people, whose rights were upheld by the Elsey Land Claim granted in 1997. The property i ...

, Duncan Campbell, was killed by local

Mangarayi The Mangarayi, also written Mangarai, were an Indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language Mangarayi is thought to be one of the Gunwingguan languages. Francesca Merlan published a grammar of the language in 1982, one that i ...

people. A telegram was sent to Yam Creek police station and a two-month punitive expedition led by Corporal George Montagu and Augustus Lucanus was organised. Lucanus claimed that the Aboriginal people (or niggers as he referred to them) received a "good reception" with several being shot dead. In 1883, Lucanus left the police force and went into business in Darwin, establishing a firm called Lucanus & Hedley, which ran an auction-house, hotel and general store. A year later, when four miners Thomas Schollert, John Landers, Harry Houschildt and Johannes Noltenius, were killed by Aboriginal people at the Daly River Copper Mine, several punitive expeditions were organised. One of the larger civilian ones, consisting of 19 armed and mounted men, was led by Lucanus. He later described how they followed up several groups of Aboriginal people and "dispersed" them. It was recorded that Lucanus' party "shot down every native they saw, women and children included".

The Kimberley

In 1885, gold was found at Hall's Creek in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of

. Lucanus decided to establish a store at mouth of the

Ord River The Ord River is a river in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river's catchment covers . The lower Ord River and the confluence with Cambridge Gulf create the most northern estuarine environment in ...

where a port would be established to facilitate the entry of miners into the area. He travelled overland from Darwin to the Ord while his supplies were sent by ship. On his journey the local Aborigines speared his horses and again Lucanus gave them a "good reception". He received a light spear wound in one of these violent encounters. He built his store at the mouth of the river but soon moved it upriver to where the port for the new township of

Wyndham Wyndham may refer to: *Wyndham (name), a surname and given name Places Australia *City of Wyndham, an LGA (local government area) in Victoria * Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, a LGA in Western Australia * Wyndham Important Bird Area, Western Aust ...

had been established. Interestingly, his boat was later stolen by local Aboriginal people who used it to hunt turtles on

Lacrosse Island Lacrosse Island is an island in the Cambridge Gulf in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, located between Cape Domett on the eastern shore and Cape Dussejour on the western. The island is in the local government area of the Shire of Wyn ...

. He also had an argument with an Aboriginal man named "Pompey" who had been part of the

Australian Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868 In May to October 1868, a cricket team composed of Aboriginal Australians toured England, becoming the first organised group of Australian sportspeople to travel overseas. It would be another ten years before an Australian cricket team Australi ...

. Lucanus refused to serve him and Pompey told him off for not giving his black employees wages. Pompey challenged him to a fist-fight, but Lucanus picked up a pick-axe handle which stopped any contest. When a prospector named George Barnett from the Panton River was killed by Aborigines in 1888, Lucanus was enrolled as a "special constable" in a punitive party that set out to "disperse the blacks". During the three week expedition, the group had dispersed over 600 men, women and children, with a newspaper reporting "only six niggers butchered". They also brought back two small Aboriginal boys with them as "trophies". Lucanus remembers dispersing around 200 Aboriginal people in this incident while

Mary Durack Mary Durack (20 February 1913 – 16 December 1994) was an Australian author and historian. She wrote '' Kings in Grass Castles'' and ''Keep Him My Country''. Childhood Mary Durack, born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Michael Patrick Dura ...

wrote that it was one of the most sweeping massacres in the region's history with one participant killing 35 people. The Government Resident of Roebourne stated that 70 were killed. Lucanus was signed up as a "special constable" in another punitive expedition in 1892, but on this occasion was unsuccessful in capturing or killing any "native depredators".

Western Australia Police Force

Lucanus joined the

Western Australia Police Force The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia to a population of 2.66 million people, of which 2.11 million reside in the Perth Metropolitan Region. Western Australia h ...

in 1893 and was stationed near Wyndham. When James Durack's station was ransacked, Lucanus captured a whole clan of Aboriginal people, with one later being shot. The rest were chained up and sent to Wyndham. On a punitive expedition to the

Behn River The Behn River or Behm River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river rises on the Northern Territory and Western Australia border. The river then flows in a north-easterly direction through Behn Gorge and discharges ...

in July 1893, Lucanus with his police and P.B. Durack had a battle with local Aboriginal men. Police trooper Joe Collins was killed in the conflict while Lucanus' horse was speared to death from underneath him. At least 23 Aborigines were massacred. The punitive expedition which followed to avenge the death of Collins consisted of a large number of police including Lucanus. The party travelled 1,000 km over two months through the Kimberley shooting and capturing Aboriginal people as they went. The police reports claim that 30 Aboriginal people were shot dead although this number was probably understated. Lucanus was transferred to Perth and then to Cue at the heads of the Murchison River. After he refused to support his fellow police officer stationed there, he resigned in 1896.

Wiluna

After leaving the police force, Lucanus moved to the desert gold-mining town of Wiluna where he established a hotel and store. He lived here for most of the remaining part of his life, dying in 1941. He is buried at

Karrakatta Cemetery Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, the first being that of wheelwright Robert Creighton. Managed by the Metropolitan Ce ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Family

Lucanus married twice in his life. His first wife was Ellen Fowler with whom he had two children: William Charles Lucanus and Annie Lucanus. Ellen died in 1920 and Augustus, in 1928 at the age of eighty, married Caroline Hoschen. Caroline died three years later. Lucanus' daughter Annie married James Campbell Thompson in 1907. Thompson was a police officer and later became a pastoralist and drover. He was killed in 1911 by Aboriginal people along the

Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek, Western Australia, Halls Creek in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna, Western Australia, Wiluna in the Mid West (Western Australia), ...

. Sergeant Richard Henry Pilmer of the Western Australian Police later led a "nigger hunting expedition" to avenge his death. Lucanus has many descendants in Western Australia including Brent Lucanus, who was lead singer of 1970s Perth band

Boys A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is usually described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucanus, Augustus 1848 births 1941 deaths Aboriginal genocide perpetrators Australian police officers Australian murderers of children German mass murderers German murderers of children German emigrants to Australia German war criminals 20th-century Australian businesspeople 19th-century Australian businesspeople 20th-century German murderers