Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia

“As fine a body of men”: how the Canadian Mountie brought law and order to the memory of the Australian frontier

“…54 Yet none of these practical reasons for his presence in Sydney held particular interest for the press; as a photogenic Mountie dressed impeccably in his scarlet uniform, Constable Leach presented ''the finest figure of all the horsemen at the show'', as the Sydney Morning Herald put it, and attracted more press attention than the ''Indian Cowboys'' he was there to supervise. 55 By the 1930s, the nation-building role of the Canadian Mountie was well established worldwide, and interest in the role of the Australian mounted police also became popular, not just in press accounts but also in popular literature. In his preface to Morrow's account, Western Australian Premier James Mitchell offered a view of Morrow and his fellow policemen as ''missionaries performing a true Empire service'', one that draws attention to part of the country which still await ''men of resource and courage who are willing to brave hardship and privation, when needs must, to reap the rewards of enterprise''.…”