Augustus Lucanus

He played an important role in facilitating the colonisation of various goldfield regions in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

As both a police officer and civilian, Lucanus helped lead numerous punitive expeditions against Indigenous Australians resulting in multiple massacres of these people.

[3] He later decided to emigrate to the British colony of South Australia arriving aboard the Herschel in Port Adelaide on 12 January 1877.

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.

[9] 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.

[11][12] 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".

[1][14] 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".

Police trooper Joe Collins was killed in the conflict while Lucanus' horse was speared to death from underneath him.

The punitive expedition which followed to avenge the death of Collins consisted of a large number of police including Lucanus.

[18] After leaving the police force, Lucanus moved to the desert gold-mining town of Wiluna where he established a hotel and store.

Sergeant Richard Henry Pilmer of the Western Australian Police later led a "nigger hunting expedition" to avenge his death.