Henry Edmund Pulteney Dana (1820–1852) established the Native Police Corps in the Port Phillip District (later Victoria) in 1842, he was responsible for two massacres of Aboriginal people one at Barmah Lake in 1843 and the other at Snowy River in 1846.
Henry Dana migrated to Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) in 1840, but in 1842 he relocated to the Port Phillip District where he renewed acquaintance with Superintendent Charles La Trobe, whom he knew in London.
The two men became firm friends and Latrobe appointed Dana to establish a native police corps.
[7][8]In 1844, Dana sent a letter to La Trobe reporting that he had just completed a second tour of the district, in which he stated: "from observation and information this part of the Province is perfectly free from any thing like outrages by the blacks..."[9] Dana was responsible for a massacre at Snowy River on 16 December 1846, where 15 Tatungalung or Krauatungulung were murdered.
However, Dana antagonised the gold diggers at Ballarat in September 1851 with his rigorous attempt to collect the first licence fees.
[1] On 24 November 1852, Dana died of pneumonia, having suffered severe exposure while on a search for bushrangers, and the corps was disbanded early in 1853.