Walter David Taylor Powell (25 March 1831 – 23 December 1906) was an English mariner and paramilitary Native Police officer in the British colonies of New South Wales and Queensland.
His role as an officer in the Native Police was central in a number of important moments in colonial Queensland history including that of the brutal crushing of localised Aboriginal resistance after the Hornet Bank massacre, the foundation of Rockhampton and the creation of the Bowen settlement.
The 19 crew members managed to stock and launch the longboat from the stricken vessel and initially sailed to mainland New Guinea but felt threatened by the Indigenous people they encountered there and so decided to head south on the prevailing winds to the nearest safe British port they knew of in Moreton Bay.
They started to run low on provisions at Lizard Island and subsequently went ashore at Cape Grafton to obtain food and water from the Aboriginals they observed there.
The longboat made its way down the eastern coast of Australia, stopping where it could to obtain supplies of food and water resulting in further conflict with Aboriginals.
On 25 November, they arrived in Port Curtis and were surprised to find the fledgling British outpost of Gladstone where they became re-acquainted with European civilisation.
Lieutenant John Murray of the Native Police was present at Port Curtis when Powell and the other shipwrecked crew members arrived.
As officers in the Native Police were in short supply during this period, Powell agreed to Murray's offer of being enlisted as a sub-Lieutenant into the force in December 1855.
He mustered his troopers and travelled to Hornet Bank where he immediately utilised his force to track down and kill five Aboriginals residing in the hills to the west of the property.
A second, larger punitive expedition was organised with the participation of armed local settlers, including William Fraser whose family members figured prominently in the casualties of the massacre at Hornet Bank.
By December 1857 Powell had increased the number of troopers in his division to seventeen, which he put to use by conducting raids at Taroom, shooting three including three native women as they tried to flee.
With new information, suspicion then turned to four Native police troopers Toby, Gulliver, Johnny Reid and Alma, who were subsequently arrested.
Powell and some of his other more reliable troopers were ordered to recapture him and after finding him near Wowan, they finally seized him after some cattlemen had detained him at a crossing on the nearby Dee River.
Toby "disappeared" after being escorted into the bush by some troopers, while Alma was shot dead at a riverbank by his captor while "trying to escape" despite being in leg-irons and handcuffs.
[14] In early 1861, the Commissioner for Crown Lands in the Kennedy District, George Elphinstone Dalrymple led a large overland force to establish a British settlement at Port Dension.
To augment this force, Dalrymple also sent a section of Native Police troopers on board the two ships which contained the settlers travelling to the area at the same time.
[19] Powell was also stationed with his Native Police troopers at nearby Whitsunday Island to protect the timber operations of Eugene Fitzalan.
Powell held the position as the head of the local Native Police in conjunction with the harbourmaster role until March 1863 when he retired from the force.
He became employed by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company and was chief officer of the Telegraph before transferring as captain to the Sarah Barr which was wrecked at Trial Bay in 1866.
[23] Powell was a maritime officer upon various vessels trading along the coast and out to the South Pacific islands up until 1874, and it appears that he was involved the Blackbirding industry.