Colin Macleod was a young public servant when, some forty years ago, he went to the Northern Territory in search of adventure. He took a job as a patrol officer, registering full-blood Aborigines as wards of the State.
It was an extraordinary job at an extraordinary time in Australia's history, the effects of which are still being felt today.
As wards, Aborigines were less than second-class citizens; they could not drink, marry or travel freely without the permission of the State. It was a time when Aboriginal men traded the 'use' of their wives for alcohol; when the white authorities removed children from their mothers. For Colin, it was all in a day's work.
In 'Patrol in the Dreamtime,' Colin Macleod looks back with rare and often shocking honesty at his travels through the Territory and his encounters with tribal Aborigines, hardened drovers, cattle barons and dispossessed fringe dwellers. It is both a unique story and a challenging document, a revelation about our own nation.
