Robert Arthur Johnstone
Robert Arthur Johnstone (1843 – 16 January 1905) was an officer in the Native Police paramilitary force which operated in the British colony of Queensland. He was stationed at various locations in central and northern Queensland between 1867 and 1880 conducting regular punitive expeditions against clans of Indigenous Australians who resisted colonisation. He also participated in several surveying expeditions in Far North Queensland, including those under the leadership of George Elphinstone Dalrymple. After resigning from the Native Police in 1880, he became a police magistrate in various locations around Queensland before retiring from government service in 1891. In his years of duty for the Native Police, Johnstone led many punitive expeditions and "dispersals" consistent with government policy, resulting in thousands of Aboriginal people being killed or displaced from their traditional lands. A number of geographical and zoological entities are named after Johnstone, such as the Johnstone River and the freshwater crocodile. Early life and family history Robert Arthur Johnstone was born in Richmond, Tasmania in 1843 to parents John Johnstone (alias Johnston Need) and Annie Elizabeth Easton. His paternal grandfather was Lieutenant-General Samuel Need. Lieutenant-General Need married an Indian woman, most likely the daughter of Saadat Ali Khan II, and