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1873 was the Territory’s chief photographer, taking many publicity shots of Palmerston and the goldfields as well
as anthropological studies of Aborigines. Although he became known as the Territory’s expert on Aborigines, his
interest was quite detached and he never showed sympathy for the position of the Aborigines, whose land was
being appropriated by strangers.
When a telegraph official was killed on the Roper River in 1875, Foelsche wrote to John Lewis, a pastoralist
and mining entrepreneur, that he was sending out a party to bring back the body and to ‘have a Picnic with the
Natives’. When a teamster was killed in January 1878, Stretton led a party that shot 17 Aborigines who resisted
arrest. Foelsche told Lewis that he could not have done better than Stretton during this ‘nigger hunt’. He was,
he said, satisfied with the outcome ‘and so is the public here’. The South Australian government subsequently
issued instructions that no firearms were to be used while pursuing Aborigines, except in self-defence, but Foelsche
told Lewis ‘we’ll be able to regulate all that’. In 1881, to dissuade white travellers in the Limmen Bight district,
subjected to continuing attacks, from taking matters into their own hands, Foelsche proposed to the government
that severe chastisement of whole tribes should be permitted, because the guilty ones could not be identified. His
proposal was not adopted, but it reflected the general frustration of local administrators faced with Aboriginal
resistance to an invading race.
By 1876 Foelsche was despondent, feeling underpaid and neglected by his superiors in Adelaide and that the
then Government Resident, Edward Price, wanted to kick him out. For some years he asked Lewis, who had
returned to South Australia, to help him improve his position, but without success. He acted as agent for Lewis’s
Cobourg Cattle Company but by 1879 Foelsche was complaining to Lewis that he objected to being stopped in
the street and asked to pay the company’s debts. Perhaps with the intention of becoming a pastoralist himself,
he attempted to buy land on the Barry River near Lake Dean in 1881 but this fell through. Granted six months’
leave from December 1883, Foelsche and his family visited South Australia, and it seems that he visited China in- Otherwise he was trapped in Palmerston, serving without further promotion until he retired, and living there
for the rest of his life.
Foelsche continued with his photography. His plates were sent to many private persons in Australia and used by
the government in overseas exhibitions to publicise the Territory. Many of his anthropological studies are held by
the South Australian Museum. He took some interest in local flora and corresponded with Ferdinand von Mueller
in Melbourne, who named a tree, Euc. Foelscheana, in his honour. A small river, a mountain and a headland in
the Territory all carry his name, as does a street in Darwin. He received a gold medal from the Kaiser for his
contributions to natural science and was honoured by King Edward VII with the Imperial Service Medal.
Foelsche retired from the police force in January 1904 after taking one year’s leave. He had maintained his
connection with Freemasonry during the long years in the Territory and was one of the founders of the Port Darwin
lodge, which was named after him. He continued to correspond with Lewis until 1913, remarking in his last letter
that he was ‘still laid up with my bad foot and am writing this with my leg resting on a chair’. The founder of the
Northern Territory Police Force, a sound administrator and resourceful detective, noted for his intelligence, civility
and calmness in all situations, Foelsche died in Darwin on 31 January 1914. He was buried in the old Goyder Road
cemetery, Darwin. The South Australian Archives (Neg. No. 14588) holds a portrait photograph of him. He is
portrayed in A Powell, Far Country, p 125.
P Foelsche, ‘Notes on the Aborigines of North Australia’, TRSSA, vol 5, 1881–81; R J Noye, Foelsche article, ADB, vol 4, 1979; SAA,
Government Resident Series GRS790; SAA, ‘Genesis of the Police Force in the Northern Territory’, Research Note 456; SAA, John Lewis
Papers, PrG247.
GORDON REID, Vol 1.
FOGARTY, ANNIE ESTHER SARAH (ANNE): see COX, ANNIE ESTHER SARAH (ANNE)FOGARTY, MARTHA SARAH ELIZABETH: see SHAW, MARTHA SARAH ELIZABETHFOLLAND, INGRID AMELIA: see DRYSDALE, INGRID AMELIAFONG, NELLIE (FONG, SHU ACK CHAN) nee CHAN or CHIN (1916– ), Chinese matriarch, was born on
16 August 1916 in ‘Chinatown’ in Cavenagh Street Darwin. She was named Shu Ack (which is a boy’s name) in
error by the midwife; her name should have been Sue Ay. Her father, Chin Yepp Gnee (also Chan Fon Yuen), who
was born in Hong Kong was then 47; her mother was Queeshee, then aged 28 and she was born in Darwin. Nellie’s
father had a vegetable garden and also worked in the family store. The extended family lived in a traditional
manner; the men eating at a dining table in the shop and the women and children ate at a cousin’s house. One of
her brothers was the well-known and highly respected Harry Chan.
Her father died when she was 11 so she left school after only two years of formal education. She went to work
in an uncle’s shop where she swept the floor, cleaned and ran messages in a ‘kind but strict’ atmosphere. She was
paid 10 Shillings per week. After her mother complained that it was improper for a girl to run messages her work
was contained within the shop.
At age 15 she met her future husband, Thomas (Tom) Fong. The matchmaker had intended that Tom should
marry Selina, Nellie’s older sister but Tom wanted her. Tom’s mother was his father’s third wife and she died when
he was 18 months old. When he was three, Tom was taken to China by his father along with his mother’s bones so
that the bones could be re-buried in the traditional manner. He remained with his step-mother (wife Number Two)