Constable Ron Brown, officer in charge of the Finke Police Station in central Australia, with his son on a camel and an Aboriginal tracker. Ron and other offices used camels in the 1950s as a means of patrolling far-flung outback areas.

A camel train being loaded in the bed of the Finke River, Northern Territory. Camel mounties often patrolled rugged, isolated parts of Australia this way.

At the Hermannsburg Lutheran mission, camels are saddled by Mission locals in the bed of the Finke River in the Northern Territory, with Quaritnama rock face in the background.

A camel loaded with supplies awaits Constable Ron Brown for annual patrol, Finke Police Station, Northern Territory in the central part of Australia.

Constable Ron Brown, officer in charge of the Finke Police Station, was the only camel patrolman left in the NT, shown here with his wife and son.

Constable Ron Brown about to leave Finke Police Station for his annual camel patrol of the NT, 20 January, 1949. Here , he’s shown in sand dune country, typical of his beat. A Northern Territory policeman was Warden of Mines, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Collector of Public Monies, and Inspector of Stock and Protector of Aborigines.

Constable Ron Brown (centre) was a camel patrolman, an officer-in-charge of the Finke Police Station in Australia’s Northern Territory. His ‘beat’ touched the borders of three states: South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. It would typically take him three or four months to complete his annual patrol.