Constable Zachary Rolfe (right) (Image: AAP/Aaron Bunch)

Warning: this story contains offensive language.

In September 1977 Jack Doolan, the Labor member for Victoria River in the Northern Territory Legislative Council (pre-NT self-government), asked executive member for police Paul Everingham if he was:

… Aware that many members of the Northern Territory police, particularly in country areas, habitually refer to people of Aboriginal extraction as ‘coons’? Does he know that Aboriginals consider this word to be particularly offensive, and will he ask the commissioner of police to instruct members of the police force to refrain forthwith from using this derogatory term?

Everingham responded that he wasn’t aware police officers referred to Aboriginal persons as “coons” and that he’d “certainly have never heard of it”.

In November 1977 Doolan presented the following petition from his constituents.

“To the honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly for the Northern Territory.

“The humble petition of the undersigned residents of Palumpa, Port Keats, Kildurk Station, Wave Hill, Dagaragu, Hooker Creek and Victoria River Downs are deeply concerned that some members of the Northern Territory Police Force habitually and constantly refer to Aboriginal Australians as coons or niggers which we resent.

“Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the assembly urge the majority leader and cabinet member for police to request the commissioner for police in the Northern Territory to instruct his officers to desist from using such derogatory terms so that they may give good example to the general public whom they serve and in future refer to us as Aboriginals, and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.”

Roll on five years and in 1982 Doolan reminded the (now self-governing) NT Legislative Assembly that:

Aboriginals in the bush are still commonly referred to as ‘coons’ and ‘niggers’ by policemen in bush stations and bush towns, and probably always will be so referred to unless police are otherwise instructed.

Roll on another 40 years and in March this year, NT Supreme Court Justice John Burns lifted suppression orders on a variety of material — including text messages sent by NT Police Constable Zachary Rolfe — following Rolfe’s acquittal on a charge that he murdered Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker in November 2019.

Rolfe’s texts read in part:

Alice Springs sucks ha ha. The good thing is it’s like the Wild West and f*** all the rules in the job really…but it is a shit hole ….

We have this small team in Alice, IRT, immediate response team. We’re not full time, just get called up from the Gd’s [general duties] for high risk jobs, it’s a sweet gig, just get to do cowboy stuff with no rules.

For the past two weeks NT coroner Judge Elisabeth Armitage has conducted her inquiry into the death of Kumanjayi Walker at Alice Springs.

On Tuesday she handed down her decision in response to a number of objections raised by David Edwardson KC, appearing for Rolfe in the coronial, that included objections to Armitage accepting into evidence text messages sent to and received by Rolfe.

Armitage was satisfied the text messages could be relevant to her inquiry.

On Wednesday, 45 years on from the pleas that fell on deaf ears of Doolan and his constituents, Dr Peggy Dwyer, counsel assisting Armitage, led evidence from Sergeant Anne Jolley, a 16-year veteran of the NT Police Force.

Dwyer asked Jolley if she had ever heard NT police officers refer to Aboriginal people as “niggers”, “coons” or “neanderthals”. Jolley replied that she had not.

Dwyer then put several texts received by, and sent to, Rolfe in 2019 to Jolley, including those released by Burns earlier this year.

Dwyer: “Thank you. 27 April 2019, from a serving police officer to Constable Rolfe… [who] replies, ‘Nah brah, just slightly annoying, ha ha, coons man.’ “

Dwyer put the following July 2019 exchange between Rolfe and (another) sergeant to Jolley.

Dwyer: “And then Constable Rolfe writes back to the sergeant, ‘Yeah, I’m hell keen. It seems he’s getting on board.’ … Sergeant Jolley, this is the sergeant replying to Constable Rolfe, ‘Those bush coons aren’t used to people going after them.’ And Constable Rolfe writes, ‘Yeah, bush cops blow my mind. I’ll tell you about these dudes when I see you.’ “

Part of another exchange between an NT police officer and Rolfe in July 2019 that Dwyer put to Jolley included the following.

Dwyer: On the same day … [T]hat constable text[ed] Constable Rolfe, ‘Yeah been a bit hectic. The cops out here have fucked this town. They have been letting the niggas’ [N-I-G-G-A-S] ‘drink wherever they want ha ha. And then from Constable Rolfe, back to that officer, ‘Bush cops are fucking shit house.’ “

The coronial hearing is continuing. Transcripts, decisions and other material are available here.