Jimmy James (dob unknown - 24 December 1945 in

Barmera Barmera is a town in the Riverland region of South Australia. It is on the Sturt Highway A20, 220 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia. It is primarily an agricultural and viticultural town and is l ...

) was an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

who was best known as an

Aboriginal tracker Aboriginal trackers were enlisted by Europeans in the years following British colonisation of Australia, to assist them in exploring the Australian landscape. The excellent tracking skills of these Aboriginal Australians were advantageous to set ...

who helped the police track criminals and lost persons.Death of the aboriginal tracker Jimmy James
''Trove.nla.gov.au'', 3 January 1946 (accessed on 5 September 2019)

Background

During the 1920s, Jimmy James was a police tracker. He then left to live in his resort, Swan Reach. He helped the police in the Monash murder of 1938. He also found a little girl who had been lost for days in the Walkerie district. His last tracking was to find Mr Breeze who got lost in the Renmark surroundings, during which he caught a tuberculosis. He died in the Lady Weigall hospital in Barmera on 24 December 1945. He was buried in the Barmera Cemetery on 25 December 1945. In the words of the Sergeant Ward of Barmera, Jimmy James was a "black man with a white heart".

Family

One of his unofficially adopted daughters, Lilian Disher, married another tracker named Jimmy James in 1947.Jimmy James famed for his tracking feats with the South Australian police over 40 years
''Adelaideaz.com'' (accessed on 5 September 2019)

References

1945 deaths Crime in South Australia 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Australia Infectious disease deaths in South Australia Australian Aboriginal trackers {{Australia-crime-bio-stub