Tommy Windich

Who was Tommy Windich?

Tommy Windich was an Indigenous Australian member of a number of exploring expeditions in Western Australia in the 1860s and 1870s.

Tommy Windich was born around 1840 near Mount Stirling in Western Australia. Little is known of his youth, but his skills in tracking and knowledge of a number of Aboriginal languages suggest a traditional upbringing, whereas his skills in horseriding and marksmanship indicate extensive contact with colonial culture.

By the early 1860s, Windich was working as a "native assistant" in the police force at York, where his main tasks were to assist in the tracking of escaped convicts, Aborigines who were wanted by the authorities, and escaped horses. In 1865 he tracked and helped to recapture a prison escapee named Joseph Johns, who would later become the notorious bushranger Moondyne Joe. Early in 1866 he helped to capture three Aborigines who had murdered a pastoralist, one of whom fought against his arrest, spearing Windich in the arm. This expedition appears to have made Windich's name as a superb tracker and a reliable and useful member of any travelling party, for he was afterwards in constant demand.