The Story of Ayaiga

This photograph tells the story of an Aboriginal prisoner, who, in a remarkable act of bravery, rescued the policeman who had arrested him and was awarded one of the Commonwealth’s highest honours.

These events took place in the Roper River region of the Northern Territory, on the traditional lands of the Alawa, Marra and Ngalakan peoples 600 kilometres south of Darwin. Pastoralists began driving cattle onto their land in the early 1870s and set up the area’s first cattle stations. A tiny township was established at Roper Bar with a small police station.

Born in South Australia in 1885, William Francis Johns, known to many as ‘Mulga Bill’, became a policeman at the age of 21. He was transferred to the Northern Territory three years later, policing the Roper River region at a time when frontier violence between Aboriginal people and pastoralists was frequent.

At the height of the wet season in February 1911, some thefts from a hut on Hodgson Downs Station were reported to Constable Johns and he set out to investigate. He arrested four Aboriginal men including Ayaiga, who was also known as ‘Neighbour’. With the prisoners in neck chains they began the 32-kilometre trek back to Roper Bar. 

Constable Johns and the prisoners arrived at a tributary of the swollen Roper River near the police station. The prisoners crossed first. When Constable Johns crossed across after them, his horse stumbled in the current, kicking him in the face. Risking his own life, Ayaiga plunged into the river after the drowning constable, bringing him to safety.

News of Ayaiga’s courage spread. In 1912, King George V awarded him the Albert Medal, the British Empire’s highest award for saving life. It was presented to him at Government House in Darwin. Only 27 Australians ever received the medal and Ayaiga remains the only Indigenous recipient.

Constable Johns’ grandson Greg Johns is a renowned Australian sculptor. In 2010, Greg Johns created a sculpture that he called Monument to Mulga Bill and Neighbour which depicts the story of his grandfather’s rescue. Johns donated the sculpture to the Northern Territory Library in 2011.