Yadaka kills the officers escorting him during his escape

Yadaka kills the officers escorting him during his escape after he is arrested for a crime he says he did not commit. His account makes the killings part of a choice between submission to a system he expects will deny him a trial and fighting to stay alive; the resulting pursuit draws Molly Johnson and her family into danger, even as his meeting with Molly gives her knowledge of her Aboriginal origins.

Arrest and the killings

A telegram read by Sergeant Nate Clintoff reports that a trooper and a Native policeman were found dead north of the Victorian border after moving an Aboriginal prisoner. The message adds that the prisoner had been wounded in the lower back. Nate and Trooper Spencer Leslie connect this report to the wanted man they are pursuing, whose portrait has been made from Frank Edwards’ description.

Later, Spencer arrests Yadaka for the murders of Missus Edwards and her three children, as well as those of Trooper Phillips and Native Policeman Dempsey Buckskin. The arrest reveals to Molly that Yadaka has not told her about the two officers’ deaths. Their brief exchange of looks registers her shock and disappointment before Spencer also orders Molly to accompany him for questioning.

Yadaka’s explanation and colonial danger

The narration explains that Yadaka killed the trooper and policeman because he was being arrested for something he had not done. He had heard that a man in his position would receive no trial; believing the choice was to live or die, he chose to live. The account frames the killings as an act of survival under a violent colonial order, without erasing the deaths or the danger they create.

That context is established earlier when Yadaka tells Molly that his only crime is existing while black. Molly understands that Aboriginal people are blamed, arrested, imprisoned, or driven away, and that white people have unofficial permission to shoot them on sight. His resistance therefore emerges within a system in which ordinary legal protections cannot be assumed. At the same time, the officers’ deaths intensify the pursuit and make his presence at Molly’s home a direct threat to her safety.

Pursuit reaches Molly

The telegram and wanted portrait turn Yadaka’s escape into an active manhunt. Nate considers the route through the mountains and the possibility that the pursuing party will pass the Johnson property. Spencer says Molly will be checked on, but that help from an outpost would take two days to arrive. The authorities’ delayed concern for her welfare sits uneasily beside their readiness to pursue the wanted man through her home.

When Spencer finally confronts Yadaka at Molly’s plateau, the charges extend beyond the officers’ deaths to the Edwards family. Yadaka understands that the trooper’s arrival could end in his death and is wary of provoking a frightened man with a weapon. He rises to draw Spencer’s attention away from Molly, accepting the risk so she can steady herself. His escape has thus become inseparable from his effort to protect the woman who sheltered him, though the arrest also exposes her to questioning and suspicion.

Consequences and narrative significance

Yadaka’s flight has consequences beyond the immediate pursuit. His presence at Molly’s home and his disclosures about her origins become entangled with the authorities’ suspicion that she is harbouring a wanted man. Miss Shirley invokes that suspicion while urging the removal of Molly’s children, and the judge authorizes their removal under a racial classification. The episode links the violence of the chase to the bureaucratic threat against the family: the state’s pursuit of Yadaka helps create the circumstances in which Molly and her children are treated as objects of official control.

The killings remain morally and narratively consequential rather than a simple act of heroism. Yadaka’s decision saves his life in the moment, but it makes him a fugitive and places Molly in the path of the law. He nevertheless regards meeting Molly and giving her knowledge of her Dreaming and origins as meaningful. The plot holds both truths together: his violence is presented as a response to a system that denies him justice, and its effects reverberate through the fragile safety of the family that takes him in.