"The man's a legend," says police sergeant Matt Moloney.

Based at Coen in far north Queensland, Sgt Moloney is sad to see his colleague, Barry Port, retire after 36 years service to Queensland Police and the people of the state's far north.

The Lama Lama elder is the last of Queensland's Aboriginal police trackers and was the only police tracker still working in Australia.

Born on a river bank in 1942, he honed his skills by tracking wandering livestock on the region's large cattle stations, a talent he learned from his father.

"We'd look for cattle and horses and their tracks and which way they were heading," Mr Port said.

"Then we'd have to find them and bring them back to camp."

Mr Port started working with Queensland Police in the 1980s and has combed the harsh terrain of Cape York as part of criminal, traffic crash and missing persons investigations.

"I used to help them out before I started working; I'd help them if they wanted horses.

"I've worked with them for 36 years. Wherever they would go, I'd go with them."

Sergeant Moloney says Mr Port is a well-respected member of the community.

"He can tell when there's something out of place and he's able to draw conclusions out of that," said Sgt Moloney.

"That's where his strength lies, from the power of his observation."

The 71 year old regularly worked alongside search and rescue crews. Listen Duration: 5 minutes 58 seconds 5 m Listen Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Scott Templeton calls Barry Port a 'Cape York legend' ( Charlie McKillop ) Download 2.7 MB

Scott Templeton, State Emergency Service controller for Coen region, also calls Mr Port a 'Cape York legend'.

"I walked alongside that old fella looking for those missing people," said Mr Templeton.

"When we’ve been in the scrub looking for people, for Aboriginal people just in general, they’ve never lost their instincts.

"They’ve got such good instincts of finding things or looking for certain things in the scrub that we’d probably just walk straight past.

"Some of the scrub we’ve got to walk through sometimes looking for a missing person in Cape York is very daunting. You get in and you lose your bearings.

"Something Barry taught me is ‘Scotty, if you get bushed those little sapling plants that grow on the understory, just snap them and point them in direction you’re walking’. Cause he said ‘if you get bushed, I’ll follow you or that broken stick’.

"If I was ever lost and had Barry Port looking for me, I’d be pretty confident I’d be found that’s for sure," said Mr Templeton.

Mr Port says even though he's retiring, he won't be too far away.

"If they need any help, I'll be back here to help them."