I was born and bred in Dad and Dave Country at a little place called Nobby, half way between Toowoomba and Warwick, being fortunate to grow up on the farm.
At 15, I agreed with my teachers that there wasn’t much point in being at school and found my first job as a delivery driver and later an appliance salesman at Chandlers in Toowoomba until I could get into the police. This was finally achieved when I was almost 20 and after the initial training and 18 months in Brisbane, I eventually managed to get a posting north and arrived in Cairns. Having a roster clerk with a sense of humour, it was only a couple of weeks before I was ‘sent’ to Aurukun a few hundred miles north and on the west coast of Cape York, where I was greeted as ‘Arra’ upon stepping off the plane.
Remote policing was a little different in 1987, no telephones, no tv, no air conditioning and only a HF radio to contact the outside world, only trouble is, the radio room would only turn the squelchy radio up if they had to contact us!! The community was originally established by missionaries and worked fairly well, until 1986, when MP Russ Hinze offered the town a beer canteen if Comalco could mine the bauxite. The rest is history. On a pension night, the two hour beer canteen period would see about eighteen 18 gallon kegs consumed. Policing was about keeping the peace, and we had our hands full most nights with incidents if occurring now would require a riot squad being sent in, but we managed. At least the barramundi and mud crabs made up for the hardship. I had some eye opening moments during this period, but that’s another story.
1988. After a 15 month long distance relationship, me in the Far North and Louise in Brisbane, we married and Louise moved to Cairns, however, only three months later, we packed up our worldly possessions of almost nothing (but had to include Louise’s piano) into an old DC3 and we were off to Lockhart River, about another 600 miles further north, where we were to spend the next four years. Nowhere near as violent as Aurukun, but huge numbers of crayfish, mudcrabs and coral trout in pristine clear blue water. Fortunately for Louise, phone lines and TV (ABC) had just been connected to make it a little more comfortable. As the ‘bomber base’ for the battle of the Coral Sea, the war memorabilia was everywhere. It was also by contrast to the rest of Cape York, large mountains and rainforests, but still a 12 hour drive to Cairns, thankfully the barge delivered the groceries every two weeks. Four years of amazing experiences, we still look back with fond memories of so many experiences, but that’s another story.
We were lucky to transfer to Canungra in a freezing cold July 1992. Well, freezing after four years on Cape York, we had to buy blankets for a start! The first two girls were now in the family and we were fairly close to extended family and work was fairly cruisy in the hinterland.
In 1997, we agreed to another remote move and off we went again, this time on promotion to Sergeant as the first officer to be based at Horn Island in the Torres Straits, the ‘fighter’ base for the battle of the Coral Sea. We arrived to find a new house and shown the block of arid land which ‘apparently’ would be a police station one day, which arrived five months later. I distinctly recall on the first night with four of us crammed into a tiny motel room on the island, Louise and I looking at each other, ‘what have we done now….’. But, life was Louise taking the girls to school at Thursday Island on the ferry, and me flying around the Torres Strait Islands, some of which were only two kilometres from PNG. I also had the opportunity to attend PNG with Customs and AFP for a cross border meeting which was a cultural eye opener to our nearest international neighbour. I also managed to get a side job as a Customs Coastwatch observer, where we would fly along the International lines including PNG at 500 feet looking for Foreign Fishing vessels and illegal vessels. We actually had boatloads of Chinese arrive on two occasions in my first year, all of whom were transported out of Horn Island. Again there were so many adventures, especially the crayfish, the girls pet sea turtles and life in the Torres Straits for four years, but…..that’s another story.
Early 2000 I transferred back to Cairns and only shortly later, asked to take on the City Beat job, looking after the nightclubs, tourists and itinerants of the City, which included setting up the Beat office beside the lagoon. I also completed some project work and we all enjoyed living in the tropics. In 2005, I was promoted to Senior Sergeant of Edmonton Station on the south side of Cairns, which meant we didn’t need to move house and the girls didn’t have to change schools.
In 2007 I was fortunate to be successful in an AFP secondment to RAMSI, Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands, as an advisor to the Solomon Island Police Force (SIPF). After seven weeks training in Canberra, three nights home, off to Honiara. As it happened, those three nights home were the only ones in eight months. In week two of the deployment, the earthquake and tsunami occurred. I was sent to the SIPF command, basically a small room with a HF radio, pads and pencils, as the liaison/advisor to the RAMSI command for the next ten days where the main response was managed, or more precisely not, simply due to lack of capacity.
Soon after I was given the AFP Coordinator role of Honiara and when the New Zealand Inspector left I was given his role as Coordinator Provincial as well, which meant my portfolio was to manage 100 advisors from 15 countries across the 18 police posts of the Solomon Islands, management of the three helicopters and plane to service the RAMSI mission, advisor to the RSIP Chief Superintendent Honiara, and Forward Commander at all major incidents, including the Prime Minister Vote of No Confidence which the year before led to the riots where Chinatown was destroyed. Fortunately, we managed to quell it from happening again whereby DFAT claimed that we allowed democracy to occur that day! Again so many adventures in the most beautiful country above and below the water, the war history of Henderson and Guadalcanal, golf, scuba diving on war wrecks and so much more, but that’s another story…..
In 2008 I completed my deployment and returned to look after the nine police stations of Cape York and the Torres Strait, one of which was Thursday Island with Les Bulluss in charge. The nearest police station to visit from the Cairns office was an eight hour drive away and a station visit trip would take up to ten days and 3000 km’s travel. Civil unrest in the communities or urgent jobs would involve an hour’s notice to jump on a plane with a quick text message home to say I won’t be home for a couple of days. A very different lifestyle to now, but……
In 2011, I fooled them all and I was promoted from the far north to Broadbeach as Inspector. In the restructure I moved to Support Services and since beginning of 2016 I have been in charge of the Major Events Group and Strategic Planning.
One of my first official community involvements after arriving on the Gold Coast was being told to meet with two blokes named Ray Milton and Jim Hawkins and run the Police Officer of the Year, and here I am.
Married to Louise, father to Tamikah (25), Chantelle (24) and Amelia (15), grandfather to Temperance (5).
Hobbies in warmer climes were spearfishing and fishing, underwater hockey for a while and most anything active, currently balancing between paternal, matrimonial and professional duties with an enjoyable year as President almost complete, the highlight of Rotary thus far are the people I have met. Still plenty of room for more stories….
.JPG)
