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[tab=30][tab=30] ‘We’ve got to get back to Police Headquarters, they know who he is.’ My off sider called out. I almost collapsed with relief.
Twenty detectives gathered at the debriefing session at Police Headquarters to discuss strategies on how to find the bank robber. We parted company. I went with a more experienced detective as my new partner.
We drove to the Gold Coast. Our task to search all hotel and motel car parks to look for a rental car the bank robber was driving. We knew the registration number and type of vehicle, now it was a matter of finding the vehicle and the bank robber.
‘What’ll we do if we see this fellow?’ I asked.
‘Wait until we find him first. Keep looking.’ He said.
All day we searched, I didn’t think there were so many hotel or motel car parks on the Gold Coast. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
‘Why don’t we check if he changed the car?’ I timidly asked.
‘That’s not a bad idea.’ He replied and drove to the nearest rental agency. It was a good idea. The car was at the rental yard and had been exchanged only ten minutes before. We were close to him.
A message blasted over the radio. ‘We’ve got him.’ He was apprehended and arrested at Fingal in New South Wales after shots were fired. This was the work for me. The adrenalin rush was exhilarating.
The role of a detective has many ups and downs. One day everything falls into place, on other days everything falls apart. No two days are alike, except the next day is a new day of intrigue and challenge of not knowing what is about to happen. It’s exciting, life fulfilling, and energy sapping. It’s all about expecting the unexpected, no written scripts, no telling what to expect from one day to the next. The role is one of protecting life threatening ordeals as well as being friend or foe, the best job in the world. It became my life. Nothing else mattered...

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[tab=30][tab=30]Normally the distance from Petrie Terrace to Eagle Junction took about twenty minutes to drive under normal conditions. We arrived outside of the bank exactly eight minutes from the time we received the radio call.
I now believed all the rumours to be true. He was a madman, a lunatic and needed to get to where he wanted to go in the quickest possible time. In the entire ruckus I didn’t pick up my revolver from the Stock Investigation Squad office. Other police at the bank had their guns drawn. I felt naked, I knew the bank robber had a gun and was ready to use it. I had nothing.
People stood in front of the bank and shouted when the police vehicle came to a screeching halt, ‘He’s gone up the road. He went into one of those houses.’ Someone pointed to houses down the street near the bank. My off sider was in his glory. He took control and shouted instructions to other police to follow us to the houses. It was utter chaos.
A feeling of excitement and fear came over me at once. This was my first day on a new job and to get caught up in a bank robbery sent shivers through my body. We searched each house. Each occupant gladly told us they hadn’t seen him. The search continued. The next house was empty.
‘Here quick, I’ll leg you up to the window and you go inside and see if anyone is in there.’ He said and grabbed my leg to push me through the open window.
‘Why me?’ I wanted to know.
‘See if he’s in there, chase him out and we’ll cover you’ at the same time he lifted my leg to help me.
‘What if the bank robber shot me while I was trying to get inside of the house,’ was my final words as I climbed inside. I was scared, my heart pounded, the palms of my hands sweaty as I creped through the empty house. Each floorboard creaked and the noise ricocheted around the empty room. I didn’t know if the bank robber was about to jump out from around the corner. No one was there thanked goodness...

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[tab=30]A position of Constable at Birdsville Police Station appeared in the Queensland Police Gazette. One of my other ambitions was to be in a town where I earned a larger wage than the Commissioner of Police. Birdsville was the place.
This opportunity only came up once in a blue moon for when a police officer was stationed at Birdsville, they tended to remain there for some time. I mentioned the idea of the transfer to the ‘Boss’ of the State Stock Squad. He was most agreeable and helped me with the transfer application.
Why did I want to go to the most isolated town in the State? There was a reason I was not destined to leave the Criminal Investigation Branch. A force larger than life itself protected me against myself to keep me on the right track I was to follow. After three months I was sent to the Robbery Unit. I didn’t receive the transfer to Birdsville.
I didn’t know my workmate personally but I’d heard many rumours if his reputation were anything to be believed. We were in the process of moving my possessions from the Stock Investigation Squad office to Selby House when a message broadcasted over the radio an armed hold-up was in progress at the Bank of New South Wales Eagle Junction.
‘Tell them we’re on our way, we’ll be there in eight minutes. Time me.’ He powered the police vehicle in the direction of the armed hold-up and placed the blue light on the roof at the same time activated the siren. The blue light revolved to signal it was an emergency. I thought I was in a television cop show but this was real. I hung onto the door handle with a vice like grip, while he drove.
He swerved in and out of traffic, blasted the horn, and at the same time called out, ‘Get out of the way, I’m in a hurry.’ The police vehicle was a Ford Falcon panelvan; it fishtailed from one side of the road to the other...

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[tab=30][tab=30][tab=30]Again, I don’t know if it was luck or a stroke of fate for when I started my first shift, I worked with a detective whom I worked with in the Licensing Branch when I first entered the force.
‘Let’s go for a drive?’ He said. ‘You drive.’ He threw me the keys.
Our first investigation was the alleged theft of a roll of carpet valued at $20,000.00. I never expected to work on a huge investigation immediately. We drove along Ipswich Road to Moorooka my mind filled with theories of how the carpet was stolen. I parked the police car near the entrance to a large warehouse. We walked inside. Along one wall, half the length of Lang Park, rolls and rolls of carpet sat on top of one another. Each roll valued at $20,000.00. What would the carpet in this warehouse be worth, raced through my mind, millions of dollars?
‘Sam’s the name. I’m the manager here.’ We shook hands and introduced ourselves. He showed us the manifests of each carpet roll entering or leaving the warehouse. One roll on the list was missing.
After two days of tracking each carpet roll from an overseas shipment container to the warehouse, the same order had been entered twice into the manifest book. ‘Why isn’t it a mistake?’ I asked my partner. I was intrigued.
‘We’ve been taken for a ride.’ He said, ‘If you hadn’t found the ‘mistake’, it would probably never have been found and the company would’ve claimed insurance for the loss of the carpet roll.’
Amazed by what he said, ‘Do people do that?’ I said.
‘Yes. They do.’ I was astonished people would do such a thing. Was I naïve?
Time went quickly and without notice I was transferred to the Stock Investigation Squad as a Stock Squad Investigator. The role took me to all parts of the south-east Queensland in search of stolen horses, cattle or any animals reported. Life was different to living out of swag and not in your own bed at night...

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[tab=30][tab=30]I was terrified something may happen to her. I don’t think I was paranoid more likely concerned.
From an early stage I climbed my own personal mountain to discover anything is possible if you stuck with it. To follow my childhood dream was a long journey, yet there was so much more to learn. It was one step at a time. I had to learn to crawl before I walked. When I looked upwards for the first time, I saw how far I had to climb to work toward and reach the top of where I wanted to be in my life. It was a scary moment. Each day there was something new to learn particularly when I didn’t know what was around the corner.
Each step taken on the ladder of success was tougher than the one before but with each step strengthened my inner ability and desire to know what I wanted to be a competent investigator.
I can’t explain why this event took place when it did but it happened like this: Snow who rented the fuel depot from us came over to speak with me about wanting to buy our property. How did he know I wanted to sell it? I didn’t tell anyone. He’d sold his home in Stanthorpe and paid me the amount he obtained for the sale of his home. We sold it for $16,000.00 making a profit of $10,000.00 in one year. I was ecstatic, exhilarated, all at one time our debt was cleared and we had money in the bank.
Six weeks later I attended an Investigator’s Course at the Police College began the first infant steps as a trainee detective to work in Brisbane. It was a dream fulfilled to reach this first milestone. The move from Stanthorpe to Brisbane, we didn’t plan but I knew for me to be a competent investigator I needed to work in Brisbane to gain experience. In those times for a police officer to achieve the designation of a detective they needed to train in Brisbane with other detectives in different squads.
Selby House in Petrie Terrace; Brisbane housed the Criminal Investigation Branch...

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[tab=30] The local doctor and I were called to a home late at night where the parents of the eight-month-old child visited friends. After feeding the baby she left the baby asleep in a bassinette. When they were about to leave the baby was lifeless. This was my first investigation of a ‘cot death’. I felt so sorry for the parents of this child and was helpless to do anything to help them.
One of the minor things I noticed when the doctor performed the post-mortem operation was one of the infant’s lungs had a slight amount of fluid in it. The doctor commented how unusual this was. Another small thing I noticed was the bassinette in which the baby was asleep was lined with rayon. I didn’t think any more about it.
On a Sunday morning, some months later, I was on duty and called to a home. A seven-day old infant was found in his bassinette dead. The infant was the stronger of a twin. The mother fed and placed each one in their bassinette to sleep. She noticed after some time one of the infants wasn’t breathing. The lining of the bassinette was rayon.
Again, at the post-mortem, the same doctor who did the post-mortem on this infant had performed the post-mortem on the other infant and again the only conclusion each of us came to was an amount of fluid in one lung of the infant. The only other similarity was each bassinette was lined with rayon. Both the doctor and my conclusion were the rayon became hot in the bassinette thus producing sufficient heat for a small infant to suffocate. Specimens were taken to the Health Department for forensic examination and returned with negative results.
After Kaylene was born and bought home from hospital I wouldn’t allow Olga to use a bassinette. Kaylene slept on my right arm and if she moved, I knew immediately. This went on until I was satisfied, she could safely sleep in a cot...

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[tab=30][tab=30]‘Do you know how to work it?’ He wanted to know.
‘Yes, I can make it sing if you like.’ I told him. Each day after I completed my duty as a police officer I went to the workshop and John had sufficient work for me to keep me busy. The extra work saved our bacon and we lived well on two wages. At one time he wanted me to resign from the police and work full time for him but I declined.
Over the next couple of years, I successfully completed my initial training as a general duty police officer; and now it was an opportunity to put the training into place. Like, the many times I arrested people for ‘being drunk in a public place’. There was no harder arrest than to arrest a drunken person, particularly a woman when they vomited over you; called you all of the names under the sun and fight; you needed to be Mike Tyson to defend yourself.
This was a time in my career when I investigated fatal road accidents. The New England Highway bypassed the town of Stanthorpe and became a raceway. I’m unsure whether the distance from Brisbane to Stanthorpe was too far without a break but there were many fatal road accidents to prove drivers were either careless or tired.
In the first year of my service at Stanthorpe twenty-seven people died on the highway. There had to be an answer to negate these deaths. The only way police could combat the carnage was to constantly patrol the highway for the drivers to see the police vehicle. Sighting the police car became a deterrent.
My police work never suffered while I worked for John but what concerned me were two baby deaths I investigated. One baby was eight months old and the other seven days old. It’s now known as SIDS – Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In those times it was known as ‘Cot Deaths’.
Not only was it my duty to investigate the deaths of these infants but at the time Olga was pregnant with our first child Kaylene. I dreaded the thought of anything happening to either...