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COUPLE’S CLOSE CALL
To watch a video of the dramatic rescue, view this story online at issuu.com/policelife
“LET’S GO! ANDY, GET HER OUT . . . STROEY, WE’VE GOTTA GO! RIGHT NOW!” The black smoke is suffocating, the radiant heat is overwhelming, flames are licking the house and barrels of fuel could explode at any moment. But leading senior constables Ray Moreland and Andy Trace will stop at nothing to save an elderly couple from their burning home. The two police officers are only at the humble weatherboard home of Ian and Gwen Strobridge outside Buchan because of the local knowledge Ldg Sen Const Moreland has of his small East Gippsland town and its community.
“I’ve got to be firm but fair, and it’s a delicate balance,” he said. But policing in Buchan is another kind of unique, with the seasons taking turns to threaten the town with fires and floods. Last year, winter was barely over when Ldg Sen Const Moreland and the community started worrying about fires.
It’s knowledge he has honed over the 18 years he has proudly served as the lone police officer at Buchan Police Station.
Three years of dry weather had primed the bush for a bad fire season and as the hotter weather of December began to take hold, the town started its anxious wait.
Having joined Victoria Police in 1985, Ldg Sen Const Moreland worked in Melbourne's CBD, Oakleigh and Narre Warren before arriving in Buchan in 2002.
The fire danger spiked on 30 December with strong winds and temperatures that soared past 40 degrees.
checking people were safe and prepared while also monitoring several fires that were starting to surround the town. A Country Fire Authority (CFA) strike team was in Buchan and had strict orders to only protect the town itself and the many evacuees who had gathered on the town’s football oval. At 11.30am, the two officers went to the local pub to check on its publican and other residents. One of Ldg Sen Const Moreland’s mates, Mick Roberts, was there after coming in briefly from his home just a few kilometres to the north. “I said to Mick, ‘How’s your fire plan?’” Ldg Sen Const Moreland said. “But he was always the same with those kinds of things - ‘I’ll be right mate, no worries’.” It would tragically be the last time Ldg Sen Const Moreland would see his friend.
“I was the city copper coming to Buchan in the bush,” Ldg Sen Const Moreland said.
Police commanders in the region assigned Knox Highway Patrol’s Ldg Sen Const Andy Trace to help Ldg Sen Const Moreland on the day.
“When I started here, I had never been to the bush before, never started a chainsaw and had never driven a four-wheel-drive.”
Both men have been police officers for more than 30 years and have served during various bushfires.
But Ldg Sen Const Moreland and his wife Linny fell in love with the town, its 200 residents and a new outdoors lifestyle.
The officers left the pub to keep track of the fires, which had blocked road access from the south and cut off the town’s power.
Making an instant connection, they worked together brilliantly.
At 7pm, the pair drove to a vantage point overlooking a valley to the town’s north.
Ldg Sen Const Moreland said serving at a 8
single-officer station in a small town requires a unique kind of policing.
POLICE LIFE | AUTUMN 2020
Beginning their shift at 7am, they were driving to all directions of the compass around Buchan,
Mr Roberts’ body was found the next day inside his burnt-out home.
