3 minute read
Care in a crisis
Editorial: Jesse Wray-McCann
Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann, Australian Defence Force, Sergeant Jason Photis
They worked long shifts to keep the community safe through the bushfire crisis, but it was the off-duty efforts of police that made some of the longest lasting impacts.
Through their simple and significant acts of kindness, police played an important part in the recovery and healing process for people who had lost homes, possessions, farms and livestock.
Constable Ebony Nixon, who is usually based at Boronia Police Station, was originally rostered to be on leave in mid-January but put her hand up to help with the policing effort in fire-affected areas.
She was deployed to Corryong in the state’s north east and was struck by the attitudes and resilience of the community.
“Policing teaches you that there are some incredible people out here, but nothing I’ve seen could ever equate to what I saw up there,” Const Nixon said.
“The people there have strength that I don’t think I could ever have.”
Wanting to give back to the people of Corryong who had so warmly welcomed the police and emergency services, Const Nixon was part of a team of police who organised cricket and basketball matches for the community and emergency services to play together.
The emergency services played basketball against one another at the Corryong Clash.
Const Nixon said the “Corryong Clash” helped strengthen the community spirit and connection with the police and emergency workers.
“It was nice for the locals to be able to forget all that happened for a couple of hours and just have fun with the emergency services,” Const Nixon said.
“We wanted to really connect them with the people who were working there with them.”
The Corryong Clash gave a chance for the community to have fun and mix with emergency services personnel.
Elsewhere in the north east, police helped farmers feed struggling cattle, cooked dinner for volunteers at relief centres and more.
Bairnsdale Highway Patrol’s Sergeant Dwayne Morrison and Leading Senior Constable Veronika Forai spent their spare time in the weeks after the fires delivering animal feed throughout East Gippsland.
Ldg Sen Const Forai said they were pleased to see donated hay and feed making it through to livestock, and they were working behind the scenes to organise and distribute food for wildlife.
“We had a lot of farmers saying they had wildlife that desperately needed a hand, so we tried to do our part in helping them out,” Ldg Sen Const Forai said.
“We were doing mega hours, but it’s one of those things where you just do what you can to get the job done,” Sgt Morrison said.
Sgt Dwayne Morrison (middle) helps deliver animal feed in Buchan.
Sgt Jason Photis and his team of four other officers from the Critical Incident Response Team were relieving local police in Corryong by carrying out divisional van duties in mid-January when they got a report of a cow on the road at nearby Nariel Creek.
“When we got out there, we weren’t prepared for the level of destruction we saw,” Sgt Photis said.
“The farmer said he was really sorry about the loose cow but couldn’t do much because all his fences had gone in the fires.
“He and his parents had also lost their homes, so we said to him that we had nothing else to do when we were off duty up there, so we would come back and help rebuild his fences.”
Over the following three days, the CIRT crew spent several hours before each of their shifts building hundreds of metres of fencing for the farmer.
Members of the Critical Incident Response Team helped rebuild fences at Nariel Creek before starting their shifts.
For a specialist unit more accustomed to providing a tactical response in dangerous incidents, the farmer’s gratitude left a lasting impression.
“We’re usually so task-focused in the work we do that it was totally different for us to create the kind of connection we did with him,” Sgt Photis said.
“To be there for someone who has gone through something so traumatic and show him he is cared for, and to see him so emotionally thankful, it was pretty incredible.”
Sgt Photis said it was one of the most rewarding and proudest moments in his 25 years of policing.
“Really, it wasn’t about rebuilding a fence,” he said.
“It was more that we had helped in a small way to help rebuild his life.”
