4 minute read
History made in Halls Gap
Editorial and photography: Jesse Wray-McCann
Policing in country areas has always been different to policing in the city, but at Halls Gap, surrounded by the Grampians National Park, it is unlike anywhere else in the state.
The mountains that begin at the back door of the Halls Gap Police Station are where its three officers – Sergeant Karen Bain, Leading Senior Constable Kellie Harris and Senior Constable Sarah Bartorelli – can spend a lot of their time.
Responding to calls for help to assist injured, lost or missing people in the 1700-squarekilometre rugged terrain of the Grampians forms a major part of the role.
Ldg Sen Const Kellie Harris, Sgt Karen Bain and Sen Const Sarah Bartorelli are the three police officers responsible for keeping the town of Halls Gap safe, which often includes finding people missing in the Grampians and a focus on road policing.
Ldg Sen Const Harris has been policing in the area for 15 years – eight years at Halls Gap after seven years at nearby Stawell – and is still struck by the size of their patch.
“I was lucky enough to go up in the police helicopter a little while back and when we were above the Grampians, I just looked out at all of it and thought, ‘Far out, we really do cover such a massive area’,” Ldg Sen Const Harris said.
During her time at Halls Gap, a town of 430 people, the number of search and rescues they have coordinated has dramatically increased.
“When I first started, we were getting about 1.2 million visitors to the Grampians each year and now we’re receiving more than 2.4 million,” Ldg Sen Const Harris said.
“Last year we averaged about a rescue per week, whereas when I first started, we were lucky to get about six per year.”
Sgt Bain said they expect their trips into the mountains and bush to continue to rise, with construction almost completed on the Grampians Peaks Trail, which will offer a 160-kilometre, 13-day hike and attract visitors from around the world.
“It’s going to make this place boom when it opens and there’ll be a lot more work for us,” Sgt Bain said.
“The three of us are now starting to walk parts of it, so we are familiar with the trail when we need to rescue people.”
Officers from nearby Stawell, who are called in for many of the search and rescues, will also tread the trail with the Halls Gap trio.
Sgt Bain moved to Halls Gap more than three years ago for a tree change with her partner and children.
After spending her entire career in city policing, she said the change was “the best decision we ever made”.
The family quickly slotted into the community.
But there was one local that wasn’t so friendly with Sgt Bain during one of her shifts early on in Halls Gap.
“There was an injured kangaroo that Kellie and I had to respond to,” Sgt Bain said.
“We had to bag it up to take it away and I went around the front of it thinking, ‘Oh, poor little skippy’.”
As Sgt Bain got close, the distressed kangaroo let off an angry growl.
Sgt Bain jumped back, and Ldg Sen Const Harris told her she was lucky to escape injury and that they should always bag injured animals from behind.
“I nearly learned the hard way in the beginning of my time here that I was a bit of a naïve city girl,” Sgt Bain said.
With the addition of Sen Const Bartorelli to the station just a few months ago, the three officers have been able to ramp up their other big area of focus – road safety.
Increasing visible patrols in the area and conducting more breath tests will allow them to address driving issues, particularly tourists fatigued after long drives from Melbourne.
Another unique factor of the Halls Gap Police Station is that it is one of the very few in the history of Victoria Police to be an all-women station.
Sgt Bain said there were also several singleofficer stations in the region staffed by female officers and more women in leadership positions.
“That wouldn’t have happened a decade or two ago but now it’s possible because there are a lot more women in the job,” she said.
When Sgt Bain started at Victoria Police in 1988, she never would have thought she would be leading an all-women police station.
But she said the Halls Gap team was simply proud to be serving its community.
“We had all been here together for a while and it wasn’t until someone else pointed out that we are an all-women station that I went, ‘Oh yeah, we are too’,” she said.
Sen Const Bartorelli, who has worked at country stations before, said she has really noticed how the local residents see policing as a team effort.
“They are so proactive in keeping their community safe,” Sen Const Bartorelli said.
“They really are like our eyes and ears with the amount of information they pass on.”
Ldg Sen Const Harris said the community had been particularly proactive when people living in Melbourne were banned from travelling to country areas during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“If someone was here that shouldn’t have been here, they were so quick to dob them in,” she said.
“They’ve made our job so much easier and have kept everyone healthy and safe.”
