by Melanie Gates
Broken Hill’s shiny new police station has been officially opened with bagpipes played at the event on Friday as a large group of senior officers and politicians arrived.
Morgan Street Public School students sang Advance Australia Fair and My Country before Year 10 Willyama High School student, India Clarke, delivered the Welcome to Country.
Newly appointed Police District Commander, David Cooper, officially welcomed all the visitors.
The opening ceremony took place in the Assistant Commissioner Joseph Hubert Buck QPM Conference Room – a large space displaying a quirky John Dynon painting of emu police.
Mr Cooper explained the room’s namesake – Joseph Hubert Buck (aka Jo Buck) joined the NSW police academy in 1929, and after a long and celebrated career – including 12 years stationed in the far west – he was appointed Assistant Commissioner on December 21, 1964. He retired from the force in 1976. Mr Cooper thanked the Buck family for being in attendance.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said, “this is an amazing facility. A police station in any community is not just a police station where officers and support staff come to work, it is actually part of a community.
“It was very apparent you were in dire need of a new police station. It’s the best facility I’ve seen in a long time. This is going to set the benchmark and I can feel the spring in everyone’s step. It makes a difference to the morale of officers here.”
Minister Toole quoted an officer who suggested, “it’s going to be like going from a Mini Minor to a Ferrari”.
“We’re making sure we can fill these positions and have staff working out of this facility – like other regional communities, when we’re out in the bush, the police aren’t just men and women in blue protecting our community, they’re actually a part of our community,” said the Minister.
