48 | T HE B A R O SSA M A G
“We loved it....Aboriginal land
rights were topical then, they
were coming in.”
Dave continued crossing paths
with his mate, John who was now
married to wife, Joan and raising
children, Peter, Kylie and Vicki.
“I was a gasoline cowboy!”
laughs John, describing life
on a police motorbike.
He too was stationed “out bush”
in remote centres including Port
Augusta, Ceduna, Coober Pedy,
Leigh Creek and Burra.
But it was Coober Pedy where
he experienced his closest shave
with death.
“There was a bloke that burnt his
house down and ran around with
a miner’s pick, going to tear the
town a part. The first thing he did
was put it through the windscreen
of a brand new CFS truck and when
we drove up to him, I thought he
had quietened down, he got the
pick and put it through the bonnet
of the 4wd I was driving. Next thing
he was gonna have me so I just
called on the detective to shoot him.
He wasn’t killed, but it was on my
instructions. He would have killed
a CFS volunteer. I’ll be honest,
it wasn’t good. That pick was just
inches from my head.”
Gift and Garden
Home Shop
Crabtree and
Evelyn Stockists
Gift Cards and
Gift Wrap
Family owned
and operated
Locally produced, quality,
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Extensive range of
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Ornamental/Fruit Trees
Both have seen their fair share of
terrifying incidents and heartache,
some of which still play on the
retired policemen’s minds.
“Let’s face it, you had to expect bad
times. Eighty five per cent of our
work is usually with other people’s
problems isn’t it? A lot of them you
can’t solve, you can only keep the
peace,” Dave says.
But they also saw the funny side to
their role, with one “friendly crim”
running back to lend a helping hand
to their pursuing copper after he fell
down a mine shaft, and sprinting
off again. Or that time a couple of
young hoodlums called their local
officer in charge “fatso”
- oops, shouldn’t have done that!
Whilst they’ve witnessed the worst,
they’ve also seen the very best in
humanity and agree being part of
the community was the part
of policing they enjoyed most.
Dave’s life-long passion for football
led him to playing in Whyalla
with the likes of Barrie Robran
and umpiring matches between
indigenous kids on an “oval” of red
dust in full police uniform, as well
as encouraging grassroots footy
wherever he went.
“You had to blow the whistle a few
times because boy they could run.
There was no way I could keep up...