October 5, 2022
Serving and former police officers, their families and community members gathered in Murgon last Thursday to mark National Police Remembrance Day.
The non-denominational service was hosted by the Uniting Church in Gore Street.
National Police Remembrance Day, which falls on September 29 each year, salutes the 148 police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty in Queensland since 1864.
It also honours all police officers, retired officers, and staff members from across Australia who have died during the past 12 months.
Some of the Queensland Police officers especially remembered this year included:
- 30 years – Constable Sondra Lena died in 1992 after being struck by a motor vehicle while on traffic duty on the Bruce Highway near Rockhampton.
- 40 years – Senior Constable Robert Moody was killed in a traffic crash near Wullumbilla in 1982.
- 50 years – In 1972, Senior Constable Graham Ball was killed instantly when his police car plunged 60 feet off the road and into a creek bed near Rockhampton.
- 60 years – Constable Douglas Wrembeck, of the Brisbane Traffic Branch, was killed in a hit and run in 1962; and Constable First Class Gregory Olive, of Kelvin Grove Police Station, was shot and killed while investigating a neighbourhood dispute.
- 120 years – Constable George Doyle was killed in 1902, shot by fugitives at Lethbridge Pocket (Upper Warrego).
The annual National Police Remembrance Day service rotates between towns in the South Burnett.
The 2023 service is scheduled to be held in Nanango as part of the town’s 175th anniversary celebrations.
