IN MEMORY OF

Photo by Sheila Hutchinson.

Thank you Sheila Hutchinson.

Police salute fallen officers
BRAD WORRALL

26/09/2008 12:00:00 AM

BAGPIPES and blessings yesterday preceded a moving tribute to Benalla police officers killed on duty.

Family, friends and colleagues unveiled a series of memorials in front of the police station remembering

six officers who had been either killed or murdered in the district dating back to 1867.

Among the fallen were officers killed in the Kelly gang ambush at Stringybark Creek, a constable who died
after a horse fall in the late 1800s and more recently Sen-Constable Simon De Winne who died after his police
car hit a tree on the Midlands Highway, near Benalla, almost 10 years ago.

Benalla Sgt Darren Wittingslow said the Police Memorial Gardens had been a work in progress for the past two
years and largely inspired by the death of Sen-Constable Rennie Page in 2005.

He was killed after being hit by a car while talking to another motorist on the side of the Hume Freeway.

Victorian Police Minister Bob Cameron officially opened the gardens.

“I think the community understands that some people have dangerous jobs,” he said.

“And they recognise that police find themselves in difficult and dangerous situations, people understand that
and I think with Blue Ribbon Day coming up and the growth we have seen in that commemoration in recent
years that more and more people are getting the message.

“Now when you come to the station you are hit with this garden, it’s a reminder of what the officers in Benalla
do and have done for their local community.”

Mr Cameron praised what was a joint community effort.

“There is nothing more special than when people work together like this project here,” he said.

Victoria Police assistant commissioner Bob Hastings said 28 officers had lost their lives while on duty in the
North East — the earliest in 1856 and most recent Wangaratta Sen-Constable Ann Brimblecombe in 2006.

“But on Monday we recognise 150 police that have been killed or murdered in their duty over the history of
the organisation, more than 150 years,” he said.