AFTER five years of triumphs, unthinkable tragedies and coordinating unprecedented border closures, Western Region Mallee Superintendent Rebecca Olsen has handed over the baton.
However Supt Olsen said the role was in the very good hands of long-time colleague Superintendent John O’Connor who she met during her first posting in St Kilda more than 30 years ago.
“I’m always sad about leaving all the positions I’ve been in,” Supt Olsen said.
“But I’m really blessed, it’s been lovely to hand a job over to an incoming superintendent that loves and is committed to the Mallee and who is living here with family for the longer term – that’s what you like to see.”
“It’s nice to have fresh eyes, divisional roles are quite exhausting roles, they’re probably the hardest of the roles for a superintendent.
“But it was a good time for my family and a good time for (Supt O’Connor’s) family to change roles.”
Supt Olsen said in the last few years her job felt like a “gift” after a breast cancer diagnosis lead to a year off in late 2018.
“I’d been unwell for 12 months and I actually never thought I’d be able to come back to work and do this job again. So that was a gift.”
Across her years in the position, which covers Mildura, Swan Hill, Kerang and surrounding areas, she said there had been many challenges.
More recently that included the closure of the Victorian and NSW borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which she says looking back was an “incredible achievement”.
“Closing down both borders was a massive role, that in itself was a huge achievement for me personally, it was a difficult time but at the same time absolutely unprecedented.
“You don’t think much about it at the time, but I think that’s how you keep going day after day.”
The past 18 months drove home the huge sacrifice made by police members, with the tragic death of Mildura Senior Constable Bria Joyce while on duty in April, and two other members throughout that period.
“During the last 18 months we’ve lost three of our members, two to terrible road fatalities with a member at Sea Lake run over while off-duty and we also lost one of the members from our cluster to a sad cancer diagnosis.
“So we had a quick succession of tragic losses for our team which always have an impact for the longer term.”
However Supt Olsen said the community had been incredibly supportive not only throughout the tough times, but in all aspects of day-to-day policing.
“The communities bring a great joy and they’re really supportive and very pro-police in regional Victoria, particularly in the Mallee area.”
Supt Olsen has stepped into the role previously held by Supt O’Connor and is still based in Mildura, in a training, building teams and risk reducing capacity covering six police divisions.
Supt O’Connor said his focus will be on family violence, drug trafficking, impaired driving and neighbourhood policing.
“Drugs don’t discriminate, you can come from a very affluent household or someone who is a blue collar worker and they still become addicted,” he said.
“It’s not just the user, it’s the families of the user, the persons addicted to ice or heroin, it really causes health issues and disrupts families.”
He said it was also a comfort that his predecessor was only four doors down (in the office) and could still offer advice whenever needed.
