The Tablelands Police Patrol Group is approximately 135,999 square kilometres in size or about sixty percent of the size of Victoria. This area includes the Shires of Mareeba, Tablelands, Etheridge and Croydon which each have a significant amount of council controlled roads.
Constable Norriss and Mr Ed
Mareeba division covers approximately 900km and has a large rural community. On a regular basis officers from this patrol group get a number of calls for service that involve cattle and horses.
Now not every officer that works in rural areas are born in the country, a large amount of our officers are from urban areas and may not know a stallion from a gelding or a mare.
Thankfully one officer does and like any good cowgirl Constable Norriss always carries a halter and lead in her kit bag, because you never know when it could come in handy.
One night shift a few years ago, Constable Norriss was called to attend the Kennedy Highway near Mareeba Airport as there was a horse on the road. I was lucky enough to be her partner that night and being a good cowgirl as well, I also had a lead rope and halter handy. Between the two of us, we coaxed the horse off the road and with our rope and halter were able to catch him safely.
So, we dubbed this gelding Mr Ed and after a few phone calls and some investigative work (we are police after all) we returned Mr Ed to his paddock.
Constable Norriss said she is normally the first person to put her hand up for this type of job.
“I love getting jobs like this. Any sort of wildlife interests me from stick insects to horses,” said Constable Norriss.
“I won’t even let my partners run over toads on the road. Over the years I have been to a heap of jobs that have some interesting creatures.”
Mr Ed’s parents were very happy that we were able to catch him and return him to his paddock.
Unfortunately his name wasn’t Mr Ed but his parents were happy nevertheless.