They say that 95% of New South Welshmen have never been west of the Blue Mountains. In fact, a lot of people think that the Blue Mountains are “the west”. We were those people.
In July 2007 my husband transferred to a two-man police station in Ivanhoe – a tiny town in what the locals call the back country – and we discovered what makes country policing so special. Ivanhoe consisted of a central school, general store, cafe, swimming pool, pub and RSL club, a hospital staffed by nurses (doctors arrived via the Royal Flying Doctor Service) and a couple of dozen houses.
After the two-and-a-half-year tenure, we returned to our home on the mid north coast but three years later, the allure of the bush – with its searing temperatures, snakes and red dust storms was tempting us to “go west” one more time. If we thought that Ivanhoe was tiny, Enngonia was minuscule – consisting of a primary school, community hall, fire station, a dozen houses and the mandatory pub.
While my intention has been to encourage police to seriously consider special remote locations (police talk for working in the bush) I’ve also wanted to give their wives and girlfriends an idea of what would be in store for them. So this blog chronicles our experiences of life in outback NSW. It’s not so much about policing but life in general. Each post is based on an email sent to family and friends and while I’ve changed the names of the town’s people, the events and experiences are basically as they happened and range from stories about travel to dust storms to difficulties with banking and courier mail and everything in between. I hope you find them entertaining and even a bit educational.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, I’ve had to update this Welcome page because apparently we’re the kind of people, who can’t stay in any one place longer than 3 years so here we are in Copper City where we’re getting re-acquainted with flies, red dust and cats’ heads!! Let the challenges continue!
Married to a Country Cop 