From the relative comfort of Camooweal Police Station a young Constable Graham Robson with Sergeant Ray Brand were sent on a salvage mission to rescue bogged cattle station master Dennis Lindsay Brown from drenched Thorntonia Station, 100km north east of Camooweal, Queensland. The policemen set off at 6am, 19 February 1976, eventually locating the hungry and tired Mr Brown.
Camooweal Police Station post 1972.
Image No. PM2756a from the collection of the Queensland Police Museum and courtesy of Sgt 1/c Mervyn Tobin.
After a feed and a few cans of beer the men got busy attempting to free the stricken vehicle from the mud. All attempts failed, and resulted in the untimely bogging of the police vehicle, a catastrophe in such a wet, isolated location. Constable Robson, the younger and fitter of the two policemen, sensibly suggested he be the one to walk to the nearest location with men and resources necessary to free both vehicles. The nearest location was Gregory Downs Station, 80 kilometres due north.
Constable Graham Robson attending an Advanced Training Course, October 1973, is seated at the extreme right of the image.
Image No. PM3571 Courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Dressed in shorts, shirt, thongs and hat, the young Constable set off at midnight carrying a waterbag. At that hour the temperature was cool, and flies minimal. The dark muddy country however harboured swarms of mosquitoes, and an occasional downpour played havoc with his bearings, but keeping the star constellation the Southern Cross behind him helped keep him on course.
Sir John Kerr presenting Constable Graham Robson with the Royal Humane Society’s 1976 Stanhope Gold Medal, November 1977.
Image from The Canberra Times courtesy of TROVE.
Deep bogs teaming with blood sucking leaches caught Constable Robson by surprise, “but swimming the river was the worst thing. Believe it or not, it’s called Police Creek. Normally it’s just a dry bed, but this time it was about 150 yards wide and flowing really fast”. In February crocodiles swim up river and the threat of being snapped up was very real, as were snakes sharing the river crossing and a near miss with a King Brown. By mid-morning the police officer had located the road, and a very surprised grader driver when Graham approached wearing just his slouch hat “I’d suffered so bad from chaffing that I’d taken everything off”!
Constable Robson’s medals: shown at left is the Royal Humane Society Silver Medal for Bravery, and at right the Stanhope Gold Medal.
The Stanhope Gold Medal is the Royal Humane Society of Australasia’s most prestigious award, and is presented annually to an existing medal recipient.
Image Courtesy of Graham and Tess Robson.
The persistent Constable had walked to within 8 kilometres of Gregory Downs Station. With the help of fresh men Graham returned to the two stranded vehicles and two wet and famished men, released the cars from the mud and drove back to Camooweal arriving at 1am on 21 February.
Constable Robson was awarded a silver Royal Humane Society of London bravery award, and later earned the society’s Stanhope Gold Medal for his mammoth effort trekking through flooded terrain surrounded by the constant threat of hungry insects, wild animals and reptiles. Graham Robson rose to the rank of Sergeant 2/c and retired in 1991.
__________________
This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing. The article was written by Police Museum Assistant Georgia Grier.
The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – 1976 Stanhope Gold Medal recipient Constable Graham Robson” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode