The Cross Border Travel Direction has subsequently undergone multiple significant revisions. Police officers have been deployed to 21 separate sites, complemented by SA Health and Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel. Inspector Michael Walsh has recently arrived in Mount Gambier to serve as Forward Commander on the Limestone Coast. The District Duty Inspector based at Eastern Adelaide was previously posted to a COVID Compliance role in the Police Operations Centre (POC). “There’d been conversations about beginning to scale down, because demand on the POC
was lightening off. “In mid-June it was beginning to look like the borders would reopen. Then within a week, everything flipped 180 degrees.” On 6 July Victoria reported a record daily increase of 127 new COVID-19 cases. Within days, the ADF, at the invitation of the Commissioner, deployed 60 men and women to the South Australian border, stretching from Berri to Mount Gambier in support of our border operations. “The deployment of the ADF coupled with an increase in the number of checkpoints was beginning to stretch the capacity of the Senior Sergeants here in Mount Gambier,” Inspector Walsh explains. “So I was sent here to coordinate our response on the Limestone Coast. It’s my role to ensure there’s consistency across the entire border. “A lot of the heavy lifting, with respect to our policing response to COVID-19 has been done by Local Service Areas. It’s been very reassuring to come here and to see firsthand what a great job they’ve done.” The Mount Gambier checkpoint, located 15 minutes’ drive from the city,
is a pop-up pavilion of sorts. A modest fire burns day and night between two folding chairs. There is no phone reception or internet signal. By the midway point of an uneventful 12-hour night shift, the temperature has dipped to a chilly 6°. “I’ve been deployed to this site since the very first shift,” says Senior Constable Stephanie Cooper, a general duties member from Mount Gambier. She gestures to the rudimentary shelter overhead. “In the beginning, none of this was here. I really can’t complain. The conditions have improved a great deal.” Inspector Walsh agrees. “In the early days of the Cross Border restrictions, those nine sites were more or less fending for themselves.” “Now we’re offering longer shifts and have transportable offices at each of the 21 sites. They’ve all got lighting, generators and Mobile Desktop Tablets (MDTs). We’re working hard to ensure those sites are comfortable. “We’ve been able to obtain some extra aerials and we’ll be sending those to sites with the greatest need. I’m hopeful that every site will have good coverage in the near future. “Logistically speaking, every site is unique. One
of our bigger challenges is transporting adequate firewood to each of the checkpoints, because it’s getting so cold at night,” says Inspector Walsh. Confronted with the practically impossible task of patrolling countless potential crossing points, SAPOL has also deployed six roving patrols in the Limestone Coast region. “There’s capacity for those roving patrols to swap in and out with static staff. Each roving patrol is supporting a cluster of static sites, doing equipment runs and so on. “We’ve also been able to utilise ADF members as codrivers. They don’t drive the vehicles, but they’re certainly helping us to manage fatigue,” says Inspector Walsh. While it’s doubtless warmer in the car than in the roadside shelters, the roving patrols encounter their share of challenges, driving rural roads in pitch darkness. “There’s a lot of water over roads and mobs of 20 kangaroos around. The driving conditions are quite hazardous.” Inspector Walsh has done his share of country driving. He spent 20 years in the country and served as Officer in Charge at Port Lincoln for eight years. ABOVE: Inspector Michael Walsh, Forward Commander for SAPOL’s border operation on the Limestone Coast.
BELOW: Border Site #41, located outside Hynam on the Wimmera Highway. Photos: Stephanie Johnson
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