Working in regional Victoria allows Amy to continually develop new skills specific to the country region, such as conducting searches in the bush, and working with rural emergency services.
Video transcript
With Victoria Police we're so lucky, there is something to learn every single day. I've been in the job five years, and I still have so much to learn, but I'm looking forward to doing it for hopefully the next 40 years of my career.
My name is Amy Starzer and I'm a Senior Constable of Victoria Police, and I work at Mansfield Police Station. I joined in 2019, that's when I started in the Academy in February. From there I went to Footscray. After that, I was moved to Craigieburn, I was at Craigieburn for a year and a half. After Craigieburn I went to Gisborne, so I decided to go country. I was there for two years and then decided to move up to Mansfield in July last year. Altogether it's been five years.
I have always loved this area and the opportunity came up, and I thought, ‘Why not?’ I've got nothing to lose, everything to gain. Each station I've been to, I've been able to grow and develop, so as you move on through your career and as you progress, you will always be learning, you'll always be developing.
The skills we need to have out here, they've really broad and they're really vast. It's High Country so we do a lot of searches, people get lost in the bush. You work really closely with other emergency services and other organisations, and you have to have a certain skill type to be able to do that. So we're really lucky, we get put through a lot of different courses, four-wheel driving, Alpine courses, navigation courses, and not only have skills for work, but skills for life too.
Policing out in rural Victoria is just such a unique experience and opportunity, and you really feel that sense of community, and we become part of the community. It's a really close tight knit community, so seeing friendly faces down the street, people you get to know on the job. We all need to work together to achieve a goal, and you really have that sense that you've actually helped someone, and they’ve appreciated what you've done, and you can walk by and say, ‘What I did today really made a difference in someone’s life.’ And feel that sense of achievement that we all want to feel.
Here at Mansfield there's only a handful of us, so we need to be able to work together and work closely. We do a really good job of it, we have each other's backs. We go to jobs and see things that a lot of people wouldn't say in their entire lifetime. Every day is different, which is why a lot of us are in this job because we want variety, we want something different, we want challenge, so to do that with a really great group of people here is really special and I just love working here at Mansfield Police Station, it’s awesome.
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