The recent appointment of a new Police sergeant and another general duties officer to the Cobar Police Station means the sta-tion is once again fully staffed with seven officers.
Sergeant Warwick Laing and Constable Dai-sy Arthur both moved to Cobar last month to take up the two vacant positions.
In his policing career, Sergeant Laing has spent the past seven years at Inverell and prior to that he was stationed at Newcastle, Walgett, Goodooga and Maroubra police stations.
He said he found working in the country very different to working the city.
“Out here everyone knows who you are and everyone knows who everyone is, which is a bit different to Sydney and Newcastle where you don’t know anyone and they don’t know you,” Sergeant Laing said.
For Constable Arthur, Cobar is her second police posting.
She’s worked for the past two and a half years at Inverell and prior to that she’d trav-elled for seven years before deciding to join the NSW Police Force.
The couple met “on the job” at Inverell and recently transferred to Cobar together.
Constable Arthur said they had been looking for a change and had been considering a move to the western area for some time.
“We’d heard a lot of good things about Co-bar from other officers,” she said.
When they were looking at transfers, they found the Sergeant’s position at Cobar was advertised.
“That was the first one I put in for and here we are!” Sergeant Laing said.
While the move to Cobar will mean they both will be at work more and will have less time off, Sergeant Laing said there are howev-er a number of benefits involved in moving to a remote location, including getting a police house.
“Compared to where we have been before there are less problems here than a lot of other places,” which Sergeant Laing said was an another advantage in their move.
The pair admit they don’t really have a lot of personal interests outside their jobs.
“At the moment we’re just fitting in and relaxing,” Sergeant Laing said.
“Daisy used to play touch footy and a few of the blokes here are trying to get me to play golf.
“I haven’t played golf for a long time,” he said.
“We are still pretty much getting to know our way around and getting to know every-one,” Constable Arthur said.
The Sergeant’s posting is for four years and the couple said they don’t really have any plans beyond the next four years.
So far both say the move to Cobar to has been a good one.
“We’ve found it a lot friendlier here than most places,” Sergeant Laing said.
