Former Policeman Wes Leseberg played Sergeant Parry in the the 2016 film The Legend of Ben Hall, written and directed by Matthew Holmes.

Each year, on the 29th September Police throughout Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Solomon Islands commemorate Police Remembrance Day. It is a day for police to pause to honour officers whose lives have been cut short while performing their duty as a police officer.This important day is also a time to remember police officers who have lost their lives through illness or other circumstances.

The thin blue line exists to keep order and control in our communities and to make us feel safe when we need them most. They often have to operate under difficult budgetary constraints and they miss vital time with their families toward the necessary shifts to do their job and carry out their duties.

Covid compliance is another issue which has taken our local police away from their regular duties. There’s plenty of other things including rural crime that our coppers could be focussing on. With the cost of sheep and cattle going through the roof and shortages in farm equipment such as the simple 4 wheel motorbike, our police have a lot of work to do. They have to keep their eyes open and their wits about them. They never know what they we will have to deal with. In the end they want to return home to their families, just like the rest of us.

Our police have emotions, physical injuries they carry on the job and they get tired too. Many police have to attend horrific car accidents or crimes which take a mental toll on them, something which can stay with them for life. They are human just like us.

 

Today we focus on a historical story about Sergeant Parry. The United States glorifies their gunslingers and in Australia, to a lesser extent our bushrangers. The bushrangers often came into contact with our thin blue line when a fast horse could get you out of trouble and was prized among many other possessions.

Our story takes us back to November 1864 the attached link makes for very interesting reading. The deadly combination of Johnny Gilbert, Ben Hall and John Dunn held up a mail coach between Gundagai and Jugiong and in the ensuing melee shot and killed the 32 year-old Edmund Parry. When the bushrangers tried to hold up the mail coach both Parry and Inspector O`Neil, who were riding as armed escorts, returned fire. Parry was killed. O`Neil survived because he ran out of bullets and had to surrender. Johnny Gilbert was killed by police in 1865 and is buried at Binalong. A monument for Sergeant Parry as well as a steel sculpture are situated on Riverside Drive in the park next to the local pool.

Edmund Parry’s Obituary is linked here

https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/parry-edmund-13623