On patrol: Senior constables Ethan Hamill (son) and Ian Hamill (father).
Photo by
Gregor Mactaggart
It’s not every day you meet two senior constables who are also father and son working out of Echuca Police Station.
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Senior Constable Ian Hamill has spent 43 years with Victoria Police, serving the communities where he lived and worked.
“My best memory of my time in the police force: I was part of a search and rescue team who had to find a missing 13-year-old autistic boy in Eildon. After five days, we found him,” Ian said.
“His parents were terrified. They thought he may have drowned in Lake Eildon, and we’ll never know what happened to him because he’s autistic.”
Ian’s son Ethan has spent 10 years in the police force, first working in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs.
“Working in Melbourne’s Oakleigh, which had a population of about 80,000 people with the council area,” Ethan said.
“Many of them come from overseas, so there’s cultural and language barriers to overcome.
“In regional policing, many officers know people on a first-name basis, where police officers play footy with the residents.”
Ethan reflected on a notable case during his time in the police force.
“It’s not exactly the most exciting career highlight, but I’m proud of the effort I put in to a burglary investigation while at Monash CIU (crime investigation unit),” he said.
“A poor music teacher had extremely rare and valuable antique instruments stolen, worth $100,000-plus, and I was able to solve it, recover every item intact and return them all to her.
“It’s a nice feeling when you can solve a crime and ensure your victims and their property are looked after and returned.”
Father and son reminisced about when Ian was posted to Alexandra in 1991.
“Every night, my three sons, Jon, Ethan and Jedd, would sit at the dinner table and were able to listen to what I had done during my shift that day in Alexandra,” Ian said.
Ethan said those memories as a youngster remained vivid and inspired him to follow in his dad’s footsteps.
“I guess it was growing up. It was something that I saw, and being extremely proud of what my father did for a living,” he said.
Ready to serve: Senior Constable Ian Hamill and Senior Constable Ethan Hamill.
Photo by
Michael Lloyd
“And when the opportunity to apply in my early 20s came up, I joined (so) I could give back to the community.”
Jedd is also a police officer, in the south-west Victorian town of Portland, while Jon served with the Australian Army.
“My son Jon, was in 1 RAR (Royal Australian Regiment) as an infantry soldier between 2010 and 2018,” Ian said.
“But fortunately, was never deployed overseas. While he was in the Army, he did a lot of training exercises in land and sea warfare.”
Ian said he had seen many changes in the decades since he joined Victoria Police as a teenager.
“I joined the police force as a cadet, and I was 17 years old at the time. And then, after 12 months, I went into the academy in 1981 to become a police officer,” he said.
“I think back in 1981 when I went through the academy where my group was the last all-male squad, and slowly but surely, more and more women have become police officers.”
Ian also offered advice for those thinking about a career with Victoria Police.
“It’s a fantastic job. You’re mostly out in the fresh air and not stuck behind a desk. You’re out there serving the community. And that’s the best part of the job,” he said.
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