Eulogy for Inspector Bill Brand - Mark Arneil
Inspector Mark Arneil, current Commander of the Search & Rescue Squad.
On behalf of Victoria Police I would like to acknowledge Inspector William (Bill) John BRAND’s distinguished service to the Victorian community across the 32 years of his policing career and offer my condolences to his family.
I would like to quickly outline his career within Victoria Police, then more importantly, reflect upon his legacy.
Bill commenced his career with Victoria Police in 1955 after serving for five years as a Patrol Officer in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands – dangerous, exciting work that attracted thousands of young Australian men looking for adventure.
1955 also saw the second major unsuccessful search conducted in recent years for a missing person in Victoria’s alpine region. High levels of public interest led to improvements in the State’s search and rescue capability. With Victoria Police determined by government to be the lead agency, the Chief Commissioner of the day, Major General PORTER sought to build capability within his organisation.
He called for the creation of a specialist ‘Commando type’ squad to deploy to this type of incident and sought applications from police members with relevant experience to ‘be trained as bushmen, deep-sea and skin divers, climbers and the like’; someone exactly like Constable Brand.
Bill was one of six successful applicants who became the ‘nucleus’ of the Search & Rescue Squad, and went on to hold the ranks of Sergeant, Senior Sergeant and Inspector at the Squad. Bill served with distinction and in 1978, after his promotion to Inspector, was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for his ‘outstanding police service’.
Mick Miller, the CCP of the day remarked that ‘the award was a rightly deserved acknowledgement and was one that was not bestowed lightly’. Bill’s career spanned significant search and rescue events including Harold Holt, the Westgate Bridge collapse and Ash Wednesday to name but a few.
By the time he retired in 1987, the name Bill Brand had become synonymous with the Search & Rescue Squad. And whilst it may be common for names to be remembered by colleagues of the day, it takes someone special for their name to prevail across generations.
I didn’t work with Bill, having started my involvement with the Search & Rescue Squad in 1989, but I worked with many who did. And let me assure you, you didn’t have to have worked with him to learn of the legend of Bill Brand. It’s probably difficult for most people to understand how in an organisation of 15,000 members, a single name can maintain prominence across the generations of a single work unit. Allow me to give you my perspective on this phenomenon.
The Search & Rescue Squad is somewhat tribal in nature. Their arduous training course is a form of initiation ceremony, and once initiated, members proudly identify with being part of that small, exclusive tribe. Exciting, dangerous and sometimes heart-rending deployments add to the experience, leading to close bonds that often extend beyond the workplace and endure through the years.
Likewise, the history of the squad and its ‘people’ has been passed from one generation to the next through story telling. This is facilitated by the considerable time members spend in one another’s company, and guaranteed by the calibre of the membership. It is further aided by the length of service of many Squad members; in fact there are still two members at the Squad who learnt their craft under Bill Brand.
It is a tough and competitive environment in which to carve out a career, and few make it to the top of their craft; in fact the number of Inspectors to have headed the Squad since 1957 could be counted on your fingers. Those that make it to the top and capitalise upon their time in the ranks, have a chance to make a mark upon the role.
Very few police members get the opportunity to be involved in the inception of an idea and then go on to shape and mould it into a highly successful and enduring entity that, some 31 years after Bill’s retirement, is now acknowledged as the premier Police Search & Rescue Unit in Australasia.
Bill’s contributions to the evolution of the Search & Rescue Squad were recognised post retirement, by the naming of the Squad’s new twin lock recompression chamber in his honour – the most expensive asset ever purchased for the Squad and a symbol of our status as an accredited diver training establishment.
A large part of the Squad’s success has been due to the people it has been able to attract and develop. I am told that Bill was a fine judge of character, a straight shooter: hard but fair. Fiercely protective of his people and Squad, Bill probably ruffled the feathers of some Command members who presumed to know better than him, but doing the right thing at personal cost can earn you unwavering loyalty from those you have supported and also sets a fine leadership example.
Under Bill’s command and over the ensuing years, the Squad has continued to select and develop others of his kind; principled and dedicated leaders; larger than life characters. Restless adventurers, who have climbed some of the world’s highest peaks, skied across the glaciers of Europe, deployed overseas to conflict zones, sailed across vast oceans and dived in Antarctic waters.
Finally, perhaps the most important and enduring legacy of Bill’s, is the positive relationship that exists between the professional rescue cadre of the Squad and skilled volunteers. Perhaps as a result of his time in PNG, Bill understood that you needed to harness all available resources to complete large tasks.
Whether that task was building an airstrip in the highlands of PNG or searching for a missing person in Victoria, you couldn’t go it alone, and expertise wasn’t confined to those who were receiving a wage.
Far from deriding volunteers as ‘well-meaning do gooders’, (a view which still prevails within some organisations), or seeking to discredit them through petty rivalries, Bill embraced the skills, expertise and professionalism of volunteers and sought to harness it in pursuit of positive results.
The strong relationships Bill forged with the volunteers from the Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs Search and Rescue sections – (the ‘Bushies), continues to this day through the Squad’s relationship with Bush Search and Rescue volunteers and extends to various rope rescue units and ski patrols.
I am told that Bill was immensely proud of his legacy and how much the Squad had progressed since 1957. In reflecting upon this, I paraphrase a metaphor from the 12th century:
We are but dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants. Bill Brand was one of those giants.
Thank you.
On behalf of Victoria Police I would like to acknowledge Inspector William (Bill) John BRAND’s distinguished service to the Victorian community across the 32 years of his policing career and offer my condolences to his family.
I would like to quickly outline his career within Victoria Police, then more importantly, reflect upon his legacy.
Bill commenced his career with Victoria Police in 1955 after serving for five years as a Patrol Officer in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands – dangerous, exciting work that attracted thousands of young Australian men looking for adventure.
1955 also saw the second major unsuccessful search conducted in recent years for a missing person in Victoria’s alpine region. High levels of public interest led to improvements in the State’s search and rescue capability. With Victoria Police determined by government to be the lead agency, the Chief Commissioner of the day, Major General PORTER sought to build capability within his organisation.
He called for the creation of a specialist ‘Commando type’ squad to deploy to this type of incident and sought applications from police members with relevant experience to ‘be trained as bushmen, deep-sea and skin divers, climbers and the like’; someone exactly like Constable Brand.
Bill was one of six successful applicants who became the ‘nucleus’ of the Search & Rescue Squad, and went on to hold the ranks of Sergeant, Senior Sergeant and Inspector at the Squad. Bill served with distinction and in 1978, after his promotion to Inspector, was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for his ‘outstanding police service’.
Mick Miller, the CCP of the day remarked that ‘the award was a rightly deserved acknowledgement and was one that was not bestowed lightly’. Bill’s career spanned significant search and rescue events including Harold Holt, the Westgate Bridge collapse and Ash Wednesday to name but a few.
By the time he retired in 1987, the name Bill Brand had become synonymous with the Search & Rescue Squad. And whilst it may be common for names to be remembered by colleagues of the day, it takes someone special for their name to prevail across generations.
I didn’t work with Bill, having started my involvement with the Search & Rescue Squad in 1989, but I worked with many who did. And let me assure you, you didn’t have to have worked with him to learn of the legend of Bill Brand. It’s probably difficult for most people to understand how in an organisation of 15,000 members, a single name can maintain prominence across the generations of a single work unit. Allow me to give you my perspective on this phenomenon.
The Search & Rescue Squad is somewhat tribal in nature. Their arduous training course is a form of initiation ceremony, and once initiated, members proudly identify with being part of that small, exclusive tribe. Exciting, dangerous and sometimes heart-rending deployments add to the experience, leading to close bonds that often extend beyond the workplace and endure through the years.
Likewise, the history of the squad and its ‘people’ has been passed from one generation to the next through story telling. This is facilitated by the considerable time members spend in one another’s company, and guaranteed by the calibre of the membership. It is further aided by the length of service of many Squad members; in fact there are still two members at the Squad who learnt their craft under Bill Brand.
It is a tough and competitive environment in which to carve out a career, and few make it to the top of their craft; in fact the number of Inspectors to have headed the Squad since 1957 could be counted on your fingers. Those that make it to the top and capitalise upon their time in the ranks, have a chance to make a mark upon the role.
Very few police members get the opportunity to be involved in the inception of an idea and then go on to shape and mould it into a highly successful and enduring entity that, some 31 years after Bill’s retirement, is now acknowledged as the premier Police Search & Rescue Unit in Australasia.
Bill’s contributions to the evolution of the Search & Rescue Squad were recognised post retirement, by the naming of the Squad’s new twin lock recompression chamber in his honour – the most expensive asset ever purchased for the Squad and a symbol of our status as an accredited diver training establishment.
A large part of the Squad’s success has been due to the people it has been able to attract and develop. I am told that Bill was a fine judge of character, a straight shooter: hard but fair. Fiercely protective of his people and Squad, Bill probably ruffled the feathers of some Command members who presumed to know better than him, but doing the right thing at personal cost can earn you unwavering loyalty from those you have supported and also sets a fine leadership example.
Under Bill’s command and over the ensuing years, the Squad has continued to select and develop others of his kind; principled and dedicated leaders; larger than life characters. Restless adventurers, who have climbed some of the world’s highest peaks, skied across the glaciers of Europe, deployed overseas to conflict zones, sailed across vast oceans and dived in Antarctic waters.
Finally, perhaps the most important and enduring legacy of Bill’s, is the positive relationship that exists between the professional rescue cadre of the Squad and skilled volunteers. Perhaps as a result of his time in PNG, Bill understood that you needed to harness all available resources to complete large tasks.
Whether that task was building an airstrip in the highlands of PNG or searching for a missing person in Victoria, you couldn’t go it alone, and expertise wasn’t confined to those who were receiving a wage.
Far from deriding volunteers as ‘well-meaning do gooders’, (a view which still prevails within some organisations), or seeking to discredit them through petty rivalries, Bill embraced the skills, expertise and professionalism of volunteers and sought to harness it in pursuit of positive results.
The strong relationships Bill forged with the volunteers from the Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs Search and Rescue sections – (the ‘Bushies), continues to this day through the Squad’s relationship with Bush Search and Rescue volunteers and extends to various rope rescue units and ski patrols.
I am told that Bill was immensely proud of his legacy and how much the Squad had progressed since 1957. In reflecting upon this, I paraphrase a metaphor from the 12th century:
We are but dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants. Bill Brand was one of those giants.
Thank you.
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