Omeo Police Station was the scene of a shooting when an escaped murderer seeking revenge returned to the township and fired a bullet into a policeman while he was on the toilet.
The fictional story, which was shot almost entirely around Omeo’s High Country, was made into a movie titled Red Hill, and released almost a decade ago.
In reality, Omeo’s police station is manned by Senior Constable Gavin Murphy, who’s been on the job in the town for nine years.
The toilet in the police station, where the infamous scene was shot, is still there in the old building.
Senior Constable Murphy bravely says he has no qualms about using the toilet.
He’s a tough cop.
Policing wasn’t Snr Const Murphy’s first career path.
Growing up on a Bruthen dairy farm from the age of four, Snr Const Murphy was up at the crack of dawn milking cows with his father.
At the age of 12 he moved to the Mornington Peninsula where his family settled in Rosebud.
After finishing school he wondered what he would do and eventually landed a job as an apprentice pastry chef in Blairgowrie.
“I never thought I’d be a pastry chef, one of the first jobs I did was working in an orchard at Red Hill,” Snr Const Murphy said.
After completing his four year apprenticeship, Snr Const Murphy headed to Western Australia where he lived for a couple of years before returning to the Peninsula.
It was there he met his wife, Heidi, whose family owned a bakery.
Heidi is a pastry chef and now runs the Omeo Bakery.
After his father moved away to Queensland, Snr Const Murphy returned with his wife to the Bruthen farm on which he grew up.
They purchased the bakery in town and both worked hard to build the business.
However Snr Const Murphy sensed after a while he needed a change of direction.
Life in the bakery entailed working seven days a week and some peculiar hours.
Senior Sergeant Phil Bogle, from Lakes Entrance Police, was a regular at the bakery and suggested Snr Const Murphy join the force.
About to turn 40 at the time, Snr Const Murphy didn’t ponder too long about the proposal and before he knew it he was wearing the blue uniform.
Since then, he hasn’t looked back and believes his previous life experience has helped in his role as a country policeman.
As far as expectations of life as a policeman, Snr Const Murphy insists he never had any.
“The police force has proved that life is stranger than fiction,” Snr Const Murphy said nonchalantly from behind his desk at the Omeo station.
“If anything, being in the force has magnified that.
“Some of the stuff you see, you wouldn’t believe.”
Snr Const Murphy said finding the right balance as a policeman in a country town can be tricky.
“It’s important to be part of the community, but at the same time you’ve got to not beapartofit.
“People will lose respect for you if you’re out on the tear all the time.”
Most of the locals, he said, are good people.
He relays a story where he had to serve an intervention order on a bloke and take away his guns.
When Snr Const Murphy returned to his police vehicle, he discovered he had a flat tyre.
The man, whose guns he had just confiscated, changed the tyre for him.
Snr Const Murphy is proud of the community he serves and believes Omeo is a great town in which to live.
He believes the bike track proposed for the town will see tourists flocking to Omeo and concedes his job is likely to get busier.
On his down time, Snr Const Murphy is happy to help his wife, Heidi, groom her rare Norwegian Fjord horses, which she is now breeding.
The horses, originally from the mountainous regions of Western Norway, provide sanity for the couple.
Mrs Murphy and the horses compete in events around Australia conducted by the Australian Carriage Driving Society.
“Gavin will quite often come along and groom for me,” Mrs Murphy said.
And if she’s ever short a pastry chef in the bakery, Snr Const Murphy is a good fallback.
A versatile country policeman.
PICTURED: Omeo’s Senior Constable Gavin Murphy, with his wife, Heidi, and one of their rare Norwegian Fjord horses.