THE Eildon Police Station has a new Sergeant. Emma Lee Maynard is an experienced police member who grew up in Eltham but spent much of her childhood visiting the Eildon area. She explained that her family had a caravan at Blue Gum Caravan Park (now Breeze Holiday Park) for the first 25 years of her life. They spent every summer in the area, particularly enjoying water skiing on the lake. Even after all of this time, their boat is still stored locally. “It's my favourite place in the whole world,” she said. “It's really lovely. When the opportunity came up I kind of thought, wow, it's like coming home.” She has noticed however that there has been a huge increase in deer numbers, adding “I notice it a lot more now that I'm driving instead of sitting in the back seat.” Emma is the only member of her family in the police force, aside from a cousin by marriage. When asked what drew her to the profession, she said, “I like to be active and moving around. I've never really been able to sit still for too long. I studied photography and graphic design and all that sort of thing prior to joining. I liked that because I was out a lot. [Joining the police force] was always in the back of my mind. I think I went into the academy at 22 and graduated at 23 and I think that was a good age. I’d done a little bit and I got the photography and all that behind me. I still do a little bit of that as well, just as my little creative outlet. [The police force] was always in the back of my mind. I think it just suited my personality. I know it's a bit cliche, but I do love the idea of helping people and doing something that feels like worthwhile, I guess, for lack of a better description. “I've worked in a fair few stations, both metropolitan and regional, and part of what drew me here specifically is that I like the idea of a more community-based thing as opposed to metro where it was obviously job to job and you sort of just go about your business. But up here, I think I'll get the opportunity, once I settle in and I get the lay of the land, to be a little bit to be more community-based and more part of the community and out there.” Police work in country areas can be challenging because major events can happen quickly and there’s often little immediately back-up. She said, “What I love about country policing is that it forces you to become a more independent, a stronger decision maker, I think. In metro, there's a lot of people you can fall back on whereas out here you just have to work it out.” Knowledge of the people in the area can also make a difference, providing knowledge of personalities. Emma said that in the city, there are too many people and you don’t really get to know them. In the country however, “Once you get to know the people that you deal with, you develop of a rapport, and you understand what they respond well to, as opposed to just going in and hoping for the best because you really don't know what you're getting.” Emma has been in the force for 16 years now. She was asked whether any cynicism about human nature has developed as a result. She said, “I think that's inevitable to a degree. I like to see the positive in things. I think it would be very easy in this job to get sucked into the negatives and stuff like that. I don't think that serves anyone or anything. I've always been very good at compartmentalizing and that, and like I said, with my creative side, I find that is an outlet. So I've managed even after all these years to retain the positive outlook. “And you know what, I also take each job as it is. Everyone comes from different walks of life, they've all experienced different things and we see them at their worst. We generally aren't there unless something bad has happened. I try not to paint everyone with the negative stuff. “I get to do things in this job that you wouldn't get to do otherwise. I just take the positive in that. It's kept me the same all these years. I think I have seen a lot of members over the years get sucked into that black hole and it's hard to crawl out of.” Sadly, for people in the emergency services, they see some horrendous things. She added, “It's an easy trap to fall into to start painting everyone with that same type of brush. I've been pretty lucky and I've got a really great family. I have an excellent support base in them, which helps a lot. I'm very close to my family and very close to my brother, my brother's wife, my parents, we're all close. And I think that's probably also helped a lot. I've got that to fall back on. Emma isn’t married and although she doesn’t have children, she does have a “giant dog.” It’s a rescue dog with a mixture of Great Dane, mastiff and wolfhound. As a photographer, she “used to make money out of weddings and family photos and stuff like that, which I love doing, especially family stuff. You get the families together and whatnot. And I love doing a wedding because it's always such a beautiful day, so many great moments in it. “But I love to do travel photography as well. I love travelling a lot. I think there's a million places out there to see and I want to see them all. I love taking photos of different parts of different cultures and stuff like that. When I settle into this office, I will get some of my photos up to give it a bit of a bit of a bright spark.”
