A report about a dummy emergency services exercise dominated the front page of The Canberra Times on this day 44 years ago. The small township of Tharwa, south of Canberra, was the scene of a simulated armed siege and a police search of hills and bushland for a young girl.
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The drama was part of a full-scale exercise by the ACT Police armed offenders squad, and search and rescue squad, planned as a test of equipment and manpower in an emergency situation. The exercise was also watched by members of the Police Arbitral Tribunal for future assessment of police work.
The exercise began with a "phone call" from a "witness" citing that a man had thrown a child into the river. As police "investigated" the report, the story unfolded of a patient who had escaped from a mental health hospital in Sydney and returned to Tharwa to find his wife. The man was considered armed and dangerous..
Constable Don Woodland of the Salvation Army, Constable Betty Dundas of the police juvenile division and the late Inspector Colin Winchester all played a role in the exercise. It was the biggest exercise carried out by ACT Police and was considered one of the most successful.