In the middle of the night, in the middle of the forest facing loggers armed with chainsaws and protesters armed with lentils, the lone cop knows common sense beats common law every time.

When Mark “Trigger” Tregellas arrived for a freezing 12-hour night-shift, the loggers were already having a massive barbecue in the open air wearing nothing but shorts and singlets. The greenies were in their tent cooking a dhal with rice on the open fire, some playing guitars and bongos.

How do you win over two sides that hate each other?

Mark Tregellas loved country policing.

The cop wandered over to the loggers and casually opened a hunting magazine. Asked if he was a shooter, he told them of his last kill – a foraging deer – adding a great recipe for venison sausages. He was immediately offered a steak sandwich with the lot.

Next he headed to the greenies with the same trick – this time with the sustainability magazine Grass Roots. This sparked their curiosity, so the cop told them of his last spiritual trip to the Himalayas to drink Tibetan tea.

Now he had both sides onside, but any thought of sleep was shattered when the loggers snuck over to the greenies and started their chainsaws (they had taken off the chains to make them safe).

“The chainsaw serenade lasted only a few minutes, then the loggers retired to their fires,” said Tregellas.

But an hour later they were back, and it was clear this was their plan for the night.

Desperate for peace (and some sleep), Tregellas found a pack of earplugs in the car and slipped them to the protesters who lay down to sleep. The loggers, no longer getting a reaction to their buzzing chainsaws, also nodded off.

Find that in a lawbook.

Tregellas spent a career in country policing, drawn to the surf, the bush and the lifestyle, stationed from one end of Victoria’s coast to the other. Without the ability to call instantly on specialist units, he and his mates just had to work it out themselves.

Mark Tregellas receiving the Humane Society bravery medal in 2011 from then governor-general Quentin Bryce AC.Credit: Jason South

The result is a fascinating insight into country policing in his book, Backup is Three Hours Away.

My father Fred, a career cop, said he learned more about policing when stationed in Wangaratta than any other part of his career.

Brought up on the........

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