Constable Steven Gay has teamed up with Constable Marks, arriving in the town with his wife and two young sons, aged eight and four, on January 11.

“I chose Bombala for a lifestyle change – it’s a great place to bring up kids,” Constable Gay said.

The town is a long way from France where he lived with his French parents for four years of his childhood.

But with his mother still residing in France, it’s a destination to which he regularly returns.

Constable Gay, 38, trained at the Goulburn Police Academy before taking up his first posting with the Lake Illawarra Area Command.

Constable Marks – who is also a relatively new face in Bombala, having arrived in the town in October – was born in Bathurst and completed school in Cowra.

Aged 31, Constable Marks then moved to Canberra and worked in health before entering the police force.

His first posting was Queanbeyan.

Constable Marks said the focus of their work in Bombala would be community policing, as well as traffic work such as conducting random breath tests (RBT).

But there were also other problems – alcohol-related violence, mental health issues, motor vehicle accidents and drugs – that were present in any community.

“We’re a two-man team here in Bombala but there are also officers in Nimmitabel and Delegate so there’s a total of four officers in the Platypus Cluster,” he said.