Many faces to island policing

Great Barrier Island's lone policeman, Constable Calum McGillivray, says he is in "bewildered amazement" at his inclusion in the New Year's Honours List.

Constable McGillivray has been awarded a Queen's Service Medal for public service that has seen his role on the island stretch to undertaker and ambulance driver, and to using his home for family violence seminars.

Those duties come on top of everyday police work and the search and rescue operations he has carried out since arriving on Great Barrier in 1993.

"You've got a hand in everything, but then it's the community you work with, too, and my wife makes the job a lot easier… it's been an interesting career for a constable."

The award follows another Constable McGillivray received in September, the Order of St John, for his emergency service work and the assistance he regularly gives to the island's two doctors.

Constable McGillivray joined the police in 1986 and was first posted to Wanganui.