"If he'd paid for the fuel he wouldn't have been caught. It was 47C that day -- too hot -- and I wouldn't have been out looking for him."
But crime statistics can be misleading, and the burning heat ensures a steady flow of emergency calls to McShane's police station in Birdsville.
The border outpost -- population less than 100 -- is as remote as the climate is harsh. Almost 2000km west of Brisbane, Birdsville was established to collect tolls from graziers driving cattle between South Australia and Queensland.
Today it's a magnet for travellers seeking to conquer the vast Simpson Desert, and McShane has grown weary of rescue missions that can take several days.
Some who get into trouble are unlucky, but most are ill-prepared.
The policeman tells how he ordered a plane -- costing taxpayers A$50,000($51,290) -- to drop supplies and communication equipment to three stranded motorcyclists.
The men twice watched parachuted containers fall to the ground, but did not to check the contents.
"We finally got there 12 hours later," says McShane. "They had no food or water, but if they'd opened those containers it would not only have made their wait more comfortable, but we'd have been able to communicate with them."
He has also had to retrieve dead bodies, including one man who made it only 5km on foot after his vehicle broke down before succumbing to the heat.
McShane says tourists underestimate the risks and huge distances.
"You get Japanese bike riders who look at the map, see the desert is only six inches and think it can't be that far. They try to cross carrying two-minute noodles and a one-litre bottle of water."
His successor will need to be more savvy.
"A policeman here needs the smarts to know when you can go somewhere and when you can't," says McShane.
"If you can't get there, you're just another person who has to be rescued."
The Birdville cop's duties stretch far beyond the conventional. McShane monitors the weather, dust, locusts and the movement of a continental plate. He issues driving and weapon licences, reads power meters and clears coins from phone boxes.
"I even count dingo scalps," he says. "They do a lot of damage to livestock and there's a bounty on them in Queensland. It's A$30 a head -- quite lucrative."
But crime remains the exception. When three men broke into several cars, stealing items including radios and driving lights, a rare chase was on, and road blocks were set up.
The thieves tried to escape down the 500km Birdsville Track.
"The one thing they forgot to steal was petrol, so they ran out of fuel and we had to go and rescue them."
Trouble is also rare during the Birdsville Races -- the "Melbourne Cup of the Outback" -- when the town's population swells to 7000 and alcohol consumption explodes.
McShane believes that is partly because of a boxing tent, where revellers volunteer to square up against a troupe of travelling fighters.
"I tell [the organiser] he's worth 20 coppers because the people who might get into a fight will probably have a go," says McShane.
"They get towelled up and come out like a mongrel dog. We don't hear a peep from them for the rest of the weekend."
Retirement at 60 is mandatory for police in Queensland, and the 59-year-old will keep the peace at one more festival before his birthday in November.
McShane's wife Sandra, who works as a police administration officer, is looking forward to a change.
"It's a lovely lifestyle and community here, although the nearest supermarket, chemist, butcher or hairdresser is an 800km drive away," she says.
And her advice to job applicants?
"You've got to be someone who doesn't mind the heat, the flies and the snakes."