Mosaic artist reveals personal tribute to fallen officers in Porepunkah

The north-east Victorian communities of Bright and Wangaratta are making unique artistic tributes to two fallen police officers as family and police colleagues gather today, a year after their deaths.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart were shot and killed at Porepunkah on August 26 last year while serving a warrant on Dezi Freeman.

The officers' names became internationally renowned and now their faces are being set in stone in gardens and in hundreds of pieces of tiny coloured tiles in the towns they served.

Two gardens have grown from the grief of the past year, one in Wangaratta, unveiled on Tuesday, and one in Bright, where the community is gathering today, on the anniversary of their deaths.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush has described the anniversary as a solemn day for all Victoria Police members.

"Over the last 12 months I have witnessed our organisation unite in times of utter shock and grief, all while remaining steadfast in finding answers for our beloved colleagues," he said.

"Today we come together to pause, reflect and remember these exceptional police officers who dedicated their lives to protecting the Victorian community."

Two gardens, one purpose

In Wangaratta, where Neal Thompson was stationed for almost 20 years, two three-tonne obelisks sourced from the small town of Barjarg form a permanent memorial honouring both officers.

It is one of the largest police memorials of its kind, rivalled only by the Victoria Police Memorial in Melbourne's Kings Domain Gardens.

Mr Thompson's sisters, Dianne Thompson and Lois Kirk, said they felt his absence every day. 

"Neal was fiercely loyal, a natural leader and just as tough as he was soft," they said. 

"It’s what made him such a good police officer."

He had been days away from retirement, so his sisters also mourn a lost future filled with plans of world travel and Australian adventures.

"We are beyond devastated that it has been taken away from him, from us.

"We are forever proud of the way Neal lived his life and will miss him for the rest of ours."

His partner, Lisa Thompson, said the past year had been the hardest of her life, and she still expected him to come through the front door. 

"We lost Neal, our world, and the bright, adventurous future that our family had planned together," she said. 

"His loss has ripped through our hearts, our family and our community."

A memorial in mosaics

In Bright, the tribute to the fallen officers is more intricate.

A local mosaic artist who is known as Crackpot 1 was approached by a local police officer and asked to create artwork for the memorial.

She said the request had left her "absolutely gobsmacked".

"I felt so privileged to have been asked to do something like that

' she said.

The artist created two large, full-colour mosaic portraits of the officers, drawing inspiration from photographs.

"The photos that came up usually in the news or in the newspaper were perfect," she said.

"They were just iconic of these two men."

Both portraits had their challenges and the artist said, at times, she found herself talking to her subjects.

"If I was having difficulty I'd say, come on, come on guys, give me some help here,"

she said.

She had never met either officer but through the work, she said she began to feel she knew them.

"I didn't know these men, but to know that they were doing the right thing by our community, I felt like I did know them," she said.

Alongside the portraits, she created mosaic versions of the police blue ribbon, the officers' names and their badge numbers, which will sit on stone in the garden outside the Bright Police Station.

Even those tiles came with their own small story.

The artist had been given some tiny blue and white tiles several years ago.

When she realised she was six or seven blue tiles short, she contacted the woman who had given them to her.

She still had more.

"It sort of, you think things happen for a reason,"

she said.

"You just gotta think, 'Well, someone's watching over you.'"

She hoped the garden would become somewhere people could come to remember, and somewhere they could simply be still.

"I think a garden will always bring people peace and some mindfulness,"

she said.

She also hoped it would serve as a gesture of gratitude to the officers who continued to serve every day.

Grief remains heavy

The streets around the Bright Police Station are being closed today.

There is a minute's silence.

There are flowers, gardens and stone.

And there are blue and white ribbons and two faces pieced together tile by tile.

Vadim de Waart-Hottard's family said the burden of their grief had been shared by those who loved him. 

"The words, care and support we have received from Vadim’s police family and the community have been extraordinary," their statement said. 

"The grief of our family has been shared with a caring community, and we have been uplifted by the support provided, at a time of incredible grief.

"It has brought comfort to our family since Vadim's departure from our lives at Porepunkah. An Aboriginal word meaning the meeting of two rivers."

Travis Carroll, president of the Blue Ribbon Foundation's north-east branch, said memorials gave families and communities a place to come, remember and honour fallen officers.

"We don't forget any of our members,"

he said.

"I think that that local connection and that local place where people can go, pay their respects, honour those people and their service and the tragedy of their loss, it's really important," he said.

The family of the gunman also paid tribute to the fallen officers, releasing a statement acknowledging today was about remembering "two men didn't get to go home to their loved ones".

"Two families were changed forever, and the members who witnessed what happened will carry that day with them, too," the Filby family statement read.

"There is a time and place for difficult questions and criticism. Today isn’t it. Today should be about remembering Neal and Vadim, and the families, friends and colleagues whose lives will never be the same again.

"Our hearts are with Neal and Vadim's families today."

A year after two police officers left home to do their jobs and never returned, the north-east has made places for them to remain.

Not just in the official record.

Not just on a memorial wall in Melbourne.

But here, among the people they served.

In Wangaratta and in Bright.

In the quiet gardens that have grown from grief.

"Victoria Police will carry forth Neal and Vadim’s legacies for the rest of time," Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said.