In policing, Grace Brebner went first

Patience is a virtue, they say, but not many of us today are very good at waiting. We have grown to expect things to appear in the ordinary instant — the clothes we purchase online, the food we order through an app, the job we apply for on LinkedIn. In 1939, though, things were different. People applied for jobs and waited for not just weeks or months, but years. Grace Brebner was one of those people.

It was 1939 when Brebner applied for a job with the police force. At the time, she was 28 and there were three hundred women on the waitlist. It would be another three and a half years before she was accepted. In 1942, she became the fourteenth woman to serve in the Victorian Police service and she would go on to acquire many firsts: first woman to pass her police driving test, first woman in Victoria to be awarded the Queen’s Police Medal, first female detective in the nation.

Grace Brebner was born in Joyce’s Creek, Victoria in 1914. She grew up in central Victoria and, later, moved to a farm near Mildura with her family. As a young adult, she would travel to Melbourne from Mildura and work as a sales girl. “I used to earn $1.25 a week but it was obvious there wasn’t much future in it,” she recalled in a 1974 interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly. “Even after I became a manageress.” One fateful day, she stumbled upon an article about policewomen and instantly saw her future there. “I just thought I would like the police life.”

Record of Conduct and Service, 1942, Courtesy of Victoria Police Museum

Within two years, Brebner was being recognised by her managers and peers. And by 1950, she was appointed to the Criminal Investigation Branch. A year later, after passing Detective Training School, she became the first female detective in the nation. She had passed second in her class, only 1.5 points behind the dux. 

Her time as a detective was enthralling and rewarding but also filled with resistance. She was often given a hard time by male colleagues at the branch who couldn’t accept the fact that a woman was a detective. But the men who did accept her noticed the advantages her gender brought to the role. A former colleague, Reg Henderson, noted that the two achieved a lot of success because nobody took notice of a woman and man in the car. The pair were often called to functions at Government House, working undercover as a form of security. A petite, blue eyed, brown haired Brebner, all 5 foot 5 inches of her, would attend in a ballgown. “Often there was a barrister or judge I knew from the courts who would ask me to dance,” she later recalled.

“Women are often more tolerant of human failings than men.”

When the body of teenager Shirley Collins was found in late 1953, Brebner was appointed to the taskforce investigating the murder and it was the first time a woman detective had been assigned to a homicide squad. It made headlines, of course. There was resistance from the public and some of Brebner’s peers, many believing a woman wasn’t suitable for the job of investigating such a heinous crime. But management believed she had a gift with people – and empowered her to use that gift to interview and interrogate Collins’ friends.

 “Sometimes police work is very strenuous and tedious,” Brebner once said. “It’s exhausting questioning people. You have to plan everything so much ahead.” However, she couldn’t imagine “anything in the way of a job that would have been more satisfying and interesting over the years.”

Six years after she was accepted into the Criminal Investigation Branch, Brebner left and returned to the Women’s Police Division. She was promoted to Sub-Officer-in-charge and quickly noticed the spare police cars sitting at the station. At the time, policewomen were not allowed to drive police cars, but Brebner was determined to find a loophole. She found a way to individually apply for a police driving licence and sat the test. After she passed, she found out the examiner had been told to fail her if he could. Policewomen have been driving cars ever since.

In 1971, Brebner became the first policewoman in Victoria to reach inspector rank, and not long after, she received the Queens Police Medal – another first for a policewoman in Victoria. However, the greatest title she might have received was the title of “Aunty”. During the ‘60s and ‘70s, women in the force were few and far between, so the women who were there developed close, intimate relationships. “Aunty” was a name the older women without children were called by the younger women coming through the ranks. And that’s who Grace Brebner became to many. 

Her last few years in the force were spent reorganising the training of women staff. The bulk of her work, and other policewomen’s work at the time, surrounded childcare cases and cases of assault. When asked by a journalist working at The Australian Women’s Weekly why women made decent police officers, Brebner replied: “Women are often more tolerant of human failings than men.” That answer perhaps epitomises the woman who claimed so many firsts in the force. She saw her difference as an asset and used it as one.

Main image courtesy of Victoria Police Museum

Jobs for the girls is a newsletter series celebrating the women who became trailblazers in their industries. This series is proudly supported by Victoria Police, who are looking for more women to join their ranks. To explore a career with Victoria Police, click here.