Ph 3259 1900 (24 hours) - Queensland Police Union

Day in the Life of Lorraine Van Dulken
Day in the Life of Lorraine Van
Dulken, Cairns Watchhouse Officer
By Andrea Appleton
Lorraine Van Dulken likes to be busy, which is rather fortunate
given her role in the bustling Cairns Watchhouse. Lorraine relies
on a wealth of experience, organisational skills, and instinctive
observation to get her through the really busy periods in the
Watchhouse, yet she is thankful when there is a little extra time
to talk to individual prisoners.
‘Sometimes, a prisoner
will thank me for listening to them,
and that makes my day,’ she says.
When Lorraine first applied for a job
as a Watchhouse officer in Brisbane
City in 1999, she had considerable
“You’re observing
prisoners all the
time, consciously and
unconsciously.”
Before she knew it, she had sold
her house in London, relocated to
Brisbane, and accepted a job as a
Correctional Officer for Correctional
Services.
Lorraine worked for two and a half
years as a Correctional Officer at the
Wacol Correctional Centre, and then
she was promoted to an Operational
Senior.
‘Wacol consists of 400 male
prisoners, and as an Operational
Senior, I was sort of in charge of
running the jail,’ Lorraine says. ‘I had
to organise the men’s movement,
prisoners could hit harder and they
didn’t want to stay in the playground:
they wanted to escape. But they all
need schooling and training, and they
all need your support. It was very
similar in that way.’
Though Lorraine thoroughly enjoyed
her job with Corrective Services, she
found her 12 hour shifts turning into
16 hours of work a day, including
handovers and travel time.
Her lifestyle was suffering, and she
decided to change to a position as a
Watchhouse Officer in Brisbane City,
because it consisted of eight hour
experience from previous roles with
Corrective Services, and also from
her time working with Save the
Children in the UK.
Originally from England herself,
Lorraine worked with families in a
disadvantaged area of east London,
and she also volunteered as a youth
worker, dealing with violent and
abused teenagers.
In 1995, Lorraine considered
emigrating to Australia with her two
children. She didn’t have a job and
didn’t know anyone, but she thought
the move would be both a great
opportunity and a great challenge.
“My previous experience saw me running a
family centre and I found it not much different,
except the prisoners could hit harder and they
didn’t want to stay in the playground.”
transport, and security. I liaised
with counsellors, worked out the
educational areas, and was involved
in the day-to-day running of the jail.
‘My previous experience with Save the
Children Fund as a family coordinator
saw me running a family centre, and I
found it not much different, except the
shifts. She felt confident in her new
role, because she felt her job as a
Correctional Officer had been similar.
‘The basic needs prisoners have are
the same, but in the Watchhouse, you
have to find their needs,’ Lorraine
says. ‘Both roles are about managing
prisoners, but there is a difference.
52
Queensland Police Union Journal August 2012