Meet Inspector Warwick McKee, a New Zealand (NZ) Police advisor who was deployed here to work under the Solomon Island Support Programme (SIPSP) to assist the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF).
Inspector McKee has a big heart which drives him to do the job voluntarily at his own time. This is very small but very meaningful in terms of the kind of support rendered to renovate the memorial park Honiara Central Police Station (HCPS).
Over the last five months, the SIPSD Team Leader has been doing renovation work, repairing and painting the metal chain fence at the HCPS Park.
This work, being completed voluntarily by McKee in his own time, was commenced in September 2022 and was completed in March 2023.
The work completed included scraping and removing existing paint, repairing and replacing bent and broken posts and was finalised by priming and repainting the fence posts and surrounding chain in a crisp white enamel paint.
Team leader McKee said these war memorials remind us of the history of war and the men and women who lost their lives fighting across the Solomon Islands. It also reminds us of all the Police and Military that deployed to the Solomon Islands to assist through the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.
He said many of our family members from the past fought in the war and have stories to tell about loved ones affected by the war. My sister-in-law and my niece are Japanese. My sister-in-law’s grandfather was killed fighting for the Japanese in Papua New Guinea.
Mr McKee said every New Zealander has a story about family members affected in some way by the war. This park holds important significance to New Zealanders, Australians and the Japanese.
He said the park was looking tired, damaged and run down. Paint had peeled away from the posts and many were broken and damaged. I thought that I needed to do something to refresh and tidy the park up. I wanted to bring respect back to this important memorial park.
“I have been coming here over the weekends and putting an hour or two of work into progress. I am pretty happy how it has come up and how it looks now,” Inspector McKee said.
The renovation shows respect to those we need to remember and will look great during the Australian New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) day celebrations we will recognise in April this year and into the future.
The park contains memorials including the New Zealand war memorial, the Japanese war memorial and the memorial to RAMSI.
