Luke McCulloch was in the Speaker’s seat this week, and he came to tell us about Profundus Obscurus Sordidus – a book that he has written about his experiences as a police diver. The title means Deep Dark Dirty, and after hearing his story we could well understand the context. Luke joined the police force at the tender age of 17 and graduated from the Academy at 18, after which he did a spell in South Hedland. He returned to Perth and joined the Dive Squad – a group of only 8 people – and he was part of this squad between 2015 and 2023. At this point he resigned from the force after 15 years of service and spent some time with the NDIS. He then joined his current pursuit, a company called ERGT which basically provides training for dealing with emergency response and sea survival. Luke started writing his book in 2020, and he slowly added chapters as time went by – detailing the events that he personally experienced. Unbeknown to him, his wife made a hand bound copy of his work for family and friends to read, and these behind-the-scenes experiences caught the imagination of a publisher and the book is now freely available to all at a reasonable price.
Christine Tonkin was our Host for this meeting, and she foreshadowed that she will soon be giving a talk about her recent Camino de Santiago walk covering 115 kms. We look forward to that!