Mackay to Bris and back: Detective sergeant retires after 30 years

After three decades with the Queensland Police Service, this retiring detective sergeant has reflected on his career highlights, the unsolved cases that stay with him and what made him first swap his tradie tools for a badge.

Detective Sergeant Paul Arnold piping out ceremony as he retires after 30 years with the Queensland Police Service. Picture: Supplied

Driven by a desire to serve the community and partly inspired by the television series Cops, former tradie Paul Arnold embarked on a career with the Queensland Police Service that would span three decades.

His career defining moments include the discovery of a mammoth marijuana crop at Calen, working on the Luke Ling cold case and investigating the first ever industrial manslaughter.

Joining the QPS was a big decision, he said, recalling the moment in the mid 1990s when the 30-year-old Mackay-born and bred fitter and turner spoke to his wife about changing jobs.

“Cops had just started on TV as corny as that was … (and) I’d seen police cars driving up and down … past where I worked,” Paul said.

“I was sitting at a machine pretty much all day. I thought there’s probably more I could be doing in the community.”

The couple had an 18 month old and were expecting their second child. So, it was with his wife Lea’s full support Paul relocated to Brisbane to complete police academy and was sworn in August 1996.

Detective sergeant Paul Arnold with his wife Lea and their daughter when he was sworn into the QPS in 1996. Picture: Supplied.

Paul’s 30-year career began in general duties in South Brisbane, where Lea and the family also relocated.

In May 1999 he relieved in a plain clothes role, work that prompted him to apply for the Mackay Criminal Investigation Branch.

He was successful and “turned up here on March 30, 2000” — he was home again.

In his time with QPS Paul worked his way up to the rank of detective sergeant. Two jobs really stood out for him.

One involved a serious drug grower who was busted with a large scale operation after 13 marijuana crops, with a street value of about $1m, were found on his property at Calen in 2009.

“Initially there was no one at the property at the time,” Paul said.

“The decision had to be made whether we stayed on the property or continued searching, that decision was made to declare the property a crime scene.”

Paul said they worked with the State Drug Squad and seized about $1.5m in assets.

“The co-operation and then taking it further … the financial brief was probably as important as the criminal brief,” he said.

“To strip them of their assets for the crime and provide the starting point in further, if there was any unexplained wealth.”

CIB detective Paul Arnold. Tuesday 2 June 2025 Picture: Michaela Harlow

The second one involved the death of young tradesman Jason Garrels, 20, who was just nine days into a new job on a Clermont building site when he was electrocuted because of blatant safety breaches.

A coronial inquest into the death led to an electrical contractor being charged with and jailed for industrial manslaughter, a landmark outcome at the time.

“That job brought home the importance of the work that we do,” he said.

Over the years he has seen how investigations have changed and modernised.

“Technology has increased significantly … everyone has a lot of data stored on phones,” he said.

“Even the forensic sciences and their ability, DNA was relatively new when I was coming in to the job.”

Paul recalled the murder of Celia Douty on Brampton Island on September 1, 1983.

Her killer wasn’t arrested until 14 years later and was the first person in Australia convicted of murder using DNA profiling.

Detective sergeant Paul Arnold (right) during an arrest in Mackay. Picture: Supplied

He said then-Mackay detective Andre Wijtenburg had been at the forefront of DNA investigative technology at the time — which was tested during a trial and at appeal and was successful.

“I was fortunate to come to an office where someone had real life experience in that field,” Arnold said.

The hardest job Paul said he had been involved with was the disappearance of bouncer Luke Ling in Mackay in the late 1980s. His jawbone was discovered on a property near Micallef’s Rd, Oakenden in 1994 and Operation Mascot was set up in 2002 to review the case.

New information, DNA and emerging technologies breathed new life into the cold case. “And a lot of good, old fashioned investigative work … (to) identify a picture of what had happened,” he said

“That was a good job to work on but the frustration was the result was probably just not there at the end.”
He said a number of people were charged with interfering with a body and some convicted.

“That was the end result.”
Marilyn Wallman had been another difficult job, especially in “trying to get some resolution for the family”.

CIB detective Paul Arnold. Tuesday 2 June 2025 Picture: Michaela Harlow

Paul said an important quality for any detective was to have the courage of conviction.

“When you believe what you’re doing and know that the evidence that you’ve gathered is right … don’t be swayed … Believe the evidence that you’ve gathered and have the courage of conviction to stand up for that,” he said.

A frustrating misconception was police were not doing enough to address crime. “There is a lot that goes on in the background,” he said.

“I generally think the community is very supportive of police and that’s been reflected in my experiences of my children growing up in town, going to school, ” he also said, adding he was heavily involved in community work through junior sports, school communities and his police work.

The CIB often dealt with some of the most confronting cases which Paul said never got easier but over time officers built up a wall.

“It’s a great job but sometimes it’s more than a job when you’re dealing with people at their most vulnerable, families who have had their worst moments in their life. There’s still a human element to it and I think you need that as well, so be successful in this job,” he said.

“But you don’t know when it may become too much sometimes,” he added, sharing about a time he had to take four months off after he was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

“It was that continuous build up. I don’t know whether there was any particular stressor.”

He praised the support from the QPS during that time, as well as that of his family and friends who “kept things real”, which helped him return to the role and really enjoy his work.

“It’s not lost on me it’s a privilege to retire in this job. There are a lot of people who don’t make it to the end,” he said.

Originally published as Mackay to Bris and back: Detective sergeant retires after 30 years