The festive season and hot weather attracted hundreds of boaters to the Hawkesbury River where Ku-ring-gai police were out patrolling the waterways on their boat.

Despite the perfect conditions, tragedy struck shortly after 3pm.

News came through the police radio that a seaplane had crashed on Cowan Creek.

The small crew spun their boat around and bee lined to the crash site at Jerusalem Bay arriving minutes after the crash.

Sergeant David Lowden and Senior Constable Steven Henri were both on the boat that day and said they were among the first to arrive, approaching recreational boats which had gathered near the scene.

Sadly, the plane had already disappeared below the water.

There was little they could do — speaking to witnesses and assisting the police divers who retrieved the bodies of the five deceased passengers and the pilot.

Looking back, Srgt Lowden said it was the most difficult job he had faced on the water after about seven years patrolling the Hawkesbury.

“It does give you sleepless nights (after jobs like that),” he said.

“You get home and can lie in bed for hours thinking about what happened and thinking about what you did and if you could have done anything differently.”

Of course, most days are a far cry from New Year’s Eve 2017 for police patrolling the river.

The Advocate recently spent a morning with the two officers Srgt Lowden and Snr Constable Henri on the police boat, Launch Brooklyn, to see first hand what a day patrolling the river was like.

The most beautiful place to work in Sydney?

Ku-ring-gai police head out on the river about twice a week serving the remote communities stretching from Cowan Creek up to Spencer and patrolling the river.

A morning on the police boat is simply breath taking — with some of the views almost unrivalled across Sydney.

But it is not all glamorous.

Srgt Lowden explained the wide range of jobs they can come across during a shift including RBTs and RDTs on boats, licence and registration checks, noise complaints, assisting paramedics with medical emergencies (as NSW Ambulance does not have a boat in the area), transporting deceased, investigating crimes including thefts from boats, serving the remote communities, responding to domestic disputes and even assisting the RSPCA on odd call outs.

He said the NSW water police, based at Broken Bay, and maritime services also patrol the area and the local police work closely alongside those groups.

He said officers within the Ku-ring-gai command must complete a week-long boat course to become qualified to drive the police boat of which about a dozen officers are currently trained within the command.

Remote communities along the Hawkesbury River

There are multiple boat-only communities dotted along the Hawkesbury River.

Dangar Island has the largest population of residents which Ku-ring-gai police serve along the river while other remote communities include Little Wobby, Bar Point, Milsons Passage, Cogra Bay and Peats Bight.

Srgt Lowden said an example of what it was like working on the river was a call out he was part of a few years ago.

“There was one job we had where we needed to take the ambulance over to a small, boat-access-only community in relation to a male person who was having chest pains.

“Obviously there was a concern he may have been having a heart attack.”

He said the issue was the community was difficult to access with the police boat at low tide.

“When we got near this community I saw a small runabout boat coming out of that area and stopped it and spoke to the guy and asked if he knew this particular person who was having chest pains and he said ‘yes’.

“I said ‘we can’t get in there to treat him would you mind taking the ambulance paramedics on your boat and take them to the house’.

“He said ‘yes, no worries, but I’ve got my daughter on board who needs to catch a train right now would you mind taking her to the station’.”

Srgt Lowden said it wasn’t a problem and they changed personnel.

He dropped the man’s daughter to the train station and the paramedics were transported to the sick man.

“We came back and the paramedics put the man onto the runabout boat and brought him out to the police boat and we brought them back to our base, then they put him in the ambulance and took him to hospital.”

How to find a remote home without a street number

Srgt Lowden said another interesting part of working on the river was locating some of the homes.

He said unlike normal addresses, which have a letterbox or street number, many of the remote communities have lot numbers and can be harder to locate when you approach them by boat.

“It is usually fine. They will just give us more details such as look for the place with the red roof and large tree and it’s two lots over to the right.”

Snr Constable Henri added you will sometimes have to yell from the boat “do you know where this lot is?” to a neighbour, but people would generally come outside to meet the police boat.

He said for the most part boaters were really good on the river and were happy to see police patrolling the Hawkesbury.

“When we go up Cowan Creek they are always happy to see us,” he said.