Awards ranged from 15 year service clasps to the Victoria Police Service Medal and the National Medal.

The awards presented at Stawell related to police members in the Northern Grampians police district.

The highlight of the presentation was the awarding of the National Medal 35 year clasp, Victoria Police Service Medal 35 year clasp and the Victoria Police 35 year service award to Senior Constable Adrian Cavill, of Elmhurst.

Shirley Butler also received a Victoria Police 35 year service award.

Recipients of the National Medal 25 year clasp and Victoria Police Service Medal 25 year clasp were Senior Sergeant Paul Margetts, Leading Senior Constable Ben Van Maanan, Detective Leading Senior Constable Don Matthews and Sergeant Stephen Raabe.

Leading Senior Constable Brian Barber received the Victoria Police Service Medal 20 year clasp and both Leading Senior Constable Dean Tonkin and Detective Leading Senior Constable John Bongiorno received their National Medal and Victoria Police Service Medal 15 year clasps.

Leading Senior Constable John Ashton received his Victoria Police Service Medal 15 year clasp, Leading Senior Constable Paul Kelly was awarded the National Medal, while Leading Senior Constable Dean Greenwood, Leading Senior Constable Bryan Anderson, Sergeant Michael Logan, Leading Senior Constable Christopher Vorwerk and Leading Senior Constable Pete Mellington all received the Victoria Police Service Medal.

Northern Grampians Shire Mayor, Cr Bryan Small, Assistant Commissioner Region 2 (West) Sandra Nicholson and Superintendent Division 4 (Wimmera), John Hendrickson were in attendance at the presentation ceremony in Stawell.

Cr Small was full of praise for the work of police in the community, particularly the Northern Grampians area.

He said in Stawell, where policing had been back to 24 hours for quite some time, members worked tirelessly to uphold their duty of keeping the community safe and for this the community was grateful.

Ms Nicholson spoke about the benefits of policing in country areas such as Stawell and Ararat for young members in particular.

She said cadets coming out of the academy who moved to the country for their initial policing appeared to learn so much.

Ms Nicholson said the record spoke for itself, particularly in the Northern Grampians district, with constables working their way up through the ranks and not only becoming good detectives down the track, but also moving even higher to become inspectors.

She said this was definitely proof that policing in the country does not hold your career back, but rather enhances it and provides excellent opportunities for advancement.