FOR most of the community, Morisset police station was just a building.
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For former Morisset police chief Les Norris it was also his home of eight years.
The old station has been demolished to make way for a new $2 million building with construction due to be finished in October.
Mr Norris, 80, and wife Margaret lived in a small residence attached to a front office, which doubled as the police station, from 1971 to 1979. The police lock-up was also attached to the residence.
Mr Norris said the lock-up was "a 12-foot by 12-foot room" and "more like a shed" than a cell.
In those days, Sergeant Norris didn't have to put too many people into the lock-up but that's not to say he wasn't busy.
Morisset police station had only two officers to cover an area which spanned Wyee, Wangi Wangi, Cooranbong, the Morisset peninsula and everything in between.
"It was very unusual to have only two officers dealing with such a huge area," Mr Norris said.
Living in the police station, he was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"I didn't think about it at the time but looking back now I must have been bloody capable to handle it," he said.
He would often get midnight phone calls from Morisset Hospital (which at the time had about 600 patients) reporting two or three patients missing.
Another time, Mr Norris was called to an attempted break-in at Morisset Country Club.
He spotted a suspect who took off into the bush near the club.
Mr Norris took off after him and was hot on his heels before he fell in a rabbit burrow and broke his wrist.
At the time the old highway ran through Morisset and Mr Norris saw more car crashes then he cares to remember.
"We had about five fatal accidents every year," he said.
The highway also brought some unusual visitors.
Mr Norris recalls a group of bikies passing through the town and had stopped off at the police station for some reason.
"I had about seven or eight of these big men in my tiny office. I had to ask them to go outside so we could talk there because they smelt too much," Mr Norris said, smiling.
The police station was renovated after Mr Norris left but the place that he and his wife had called home was still a part of the building.
Mr Norris said the old building held memories but it's time had come.
"[The new police station] is long overdue. The community has needed it for years," he said.