Grade 1 WAPOL P-M job open to applicants

The Western Australia Police force has commenced a formal search for a new pipe-major of its Grade 1 band following last year’s departure of James Murray.

The job is one of the highest-paying full-time piping positions in the world, with an annual salary of nearly AUS$84,000 (CAD$75,000, GBP£43,000), and of course comes with the benefit of living in the generally great weather of Perth, Australia.

The force has set a deadline of March 19, 2020, for applications, saying that the work entails a 37.5-hour workweek and a “requirement to travel intrastate, interstate and overseas.

The Western Australia Police Pipe Band, while being an accredited Grade 1 band, has not been allowed by the police force to compete outside of Australia. The band hasn’t made an appearance at the World Pipe Band Championships for more than a decade, but has been active with regular concerts, recordings and Australian competitions.

According to the band, Pipe-Sergeant Stuart Robertson, also a Scottish emigre, has been serving as interim pipe-major following Murray’s departure.

James Murray stepped down as pipe-major of the band after eight years in the role. A native of Fife, Scotland, and a Highland Society of London Gold Medalist (Oban 1997) and a winner of the Northern Meeting Silver Star MSR (1999), he emigrated to Australia in 2011 to take the job. He was previously pipe-major of the Grade 1 Fife Constabulary, which his brother, Douglas, subsequently took over, today under the name Police Scotland Fife.

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