The first day of a new job can be daunting.
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Tie in the fact that it's your 26th birthday and you didn't bring in a cake to share with your new colleagues - and that's what faced Constable Oliver Martin on his first day at the Launceston Police Station.
Constable Martin was one of 13 new starters on Wednesday, a fresh graduate from the Tasmania Police academy last week.
A born and bred Launcestonian, he spent a number of years as a competitive cyclist across Australia, Europe and Asia before coming home, working in hospitality and then a transition into policing, a new challenge.
"It's a good way to start 26 ... a new job, a new career, it's good," Constable Martin said.
"I had enough of cycling, I wasn't going to be where I wanted to be and I thought that policing was a really good change for me, so I had a year and a half after I stopped racing where I was working in catering and then decided to make the move.
"I think that I've been lucky with exercising for a very long time, it does come naturally to me now so I don't have to put as much work in on that side, but it's still really strenuous and it is hard work down at the academy, it's very different to what I was doing previously."
The homecoming welcome for Constable Martin, who said he was looking forward to getting to know the people of Launceston better in his new role - before a potential move to explore marine police options in George Town.
"I think that living away has given me personally a really great love and appreciation for Launceston, so I've always enjoyed coming back after spending time away, it is my home and where I want to spend the rest of my life really," he said.
Constable Olivia Walker said she was extremely excited to be putting her training into practice.
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Having worked in distribution and as a nanny, becoming a police officer was her end goal.
"It's something I always wanted to do," Constable Walker said.
"I don't know where it came from - I never had any family members in the job or anything but it's always been there.
"I think it's about giving back to the community - I grew up here, this is where I live and it's a chance to give back.
"[The first day] has been a lot of admin but it's good to be here and get into it, and looking forward is all about learning all the new skills we can learn and putting those into practice."
Performing the first day induction, Launceston Inspector Nathan Johnston said the team, made up of six females and seven males, were an exciting addition to the station.
"It's exciting for them but also for us, it's going to be good to have more people on the beat, more people in the community," he said.
"The extra numbers always help, it takes the impact off the guys who are responding to jobs all the time, more people means more time to do more proactive policing as well, so it helps us to interact with the community and build those relationships.
"The real development is now, out on the streets, doing policing - the hard part is interacting with the community, but it's also the fun part, policing is fun, it's a really good job, so the training has just started."
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