'I'm one of the few people in Australia who can do this job. This is what it's really like.'

One of only two female bomb squad technicians in Queensland, Jacinda Lawrence remembers the exact moment that reminds her why she does one of the country's most extreme jobs.

It happened on a Sunday morning callout a couple of years ago.

As she, and the Explosive Ordnance Response Team (EORT), worked to render a suspicious device safe, Lawrence braced herself for the inevitable complaints about the noise disrupting people's weekend lie-ins.

Instead, something extraordinary happened.

Jacinda Lawrence is one of only two female bomb squad technicians in Queensland. Image: Supplied.

"People were out on their balconies clapping," she told Mamamia. "People were so thankful we had been there and we had made their community safer. That for me, gives the warm and fuzzies. You know you've made a difference to people's lives. That's what I do what I do."

It's moments like these that fuel Lawrence's passion for a job that requires her to strap on a 35-kilogram bomb suit, travel hundreds of kilometres at all hours of the day and night, and make split-second decisions that could mean the difference between life and death.

Lawrence joined the Queensland Police Service (QPS) 12-years ago. She completed an eight-week bomb squad training course in 2016, passing on her first attempt, which is quite an achievement.

She explained her previous experience in the Australian Defence Force reservists, as an engineer, primed her for the role as it exposed her to demolition work.

Now, we might have an idea of what working on a bomb squad looks like, thanks to shows like Trigger Point.

Sweat dripping down foreheads, as a voice calls over the radio, "it's the red wire, NO, the blue."

Lawrence wants people to know the reality of her job is quite different.

"Quite often it looks like it's fast-paced and there is very little decision-making, or, it's very quick. The reality is it's very meticulous, very planned.

"We take into consideration a lot of different factors before we execute our plan," she said, adding the other thing people don't realise is callouts can come all hours of the day and night.

"There's risk with every job you attend. That's just in the QPS generally."

The day-to-day of her job looks very different to those high-pressure situations we may view on screen.

"There's an unlimited amount of jobs we attend," she said. "Some of them we may not directly attend, but we provide advice. Quite often we get phone calls about bomb threats, so someone might go to a house and find an item that's suspicious, or the find something that doesn't look quite right, and we may be deployed from there.

"We do have a lot of military ordinance that sort of get washed up, so we assist in assessing those scenes."

When they do get callouts, the co-ordination is extreme. Regardless of whether it's 11pm, or 5am they have to retrieve their response equipment, assemble a team, liaise across departments and agencies, and get to the incident location.

"Quite often in our region it's quite widespread. We may have to travel hundreds of kilometres before we even get to the incident," Lawrence said. "It can be a very lengthy, drawn-out process. It's very fatiguing. You can spend 10 to 12 hours on a job and a good chunk of that is travel."

Lawerence explained the bomb suit alone weighs about 35kg, and she had to do special weight training to ensure she had the strength to wear the suit for long hours.

"One of the great things we have now is this new RPV (remote positioning vehicle) capability. We can now deploy that instead of going down range in the suit in order to assess an item better," she said. "We might eventually still have to wear the suit, but we can mitigate the amount of time we would otherwise be spending in it."

The Central Queensland bomb squad with the new RPV-M robot. Image: Supplied.

One of the main stressors of the job, she said, is time pressure.

"There's a lot of pressure to get something done in a pretty quick period of time in order to hand a scene over," she explained. "There is a lot of time pressure and I think that more than anything else, is the main stress you deal with is knowing I need to do this quickly, I need to do it safely, and I need to restore things so that the community can continue living their lives uninterrupted by this.

"That's how I deal with those pressure-points, and also, because we do work in a team, you can really bounce off each other."

Four years into motherhood and more than a decade into her policing career, Lawrence said having a daughter has only strengthened her resolve to continue breaking barriers in law enforcement.

Jacinda and her team with the Remote Positioning Vehicle capability. Image: Supplied.

"Motherhood has been very challenging, particularly being a shift worker," she said. "But I feel like it's been a great challenge to rise to, and I am very inspired to continue doing the work I'm doing to be a strong role model for her and for other young women."

"I think if anything, it's made me more passionate, and it's particularly highlighted to me the importance of having strong women's leadership and strong women working full-time, working in an operational capacity, showcasing that you can be a female and a mother and a great member of the team."

Even though Lawrence is only one of two females in the state doing her job, she said gender has never been a barrier in her career.

"One of the things that drew me, and continues to involve me, in the bomb response capability is the fact that I've been given every opportunity to excel regardless of the fact I'm female. It's all merit-based, so it has nothing to do with gender and that's one of the things I actually really love about it," she said.

"I intend to continue to be in EORT until I physically can't do it anymore."

Feature image: Supplied.