It was a move that likely saved him from something far more serious as a tree split in half and landed on the roof of his ute.

The vehicle was parked outside the Mount Beauty police station, where the Wodonga highway patrol officer had been based all day.

The tree — described by Leading Sen-Constable Frede as a medium-sized eucalypt — landed on the roof of his older model one-tonne Ford ute.

But there was only superficial damage, thanks to a roll bar immediately behind and level with the roof of the cabin.

The ute was parked at the station when the storm hit.

Sen-Constable Frede said the incident happened when the storm arrived about 5pm.

“A rubbish bin blew away and there was a lot of wind and rain,” he said.

“There was a loud noise outside and half the tree fell on my ute.”

Sen-Constable Frede said the roll bar appeared to have taken most of the impact.

“I’ll be able to straighten that out,” he said.

“There was a bit of a dent in the roof and the left-hand mirror was smashed off.

“It was all pretty minimal.”

Sen-Constable Frede said he ended up having to get a ride home from work.

“The Bright SES was kind enough to cut the tree up and throw a lot of it into the back of the ute for me,” he said.

Sen-Constable Frede said the SES was able to do such a good job cutting up the tree that no more damage was done.

“They were fantastic,” he said.

Sen-Constable Frede said there was really no danger to him as he had already decided there was no way he was going outside during the storm.

“I wasn’t going to go anywhere near the car anyway,” he said.

Sen-Constable Frede was back driving his ute yesterday, having repaired the mirror.