After numerous character roles in Crawford Productions serials and films, and after appearing in the ABC serial Certain Women and The Young Doctors, he was cast in the permanent role of Frank Gilroy, an old-fashioned and upright police sergeant (later chef and barman) of the fictional Wandin Valley in A Country Practice, opposite co-star Lorrae Desmond, which he played from 1981 to 1993.
Gambier, before moving to Geelong, Victoria and had an unsettled early life and spent much of his childhood in remand homes run by various organisation's including the Christian Brothers and the Salvation Army.
He subsequently appeared in numerous stage roles, musicals, pantomime and children's theatre, including productions of Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, The Imaginary Invalid and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.
[5] After many years in the entertainment industry, primarily in live comedy and theatre, Wenzel appeared on the small screen starting from the late 1960s, including the Crawford Production drama series Division 4, Matlock Police and Homicide, as well as The Young Doctors, Cop Shop and Certain Women.
[4] It was the role in Certain Women that won him the part of old-fashioned and affable policeman Frank Gilroy, originally a constable and later a sergeant, in A Country Practice.
He was once presented with a leather police jacket from former commissioner John Avery as the fictional country town of Wandin Valley was located in New South Wales.
[7] His Sgt Gilroy character (now 80 years old) arrives to save the day when a newlywed wife complains about her husband "speeding" in bed and then prosecutes him in court.