Abstract
Late one Friday night, in the dying days of the long hot summer, three young men from one of the most stressed neighbourhoods of that stressed city acquired a late-model white Holden Commodore with a view to taking a joyride. Some minutes later, with an unmarked police car in hot pursuit, the car lost traction at a gentle bend on Eucalyptus Drive, Macquarie Fields, rolled several times and ploughed into a gum tree. Both passengers in the car, Matt Robertson and Dylan Raywood, died instantly. Robertson had been in jail so often his friends couldn't remember his age, but in two weeks he was due to start his first legitimate job, stall-holding at the Royal Easter Show. A year before, Raywood had been selected in the under-seventeen development squad for the Wests Tigers Rugby League Club, part of a program designed specifically to get troubled young players back on track. (The club's football manager admitted: "To be truthful, Dylan wouldn't have made the squad if it was chosen on merit. But the whole purpose of it is to keep kids off the street.") The driver, Jesse Kelly" himself a troubled young man with a precocious criminal record" survived, but he disappeared into the night. His aunt, Deborah Kelly, a formidable woman with a criminal record of her own, took charge of the situation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Best Australian Political Writing 2008 |
| Place of Publication | Carlton, Vic |
| Publisher | Melbourne University Press |
| Pages | 266-296 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780522854213 |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- social problems
- people with social disabilities
- riots
- public housing
- Macquarie Fields
- N.S.W.
