Australian Broadcasting Corporation


LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1580656.htm

Broadcast: 28/02/2006

Opal offers hope in war on petrol sniffing

Reporter: Mike Sexton

KERRY O'BRIEN: Petrol sniffing has long been the scourge of remote Aboriginal communities. There are some 700 of them in Central Australia alone, petrol sniffers. Young people whose lives are marked by a trail of personal and community destruction. But for the first time in many years there is some glimmer of hope that the problem can be overcome. A new non-sniffable fuel called opal is being introduced, along with tougher police powers in three states to confront the problem. Last week the Senate began an inquiry into petrol sniffing in remote Aboriginal communities, visiting a tiny outstation in the Tanami Desert which has had remarkable success in turning sniffers' lives around. Mike Sexton reports.

MIKE SEXTON: Every day the tragedy of petrol sniffing is played out in the tiny and remote Aboriginal communities of the Red Centre. And it's not only those who inhale the toxic fumes who are harmed.

MAN: There's intimidation of families. There's stealing. There's bullying of elderly people.

MIKE SEXTON: Most communities are powerless to stop the violence and destruction, but there is one place where the tide has been turned. Here in the beautiful but hostile Tanami Desert, 450 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, is Mt Theo, home to Australia's most humble and successful detox and rehabilitation centre.

BRETT BADGER, YUENDUMU YOUTH WORKER: This country is healing country and the elders that are responsible for this country are well versed in that healing and when people come here from Yuendumu they are not here in any white fella's care, they're under the care of the elders.

MIKE SEXTON: The elders are Peggy Brown and Johnny Miller. 12 years ago they began welcoming young Walpiri people mostly from the community of Yuendumu who needed to dry out.

JOHNNY MILLER, TRADITIONAL OWNER: They were stealing, petrol, their father never take care of them, their mother never take care of them.

MIKE SEXTON: One of them was Larissa Granites who was losing her life in a haze of petrol fumes.

LARISSA GRANITES: I used to sniff petrol with my friends and we used to steal things from the shops and the money and we had to come to Mt Theo and stay here for three months.

MIKE SEXTON: When Alvin Wilson sniffed he became violent and reckless, but after several run-ins with the law he too found peace at Mt Theo along with renewed respect for his country and culture.

ALVIN WILSON: Peggy always tell me what to do. I clean up and listen to her; what she said - "you're not going nowhere".

MAN: You get a lot of time, don't you?


MAN: You get a lot of time to sit out here in a peaceful place with plenty of food and just think about your life.

MIKE SEXTON: But the Mt Theo program doesn't end when the fog of addiction clears. When young people like Larissa Granites and Alvin Wilson return to Yuendumu, they become part of a team of youth workers who almost swamp the young people with activities, like sport, art and camping.

LARISSA GRANITES: Disco, night school and all that, and during holidays we go out to bush, and talk with those kids or young people.

BRETT BADGER: Two of them are training to become police officers in the community. Three are working for men's night patrol. There's two young women working at the old peoples program, caring for old people.

MIKE SEXTON: The Senate is currently conducting an inquiry into aspects of petrol sniffing and visited Yuendumu and Mt Theo. There under a tin verandah, surrounded by camp dogs, Peggy Brown fed them damper and told the story of Mt Theo.

SENATOR: Pretty strict rules, but it works, hey? Works well.

PEGGY BROWN: We got to make it better for our own kids.

MIKE SEXTON: The senators were told the effect of a decade of committed work is that Yuendumu is a safe functioning community again. The sad reality for central Australia is that Mt Theo and Yuendumu stand out so much because they are a rare success.

BLAIR MCFARLAND, CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN YOUTH LINKUP SERVICE: There a number of different doors into petrol sniffing as a problem, but there's only really two doctors out and one is reduction of supply of the substance that they are abusing and the other is reducing the demand.

MIKE SEXTON: The front-line of supply reduction has been boosted with the Northern Territory police being given new powers to take sniffers into custody. For a long time it's been illegal to supply petrol to sniffers and now a new unit in Alice Springs will gather intelligence from the Territory, South and Western Australia to crack down on those trafficking drugs, grog and petrol into Aboriginal communities.

COMMANDER MARK COFFEY, NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE: We are trying to break down those borders and work in together because these people move across the border freely and so we need to do the same to target these people.

MIKE SEXTON: But possibly the biggest advance has been made at the bowser. BP has developed a fuel called OPAL where the aromatic hydrocarbons are removed during refining, meaning sniffers can't get a high from it. The Federal Government has spent almost $20 million in subsidies to make OPAL available in 36 remote communities like Yuendumu.

TONY ABBOTT, HEALTH MINISTER: The government will continue to spend at least $1 million a year on this important initiative because petrol sniffing has killed more than 100 young Indigenous people since 1981. MIKE SEXTON: This looks like an unremarkable service station and it is. It's just the BP on the Stuart Highway in Alice Springs, but it's also playing a small part in reducing the effects of petrol sniffing in central Australia. Because of federal subsidies, for the first time you can buy OPAL fuel for the same price as unleaded which means anyone going out to a remote Aboriginal community can do so without taking sniffable fuel with them.

VICKI GILLICK, NPY WOMEN'S COUNCIL: A lot of communities are crying out for help, which is why I think our members really like this idea of OPAL, that someone has invented something that is really useful.

MIKE SEXTON: During hearings in Alice Springs, the Senate inquiry was left in no doubt by the damage being caused by sniffing.

JANET INYIKA, NPY WOMEN'S COUNCIL: This has been going on for a long time and we are losing our people and the problem is getting bigger. MIKE SEXTON: One of those giving evidence was Janet Inyika from the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council. A year ago she gave the thumbs up as the first tanker of OPAL headed for central Australia. But with sniffable fuels still available in many road houses near communities, she pleaded for a mandatory total rollout.

JANET INYIKA: We want you to go back to the government and tell them that we want opal everywhere to make it work and then maybe our family can start to get a bit better.

MIKE SEXTON: There are those like veteran youth worker Blair McFarlane who fear without blanket coverage of OPAL, sniffers wanting a fix will migrate from communities to the town camps on the fringes of Alice Springs.

BLAIR MCFARLAND: To have it in the the remote communities and not in Alice Springs, obviously means Alice Springs is going to be a target and there's an awful lot of people who live in Alice Springs. So it puts their safety and comfort at risk by not including them in that rollout region.

MIKE SEXTON: Because of the success of their rehabilitation program, the Walpiri have already secured more than $1 million in federal funding, half of which will be used on a new facility at Mt Theo. Even so, as the Senate visit ended, Peggy Brown made sure her voice would be carried all the way back to Canberra.

PEGGY BROWN: You've gotta support properly, you know a lot of people have told me, "We'll help you". Lots of politician men been come here. Keep a promise for me.

KERRY O'BRIEN: A long time coming. A long way to go. But at least that glimmer of hope. Mike Sexton with that report.