Balungi

[barlungi]

Working with a Serial Killer.

It's 1984, and I am working for the NSW Department of Main Roads, we are working on building a new part of the Highway near Straithfield.

In the Mid 80s, some workplaces were segregated, either by design or choice, I don't know. Anyway, there was two road work groups and two work caravans where the road crews would have there lunch.

There was the Wog Caravan, made up of Yugoslav's, Italians, Maltese and Greeks, and then there was the Skip Caravan made up of Anglo Aussies. One of my roles in the DMR, along with another young guy called Ricky was to get the lunch orders. I used to travel between both Caravans as my father was Italian with my mother being Australian.

There was this one Serb bloke, that I used to work with, every lunch time, he would sit on his Esky at the caravan table, and cut up his salami, with a huge bowie knife. One day he says to me, "Johnnie, you come shooting with me, I have many guns, we have much fun, we shoot the kangaroos, we shoot what you want." Well, I decide to take him up on this offer and plan to go shooting with him on the upcoming weekend.

Well, on that Friday afternoon, this little Italian man, who I worked with comes up to me and says, in a broken English Italian accent, "Johnnie, do not go with this man, this man is a crazy man." I took his advice and didn't go.

Well, that man was no other then Ivan Milat.

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Indigenous death on the Roper Highway Northern Territory.

So, I just arrived in the Northern Territory. And, I'm heading to the Indigenous Community of Jilkminggan to go to a double funeral, two young indigenous men had committed suicide in the previous weeks. Whilst travelling on the Roper Highway, I come upon a crash, a local Indigenous lady has rolled her Toyota Hilux over, she was pregnant, and her 3 year old injured. A small bus taking Indigenous families to Jilkminggan for the funerals had stopped. The driver of the bus, a mookneegar (Kriol for white person), asked me to quickly travel back to the Health Clinic in Mataranka, to get help, (Had to drive back, as there was no Telstra phone reception).

So, I jumped in my car, and tore back to Mataranka. Pulled up at the health clinic, jumped out of my car and ran into the clinic, informing them of the accident. The Nurse on duty said that I should also inform the police. So I immediately went to the Police station. I rush in, so there's this N.T police officer, sitting behind the desk, he looks up at me, I say, "there's been an accident, an overturned car, an injured lady and kid, on the Roper Highway." Well the officer, still not moving out of his chair, reaches for a pad, and then proceeds to ask me questions, "what's your name?" I tell him, "why were you heading to Jilkminggan?" for the funerals. "What's your profession?" tell him. And then he hits me with the last question, "were they Indigenous?" And I stand there shocked, "were they Indigenous!?"Thinking immediately to myself, "what's that got to do with anything? Why even ask this? Were am I? Alabama! is this the 1950s?

I just leave, beat this cop back to the accident site, the woman's child has since died, the lady later lost her pregnancy.

And as of 2022, there are still Telstra blackspots, all the way to the Ngukurr Community. And Indigenous Australians are still loosing their lives from preventable accidents on the Roper Highway.

[barlungi]

So, I was interested in this lady, let’s call her Jenny who was part of a Christian fundamentalist cult in Canowindra NSW. I used to go there every opportunity that I could get. mainly just to see her.

The cult members lived in a large building in the middle of a compound. This building was divided between male and female residents. This building was surrounded by other buildings where the cult leaders lived, similar layout to Koresh's Waco Compound.

A normal day consisted of the "students," getting up at 5.00 am for prayer, followed by breakfast. They would then be sent to one of the local farms in the area where they would work until late afternoon. These students wouldn't be paid, the money that they earnt would be sent to the Cornerstone cult leaders of the group. All the students would be allowed to live on was there Centrelink payment.

Their afternoons would consist of attending Bible study lectures until dinner. After dinner more prayer time then bed. They would then have to go to bed early, then get up at 5.00am where the same cycle would begin again.

So, back to the story. On leaving one day, I gave my phone number to one of the other female residents of the group to pass onto Jenny.  Anyway, on returning one day. I was approached by the leader he said to me, "you gave your phone number to so and so, to give to Jenny." I was informed by the leader that "Jenny is here because she has committed her life to Jesus and that she can’t be distracted by any guy," and that it was "against Cornerstone rules to give any written messages to the residents." And that I and her, along with the leaders need to have a meeting.

So, I agreed to this meeting in the leader’s house. Before I went into the house, I was asked to remove my shoes, and as I was taking off my shoes, I was told by the leader, "that I can't talk to her anymore." I said okay, and replied, "did you want that in writing?" The leader got angry with that snappy retort. Well, that was the end of that, I left and never went back.

Heard later that this group had also been previously forced out of Broken Hill because of their strange practices. A lot of the "students" in this group had also suffered from accidents whist working on the farms due to be excessively tired. The leadership of this group was also made up of a lot of ex Exclusive Brethren. There is a large group of Exclusive Brethren in the Central West of NSW. They are a very legalistic group; they believe that they are the only Protestant Christian church group going to heaven.