Death of boy in industrial bin in Port Lincoln sparks search for answers
Port Lincoln residents are struggling to comprehend the tragic death of a 13-year-old boy who had been sleeping in an industrial bin.
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The view from high up on the Winter Hill lookout is spectacular. The entirety of Port Lincoln sits below. The remote Eyre Peninsula town of 15,000 people nestles in between the folds of the landscape and the vast expanse of Boston Bay.
Explorer Matthew Flinders gave the town its name when he landed here in 1802, naming it after his home county of Lincolnshire. Such was the impression it made, Port Lincoln nearly became the capital of the new colony of South Australia, until William Light decided otherwise.
From Winter Hill you can see the tuna nets which have driven the town’s recent fortunes glinting in the blue sea. The fishing boats are cutting through the ocean. The tuna boats are in port at the moment, but the prawn fleet is out there somewhere.
Height is important in Lincoln. Local wisdom has it the higher you are in the hills that surround the town, the more money you have. One creation is rumoured to be a copy of the Southfork Ranch in the old Dallas TV soap series.
It’s an old statement, possibly a stereotype, but there are more millionaires per capita in Port Lincoln than anywhere else in Australia, maybe the world. And there is a feeling of prosperity in the town. Locals will tell you the waiting list to build a new home is two years’ long. In these Covid times, with Australians restricted to holidays at home, tourism is booming. There is, of course, the fishing and, as the giant grain silos sitting by the Brennen Jetty demonstrate, plentiful agriculture as well.
Yet down there in that seemingly thriving town a young Indigenous child died this month. He was only 13, killed when the industrial bin he was sleeping in was picked up by a rubbish truck and emptied at 5.20am on a Tuesday morning. He was in there with two mates, both of who escaped physical injury. Those boys were 11 and 12.
The boy who died wasn’t homeless. He had somewhere to go. An empty bed waiting. It is believed the other two boys were in state care and are not originally from Port Lincoln.
But if the boy’s death was a freak accident, it raises larger questions. Why were three boys aged 11, 12 and 13 sleeping in an industrial bin? It was a cold, damp night in Port Lincoln, so why were they wandering the streets and not at home? Who was looking after them? Who should have been looking after them? If the two surviving boys had absconded from state care was anyone looking for them? Police say at least one of the boys in state care had been reported missing.
It was an accident but what systemic failure had allowed three young boys to believe sleeping in a bin located between a Repco store and a McDonald’s was their best option that night? And what is going to be done about it? Port Lincoln is a town still in mourning and deep shock after the death of the 13-year-old boy last week. There is anger mixed in there as well. Some fear that anger could cause a backlash against the town’s Indigenous community and cause a rise in racial tension.
Port Lincoln, like anywhere else in South Australia, has more than one face. It’s tempting, if overly simplistic, to compare rich and poor, and lament the increasing gaps society throws up. To talk about the racial divide between black and white. But Port Lincoln is a place where the gap between the haves and the have nots can be stark. And that, naturally, is always going to breed its own tensions. Promoting antipathy both ways. Sometimes from those who feel they have missed out on something due to them and sometimes from those who believe that some people just won’t help themselves.
A lot of the startling wealth in Lincoln comes from the sea. The town’s tuna baron families were migrants, mainly from Croatia, after World War II who came here with nothing, worked hard and built vast fortunes. The names are familiar to many South Australians. Sarin, Lukin and Stehr. Tony Santic, whose horse Makybe Diva won three consecutive Melbourne Cups and whose equine likeness now sits on the town’s foreshore.
Sitting on the deck of the Marina Hotel, it’s easy enough to see the best of Port Lincoln. On one side sits the fishing fleet that’s still at harbour. Around the corner there are millions of dollars of pleasure craft at rest. On all sides sit expensive apartments and homes with water views.
Port Lincoln Mayor Brad Flaherty acknowledges the disparity to be found in his community.
“There is and always has been an aspect of have-nots within Port Lincoln,” he says. “People seem to say there are more millionaires here but it’s not just millionaires; there is a lot of people who work hard to make a good quid. There is a lot of people who work hard and there is a lot of people who don’t work.”
Flaherty says more can be done to help those who are struggling but he still believes there is nowhere better to live, no matter who you are. He points to the physical beauty of the place, the wealth generated by the seafood industry and the contribution of the broader agricultural sector.
“I think there has been some misinterpretation by the media about issues that are here. We are not perfect but we are a hell of a lot better than most other places, that’s my experience.”
Flaherty says it’s a “tight-knit community” and doesn’t believe there is a racial divide between black and white.
“The interaction between the Indigenous population here and the other groups, I feel, is much better than in a lot of other places. Again, it’s not perfect but it’s better than it ever has been.”
He also doesn’t believe homelessness is a big problem in Port Lincoln.
It’s a view shared by Superintendent Paul Bahr, the officer-in-charge of the Eyre Western Local Service Area, which runs all the way to the Western Australia border. Bahr says homelessness among young people is rare in the town and there has been no previous reports of children sleeping in industrial bins.
“That was something that surprised everyone I think, that these kids were even sleeping in a bin. We had never heard of it, we had never seen it,” he says.
Bahr says the boy who died was well known to police but not in a “sinister” way.
“His death has really cut deep with a lot of police officers who weren’t even involved in the incident, but who just knew him,” he says. “A lot of my staff had encountered him through their normal duties, because we see a lot of people in our day-to-day work, and they really have taken a bit of a shine to him. He was a really nice friendly lad.”
The three boys had been seen walking around the town that night but Bahr says the idea of youth gangs walking the streets of Lincoln causing trouble was wrong.
“We do have groups of kids who walk around, who congregate, especially in summer. They get together and walk around, especially down to the CBD area.
“In the main they tend to be pretty good, they don’t tend to cause a whole lot of problems. Every now and then you might get an issue where some of the kids might throw a rock at a car, they might go into one of the major retail outlets and, because it’s a mass, cause a bit of a problem because they all try and outdo each other.
“I know there is this perception in town that kids being seen walking around town at night is a problem, but in the end we are a liberal democracy, people are allowed to walk around.”
Bahr says events like the one in 2019 when a group of four children aged between 10 and 14 vandalised the town’s McDonald’s are rare and dealt with swiftly. Like the Mayor, Bahr doesn’t believe there is a great racial divide in Port Lincoln. “I think there may be some bias here in amongst some of the older people here in terms of some issues with race,” he says. “But I think, in general, what I see is that it’s pretty harmonious. I don’t see huge issues.”
But that may not be a view widely shared within Port Lincoln’s Indigenous community. It was only in 2010 that the 16-year mayoral reign of the controversial Peter Davis came to an end. Davis, who chaired a meeting of the far-right racist group the League of Rights, once threatened to pull down an Aboriginal flag if it was raised to the same height as the Australian emblem. He also called children with mixed heritage “mongrels’’, opposed multiculturalism and recommended refugees be used as target practice.
The death of the Indigenous boy also came at a time when concerns are again being raised about the rising number of Aboriginal kids in state care and how well they are being looked after. About the disconnection these kids were feeling from their families and communities and the long-lasting damage that can cause.
Figures released this month by Penny Wright, the guardian for children in state care, showed one in every 11 Aboriginal children is living in state care. Out of 4136 children in state care last year, there were 1519 Aboriginal young people.
In addition, fewer children are being placed with Aboriginal relatives in contravention of the legislated Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, which mandates that if a child is removed from a parent, it must be placed within its family, cultural and community context.
Over the past five years the rate of Aboriginal children in state care has risen from 62.1 per 1000 to 84.5. For non-Aboriginal children that figure is well below 10 per 1000.
In an interview last year with SAWeekend, Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner April Lawrie said the child protection system in South Australia was “highly xenophobic’’.
“It’s heartless, it’s merciless and it’s cruel and it doesn’t even give our mothers a chance. I tell you, the department, their workers are looking, are looking for a reason to remove our children. It makes me sick to the core,” Lawrie said at the time.
Around 5 per cent of Port Lincoln’s population is Indigenous. It’s a community that is now deep in grief. There are also feelings of guilt and shame that such a tragedy could have happened and one of their children has died in such appalling circumstances.
At the family’s request, SAWeekend will not name the child or publish his picture. Community elders have also asked that no one within the Indigenous community speak to the media about the boy or his family at least until the “sorry business” – a time of intense grieving that can least days or weeks – is complete. It is expected the boy will soon be buried on traditional lands in the state’s Far West.
The Indigenous community has wrapped its arms around the boy’s immediate family. It is clear this was a loved child. In a Facebook post, the boy’s aunt Uraine Roelofs spoke of a child who was “brought up along the coast, fishing, hunting, camping; he was a good sweet boy with a bright smile”.
“The lil fella is a hero. He had empathy and was looking out for his friends, he had a home to go to but I guess wanted to rough it out with the other two children who ran away from foster care,” she wrote.
Carlton and former Crows’ star Eddie Betts grew up in Port Lincoln and spoke of the pain felt by the community.
“Throughout times like this, our community will rally around each other, and our youth particularly, to support them through such unimaginable grief,” he said.
“Being a big mob, we all know each other and care for each other, and our kids’ safety is always important to us uncles, aunties and elders.
“No kid in our mob goes without love and security.”
Labor’s Kyam Maher, an Indigenous man and the party’s shadow attorney-general, flew to Port Lincoln to offer his support but declined to speak to SAWeekend.
The child had links to the same football club as Eddie Betts in Port Lincoln, the famous Mallee Park which has produced a string of AFL footballers. Apart from Betts, Mallee Park ’Peckers who have made it to the big time include Shaun and Peter Burgoyne, Byron Pickett and Graham Johncock.
Following the boy’s death, the club gave its junior players the option of taking the weekend off, but decided games should go ahead as a first step in the healing process.
“This decision comes with the blessing of the Family, who feel the love of football and being together is important to our the (sic) community especially our juniors in this time of sadness,” the club said in a Facebook post.
There are now going to be a number of inquiries into why the 13-year-old boy perished in such circumstances. Police are conducting an investigation and will prepare a report for the coroner.
The state’s Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee, which reports to Education Minister John Gardner, will also hold its own inquiry but that won’t be held until after the coroner has finished its investigation.
SA-Best Legislative Councillor Connie Bonaros had also moved to set up a joint inquiry, which Labor had said it would support, but the Liberals, Greens and Independen MP John Darley voted against, believing a coronial inquiry was the best way forward. Bonaros recommended the inquiry be conducted by the Guardian for Children and Young People and the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People.
“The child-protection system, in this instance, has failed all three boys sleeping in the dumpster, and I want to make sure we get answers to those questions so that no other child is ever in that situation again,’’ Bonaros told parliament.
However, the Guardian for Children and Young People Penny Wright expressed reservations. “I am concerned about the unintended harm that may arise from an additional, high-profile investigation on the two surviving children,’’ she said in a letter to Greens MP Tammy Franks.
Labor has also called for a Select Committee to be formed to examine the broader issues thrown up by the tragedy. Labor’s Katrine Hildyard’s proposal is that a committee “inquire into and report on vulnerable youth in South Australia”, with a focus on youth homelessness.
The life and death of this child will be examined in minute detail. But the failings of the system around him will also need to be examined with great honesty. The fundamental question that must be answered is what were three boys, aged 11, 12 and 13, doing sleeping in an industrial bin? Blame is one thing, answers are another.
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