Dramatic new video of tragic life in new Struggle Street suburb

THE new Struggle Street series goes to “public housing suburb” Inala and puts the spotlight on Norma Boyd’s tragic life.

STRUGGLE Street’s latest TV star Norma Boyd has put up with worse, so when police stormed her dilapidated house in the Brisbane suburb of Inala she did not take it lying down.

After her daughter was charged with a drug offence and as SBS-TV’s cameras were rolling on the second series which airs tonight, about 20 police turn up to evict a defiant Norma, 45.

Norma, whose personal tale of tragedy and conflict with the police goes back more than a decade, repeatedly warns them, “don’t manhandle me”.

She’s forcibly shuffled down the front stairs of the Housing Department rental, which despite its peeling paint and ramshackle exterior is clearly a home Norma does not want to leave.

“I want my clothes, I want my clothes,” she says, “don’t touch me, don’t touch me.

“This is what it takes to remove me from my house,” Norma says as she spills her coffee on the stairs in front of the police officer.

“A single black woman. I’ve done no wrong. What they do to first nation people.

“I’m lost ... it’s an abuse of power.”

SBS headed to one of Brisbane’s more downtrodden suburbs to film hardship and poverty for its new series, just as it did in Sydney’s west two years ago.

Police evict Norma Boyd from her dilapidated house on Struggle Street.

‘I’ve done no wrong’.

Norma, back in 2006, after her sons, aged eight and 10, died when a night train hit them on the railway track.

Inala is a suburb in, and the name of, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s electorate.

The Queensland Government has included it in the past among “stigmatised and distressed” suburbs including Goodna, on the basis of Census data, crime statistics and public housing records.

Two years ago, it was named among the top 10 worst suburbs for break-ins in Southeast Queensland.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk last year encouraged Inala residents to “dob in” TV producers they saw filming, describing locals as “good, proud and aspirational”.

And, just last month, a Brisbane property analyst described Inala as a “property hotspot”, telling realestate.com.au to “forget what you think you know about this suburb” as it was affordable, with solid infrastructure.

Norma provided a refuge at her house for troubled local Aboriginal children. She said police regarded it as a “safe house” and often dropped children there.

But, the TV show says, the presence of some of these children has “resulted in disturbances”.

Norma has two of her own children under 10 at home, who feature on the new Struggle Street series.

Norma Boyd with a friend after her eviction by a large group of police from her house.

Hayden, 10, died instantly.

Glen Duncan was eight when he died.

Tragically, she still mourns the sons she lost in alarming circumstances in 2006.

Just after nightfall on March 11, 2006, Norma’s boys Glen Duncan, 8, and Hayden Duncan, 10, and their cousin Reggie Fisher, 9, were on a railway track in Southern Brisbane.

The three boys had managed to get inside a fenced-off track and were throwing rocks at a Brisbane-bound train passing between Redbank and Goodna stations.

A police officer had seen the boys skylarking near the tracks and warned them to move on, but they swore at her and she saw them leave the station car park.

At 6.16pm, a passenger on an Ipswich bound train saw the boys picking up rocks between the sleepers and reported it to a guard.

The driver of the next Brisbane train 10M1 was alerted to the fact three boys were throwing stones at trains between Redbank and Goodna.

He pulled mesh screens down over the cabin windows, turned off the train’s headlights and “I

had my head down making sure I wasn’t going to get ... rocked”.

The train was travelling at full speed at 80km/h when, at 6.39pm, it struck the three boys who may not have heard it because of noise from the nearby Ipswich Motorway.

The traumatised driver, who was later criticised by the Queensland Coroner, radioed in

“We’ve just collected those three kids.”

Norma wants the world to know the story of her sons’ tragic deaths.

Hayden and Glen died from multiple injuries and Reggie from head injuries.

Norma’s family later submitted to the coroner that the senior constable who saw the boys playing at Redbank station should have instead helped the children return home, safely.

Hayden and Glen were among seven children belonging to Norma and her then partner Joseph Duncan.

Three months later, the boys’ elder brother Joseph Duncan Jr., died as a passenger in a

car accident which followed a police chase.

On her Facebook page, in the lead up to Struggle Street going to air, Norma said that she expected strong reaction when her tragic story was revealed.

“Mixed opinions will come from many people black & white especially from media when my past will be spoken of on SBS about my sons’ tragic deaths,” she wrote. “[And] the fight we faced just to be heard for the world to see.”

Norma said her daughter Kaylee, 9, “didn’t like teasing, fighting nor bullying.

“I teach my children what family means & the differences in cultures & laws of today.

“We are all the same just different colours different cultures different backgrounds in a big world of good & bad.”

The second season of Struggle Street premieres tonight, 8.30 on SBS

Norma’s late son Hayden (left), his cousin Reggie Fisher and singer Archie Roach with Hayden’s father, Joe Duncan (right).

A large number of police turned up to Norma’s home as they prepared to evict her.

A scene from Struggle Street’s first season with Billie Jo Wilkie and mother Carleen in western Sydney.