PETROL SNIFFING CCTV FOOTAGE REVEALS TRAGEDY OF OUTBACK CHILDREN IT has just gone dark, on Monday, May 13. Three kids jump the fence into a mechanic’s workshop, on the main drag through Tennant Creek, on the Northern Territory’s main highway. As they walk across the yard, CCTV footage reveals they are girls. They are petrol sniffers, aged 13, looking for a hit that could leave them brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound, or dead. They find it in the tank of a ride-on mower, in for repairs. One of the girls removes the cap to the fuel tank and inhales deeply. Another girl takes her turn. Then they return for more. The confronting images, obtained by News Limited depict a regular event in Tennant Creek and nearby Ali Curung, which over the past 12 months have seen major sniffing outbreaks.Some estimate there are up to 100 active sniffers, but the two towns are not included in the Federal Government’s national map of known “sniffing zones”. There has reportedly been a massive decline in Central Australia and northwest WA since the rollout of the low-aromatic, less harmful Opal fuel, but stubborn service stations still refuse to stock the product, claiming customers don’t like it. Unleaded is available in Tennant Creek, though the 2013 review into the national Petrol Sniffing Strategy reports a “significant relationship between the distance from each community to the nearest ULP outlet, and the size of the decrease in the prevalence of sniffing at each community”. Petrol sniffing has almost been obliterated in Alice Springs and surrounding communities since the introduction of Opal, but there has been a sharp rise in the use of inhalants such as aerosol deodorants. The review notes that in the 80s and 90s, sniffing in remote communities had reached epidemic proportions. “Many have died, and others have permanent brain damage,” says the report. The scourge, which had been prematurely declared beaten, is back. Darrin Whatley, who owns the Tennant Creek workshop, said last year it was boys jumping his fence looking for fuel. Now girls. “It’s sickening,” he says. “The girls need help, support and education and no one’s doing anything about it.” The PSS review notes that there were few treatment facilities for sniffers and difficulties mandating their treatment. The three Tennant Creek girls were not ordered into treatment or protective custody but given trespass notices. “Sniffing itself is not a crime,” says Tennant Creek’s senior Sergeant Des Green. “Supplying petrol is. We often come across people in the process of sniffing or affected by sniffing. We take them straight into care, to the hospital.” SOURCE perthnow.au/news/petrol-sniffing-cctv-reveals-tragedy-of-outback-children/story-fnhnv0wb-1226660451049
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:32:05 +0000
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