Midnight Oil Song Incites Terrorism

Should the band members be jailed?

Prefacing this article, it is worth mentioning that I first travelled to Australia in 1989 backpacking with a couple of my ice hockey buddies. We befriended two surfer dudes who at one point invited us partake in the tradition of hurling vicious abuse at Aborigines.

I recall them bringing us to an area of Sydney where the Aborigines gather to catch buses out of the city. As the buses departed the station our two mates would scream insults at them while jumping up and down shrieking like monkeys. WTF?

When in Rome… Nah. But I recall thinking, this is an improvement over exterminating them.

Why am I not surprised that in the ensuing 35 years, the two communities have not joined hands and danced around the campfire singing KOOMbaya. Instead we have a situation where a second wrong is being attempted to make a right.

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Prior to doing an Ardern and abandoning New Zealand, the lower deck of the Global Titanic, and seeking higher ground, Fast and Madame Fast spent a couple of weeks in Western Australia on a recon mission.

Did you know that NZ passport holders essentially have dual citizenship in Australia? Emigrating and escaping the pot is as easy as jumping on a 2 hour flight across the ditch. Many are leaving but most of the frogs prefer the pot. That said, if too many leave the Aussies might revoke this privilege, so it’s best for me if they stay in the pot.

While walking through the CBD we notice a permanent police presence in the form of a small hut staffed by 3 or 4 officers. What an incongruous place for the police to set up shop.

Returning to that part of the city in the evening, the reason for the police outpost became apparent. The intersection next to cop shop is a favourite gathering place for Aboriginal people on the piss. Perhaps a dozen or so drunken Aboriginal men and women were in the area, screaming and threatening each other. Although they were not bothering passersby, it was a volatile situation, and one could see how it might erupt into violence. The permanent police mini-station is no doubt a necessary deterrent.

Insert photo of drunk Aborigines in any CBD of Australia here but it is not possible to find such a photo on the search engines cuz…please help

We continued walking and made our way into the main shopping district encountering a bit of a situation involving two cops who were in the process of arresting an Aboriginal woman. There was no indication of what crime she had committed but she was vehemently defending herself insisting this was her land, they had no right to arrest her and they needed to f789 off. Needless to say, the cops did not offer to give her the Rio Tinto office building, nor did they f789 off.

She did have a point however might is right so until she raises a bigger army than the Australian state, she’ll have plenty of bark and no bite, and she’ll do her time. The police officers gently removed her from the scene walking her towards their nearby hut to be processed. Not long ago she’d have been shot and fed to the dingoes so this represents progress.

A few days later we were waiting to start a tour of historic Fremantle Prison and got to chatting with a woman and her daughter who were visiting from Darwin. The woman told us that if we planned on visiting the Northern Territories we must be careful because there is an epidemic of theft and violence perpetrated by some nasty elements from the substantial Aboriginal communities.

Northern Territory Police have now arrested 3 offenders allegedly involved in this mornings violent assault police incident in Milikapiti.

Before we departed WA, I left Madame Fast to do her shopping thing and I headed for the zoo. It was early in the day so this provided an opportunity to interact with the Aborigines who hang out in the CBD before they get on the booze. I approached a group of teens and asked them for directions to the bus terminal. They did not tell me to f789 off nor did they attack me and demand I return the Rio Tinto building. Instead they were very helpful directing me towards the bus station. I thanked them and I was thinking that this might have been one of the few times that a Whitey had ever spoken to them in a non-condescending manner.

Let’s not get all KOOMbaya because that boat sailed when Crocodile Dundee hunted these fellas for sport. Australia is a contemporary example of hunter gathers meet industrial civilization - assimilation is a policy guaranteed to fail.

Anyhow, at the end of the day, almost all humans are barnyard animals and Fast Eddy interacts with them, so why not the Aborigines. In fact the Aborigines are far more intelligent than most barnyard animals.

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Since realizing we were f789ed way back in 2008, Fast Eddy has been on a global bucket list tour touching down in close to 50 countries. The logistics are being put into place for a lengthy 4 x 4 excursion into the Australian outback next winter.

While researching, I have come across repetitive warnings of this nature:

SOME OUTBACK CRIME RISKS YOU CAN AVOID

Some hints on how to avoid trouble on your camping adventure.

We’ve agonised for several years over the need to run this story, because we’ve got to know and love many First Nations people over our 50 years of bush travel, but we think it’s time to advise Outback-travelling ‘newbies’ how to avoid robbery or worse.

First Nations kids are brought up largely by disillusioned parents and relatives, and are fed a diet of messages that reinforce the concept that white people stole their birthright.

But it’s simply impossible to reverse history, so we all need to manage what we’ve got. Dealing with historic ‘white fella theft’ by robbing and bashing Outback tourists, or destroying their vehicles isn’t going to help anyone’s cause, is it?

So, until these issues are sorted out – and we can’t see that happening in our lifetimes – bush travellers need to deal with the reality that they could be targets for robbery and violence. The danger is not only from Indigenous youth, because there’s some dodgy white trash out there as well!

Here’s how we endeavour to keep safe when we’re Outback.

We keep away from populated areas as much as possible, but some localities need to be visited, for interest’s sake or for supplies. We’re very careful about where we park our camper and we always lock every door and compartment.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but leaving anything of value, visible inside a locked vehicle, is just asking for a break-in. A back-seat fridge is a likely target, because fridges usually hold some grog.

Also, some places deserve special treatment. Our shopping procedure in Alice Springs, for example, is to park in the main shopping centre car park and one of us – usually me – remains in the vehicle and catches up with emails and phone messages, while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

When she-who-must-be-obeyed has finished shopping, she wheels the trolley to the camper and we pack everything away. If there’s anything ‘blokey’ I need to buy, she minds the vehicle while I go to do that errand. Then we get out of there.

We never park in an Outback town at night, unless we’re in a caravan park on the edge of town that has some form of security. If we want to visit the town we either walk from the caravan park, or get a taxi, leaving our camper secure in the park. If we don’t need to overnight-camp in that town, we visit it during the day and then bush-camp several kilometres away from the town at night.

We never camp in a main road rest area if it’s on the edge of a town. You think you’d be safe in one such area on the southern outskirts of the large NSW town of Taree, but you’d be wrong. There have been several bashings and robberies of truckies and campers in that rest area.

When we’re bush camping, we make sure that we’re well off the beaten track and our campfire glow can’t be seen from the road. More

Now I understood why the woman at the camping gear shop seemed concerned when I told her I was planning a long solo trip north. I suppose it’s considered political incorrect to mention that the Aborigines are on the war path so unless one asks, nobody tells. I need to do more asking so that I can learn how to mitigate the risks

If I do get bashed and robbed, I will sue these imbeciles: