Aboriginal ghetto, Sydney’s battle zone

Sydney: Media helicopters buzz above a sparkling Sydney Harbour filming a glistening city, which has undergone a multi-million dollar facelift for the Olympic Games, but there is a small part of Sydney which looks like a war zone.

The Block is Sydney's Aboriginal ghetto.

It is the city's only no-go zone. Enter without a black invitation at your own risk. But even an escorted tour will not take you through the centre of The Block - a street of abandoned, graffiti-smeared houses occupied by black junkies.

Local media have long given up on covering The Block and the 600-odd Aboriginal residents have long given up on local media, labelling its coverage of their part of Sydney as racist.

But residents of The Block have hosted scores of international media crews in the past week, intent on showing the world their dispossessed lives.

"The Block is the centre of the black revolution in this country," says Lyall Munro, leader of Sydney's Aboriginal Metropolitan Land Council, as he took Reuters on a tour.

"You don't have to go to Alice Springs to see the appalling conditions Aborigines live in. It's right here under the nose of the Olympics. This is only 1.5 kms from parliament house."

Barbed-wire playgrounds

The entrance to The Block in the inner suburb of Redfern looks like a military checkpoint, with concrete and wire fencing crowning the top of the main road.

But instead of armed guards there is a motley group of black alcoholics and drug addicts ready to pounce on an unfamiliar face. Black and gold Aboriginal flags stand at the ready to be waved in battle with police or any other intruder.

"Mess with them and they'll kill you," says Munro as he walks past a group of dazed Aborigines huddled over a smouldering fire and two makeshift tin-shed toilets.

The squeals of children pierce the air, but few roam the streets, which are littered with used syringes.

Pemulwuy Park, named after Australia's first Aboriginal warrior who was decapitated by white settlers in 1802 and his head placed in a jar and sent to England, is virtually deserted.

One small black girl skips through the swings, waving an Aboriginal flag. The majority of The Block's children play inside a care centre surrounded by wire fences, topped with barbed wire, and a padlocked gate.

"It's not fit for pigs to play here," says Munro. "The fence is to protect our kids. It's a cage. There's no other pre-school in Australia that looks like this."

Sydney's battle zone

Sydney skyscrapers tower in the background, but in the foreground the scene is like a bombed-out city. While the rest of Sydney is festooned with Olympic bunting, there is not a single Olympic sign or poster in The Block.

Half-demolished terrace houses stand defiantly in the rubble, bandaged together with sheets of corrugated iron and timber. Most have no running water or electricity, yet a stone's throw away are modern supermarkets, office towers and a train station.

"It's like bombed-out Beirut, (Northern) Ireland, Israel," says Munro. "This is supposed to be the land of the free. The land of milk and honey. But this is what the prime minister wants to stop the world from seeing," says an angry Munro.

"This is how Aboriginal people in this city have been forced to live. This is Australia's shame. This is a world shame." Munro plans to lead a black protest march through Sydney on Friday to highlight the plight of Aborigines.

Australia's Aborigines make up 2.1 per cent, or around 400,000, of Australia's 19 million population and have a life expectancy 20 years less than white Australians.

Dream turns to nightmare

Munro was one of the founders of The Block back in the 1970s. It was meant to be a symbol of hope for Australia's Aborigines - a part of Sydney bought with a government grant to provide decent, low rent housing for the city's black population.

Munro admits the dream has become a nightmare - ruined by government policies and divisive black politics. Despite the squalid conditions, residents of The Block still have pride in their homes.

They hose down the footpath outside buildings most people would condemn. They organise garbage collection and mail delivery because governments will not allow their workers to enter The Block.

But Munro says the fight to save The Block is now more about the black struggle than housing and expects more violence next week if there is another attempt to bulldoze The Block.

"This is where land rights and the flag were born. This is one of only two places in urban Australia where Aborigines have continued to live since the invasion," says Munro.



(c) Reuters Limited.