As mining companies and reactionary politicians seek to portray Aborigines as threats to the "backyards" of home owners, the sad truth is that too many of Australia's traditional owners do not even have a roof over their heads. In Brisbane's southern inner city suburbs, an estimated 200 Aboriginal and Islander people are homeless, and the problem is getting worse. ANTHONY BROWN reports on homeless adults and Aboriginal street kids.
Not far from the West End cafes, the re-created rainforest and lagoon-laden South Bank, underneath the William Jolly Bridge where motorists listen to their radios in congested traffic, Norman, 41, and Milly, 38, sleep.
They've been sleeping there for about 10 weeks now. Before that they slept in a park by the river bank. They like to move around.
Norman says sometimes up to 165 people sleep underneath the bridge in Grey Street, a small no-through street which runs off Montague Road in South Brisbane's industrial area. Norman and Milly sleep on a mouldy double foam mattress. The ground they sleep on is covered in a whitish dust. It smells like a building site. The Pioneer Concrete plant is to the left and the plant's sand mountains to the right.
Norman says sleeping out is good. But every now and again they get some "real idiot" who creates trouble and starts fights.
Milly says a couple of weeks ago two other homeless men burned all their gear, leaving them with nothing. Norman and Milly managed to scrounge clothes and bedding from relatives.
They say they get no trouble from the West End police. But every now and again northside police officers come across to harass them.
They have no toilet facilities. No bathroom. No place to cook. No privacy. They wash and eat at one of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hostels or at
the nearby St Vincent de Paul's Homeless Men's Hostel. They spend their days with other homeless Aboriginal and Islander people. They like to go to Musgrave Park, where they are always sure to catch up with someone.
Lyndell Turbane runs the Musgrave Park Aboriginal Corporation (MPAC) hostel in Oxford St, South Brisbane. The hostel accommodates 30 people: elderly men and women, single mothers, single men and young couples. Most have been homeless at some stage in their lives. Most are on some sort of welfare. One man works. They pay $60 a week each for board and accommodation. Most are permanent. Lyndell also has 10 fold-up beds which she uses to put up people when conditions outside get too bad to sleep out.
South Brisbane, West End, Woolloongabba and Highgate Hill have eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-
run hostels. People use hostels for permanent or semi-permanent residence, as a cheap place to live and eat until they can get enough money to move into their own accommodation, as a place to stay while visiting Brisbane or for overnight shelter. The St Vincent de Paul's hostel in South Brisbane also accommodates Aboriginal men. MPAC's Drake Street drop-in centre in Highgate Hill does not provide accommodation, but does provide facilities for washing, cooking and some basic activities during the day.
"But there's still a large number who are sleeping on the river banks. Also in empty houses, in empty factories, empty petrol stations, wherever they can find shelter", Lyndell says.
Kurilpa is the traditional Aboriginal name for the inner suburbs of West End, South Brisbane and Highgate Hill; it means "place of the water rats". It includes Musgrave Park. According to Aboriginal history researcher Ray Kerkhove, this region, especially Musgrave Park, is of immense social and cultural significance to the Aboriginal community. This explains why it has Brisbane's largest indigenous population and why it attracts homeless people.
MPAC coordinator Pat Murdoch believes 200 Aborigines and Islanders are homeless in the Kurilpa region. He says most of them come from the reserves because there's nothing there for them.
"They come down here thinking they might have a better chance in the city. But they just get swallowed up in the city. Many come because of job prospects, to see family, for health reasons, to see friends", Lyndell Turbane says.
Bert Fyscher, 44, comes from Cherbourg. He came to Brisbane to be with friends. He lives on an invalid pension. He has been homeless a few times and in Brisbane has slept at the river bank and in deserted houses. He's now staying at the Musgrave Park Hostel. He says life outside is hard and conditions are bad. His only desire in life now is to have his own bed and regular meals.
Bill, 35, and Mrs Bill, 33 (they preferred not to give their surnames), have been in Brisbane for three months, of which two months they spent sleeping under the William Jolly Bridge. Bill is from Western Australia and Mrs Bill from Mt Isa. They both live off Bill's sickness allowance. They moved into the Musgrave Park Hostel when beds became available.
Mrs Bill said it was extremely cold at night under the bridge. Friends gave them mattresses and blankets, but these were not enough to keep out the cold. Mrs Bill found it hard to adjust to the hostel at first, and she spent the first few nights sleeping on the floor rather than in a bed. They were in Brisbane to catch up with family and friends. Both have been homeless for most of their lives and agree that being homeless can get very lonely.
Lyndell Turbane says those looking for work often have little chance of success.
"They discriminate against them when they're going for job interviews. They discriminate against them when they're going for accommodation. Just a lot of plain, everyday things that white people take for granted, it's hard for us to get things."
The result is that people give up. They get depressed and turn to drink for consolation. They lose control of their lives.
Lyndell says a large number of homeless have become chronic cases. These are men, women and increasing
numbers of children who have got used to the life outside and who need specialised care and attention. They use the hostels like drop-in centres and only sleep in when conditions outside get too harsh or when they feel like it. Many are alcoholic and prefer to sleep outside because they find it difficult to pay rent and abide by the drinking ban in the hostels.
Selwyn Johnson is the manager of the 16-bed Born Free Club hostel, Highgate Hill. He often gets homeless people coming to the hostel to use its facilities during the day, and to eat and wash.
"They come over for breakfast and dinner. That's what we're here for. When it comes to crashing out, they just crash out in the park."
Florence Margaret Bargo is the welfare officer at the Day Centre, St Vincent de Paul's Homeless Men's Hostel, South Brisbane. The centre is a place where homeless people can get morning and afternoon tea, watch television or play cards and pool. The day centre is part of St Vincent de Paul's homeless centre, which also provides meals and accommodation for the homeless.
Many Aboriginal homeless people come to St Vincent de Paul's for meals, but few of them sleep there. Meals cost $1. Florence says she has banned quite a few people for drunken behaviour.
Eddie Hopkins, 39, has been homeless "nearly all my life".
"Sometimes I sleep in Baynes Street (the Musgrave Park Hostel). Sometimes I sleep under the bridges. Sometimes I sleep in Musgrave Park."
Eddie lives on sickness benefits. He says white people don't have an inkling of how Aborigines live. "From the southside to the northside, we live in a very bad way."
He would like to see a drop-in centre near Musgrave Park where the homeless can spend their days.
Florence Hopkins believes that, for those who don't want to stay in accommodation, there is a need for
some sort of outreach service which can provide them with bedding, food and medical care.
Selwyn Johnson doesn't think the homeless need another drop-in centre. "There just needs to be more things available to them when they need them. A place to stay. Another thing is that there should be someone there to look after their health, because they don't."
Lyndell Turbane would like more hostels in the Kurilpa region. She would also like more flats and houses to be available for people to move out of the hostels into their own accommodation.
"What we'd like to do is find if they're coping all right in a hostel, then the next step is to get them into their own flat or house, and to try to start living independently."
MPAC has helped a few homeless people settle into their own independent accommodation. But she says the Aboriginal community needs more funding if it is to get more people to live independently.
Lyndell is critical of government assistance for Aboriginal and Islander housing. "We're not getting much help from Anne Warner [Queensland minister for family services and Aboriginal affairs]. She's supposed to be there to help Aboriginal people. We get nothing from her. We get nothing from ATSIC [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission]. ATSIC is a joke."
She says the problem is that ATSIC and state Aboriginal and Islander Affairs make decisions on housing without bothering to find out the needs of the Aboriginal community.
"They don't know what we want. They don't even mix in the community. That's why a lot of the programs fail."