home | news l

Out of sight, out of their minds: sniffing's tragic toll

By Lindsey Murdoch

11 August 2005 - They speak with a stammer and walk with a shuffle. They are boys and girls as young as 11 but they are also adults, some of them in their 30s. And they are the outback's growing number of chronic petrol sniffers whose brains are damaged.

"It destroys your body and your head, we know that," said David Wilfred, 30. "But what can we do? There's little else to do around here, eh? I gave it away to paint but many of the others can't."

Forty-seven registered petrol sniffers are in Ngukurr, one of Australia's remotest indigenous settlements on the banks of the Roper River, 100 kilometres from the Gulf of Carpentaria in south-east Arnhem Land.

Day and night, sniffers wander aimlessly, inhaling the fumes from unleaded fuel. Elders and administrators of the 1300-strong community say no one appears to be listening to their pleas for help.

"We've tried everything we can think of. We are at wits' end," said Andrei Koeppen, the chief executive of the community's council. "We need help."

Alice Springs Coroner's Court was told this week that petrol sniffing may have played a part in the deaths of up to 60 Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the past seven years.

At Ngukurr, elders tried to shame sniffers at public meetings. They tried traditional discipline, only to see police charge them with physical abuse. They have tried to have ringleaders sent to rehabilitation centres but none could be arranged.

Three months ago the council switched the only petrol pump in the community to Opal, a non-sniffable petrol developed by BP specifically for indigenous communities. While Opal reduced slightly the number of sniffers, it prompted a big increase in crime as they resorted to theft to find the last unleaded fuel in the community.

Now the community has suffered another blow. Janet Fletcher, one of the most revered women in the outback, is leaving the clinic she has run for 15 years. "It's all become a bit much," said the territory's former Mother of the Year. "These people are my passion, what can I say?"

Ms Fletcher said it broke her heart to see that the health of the people in Ngukurr had deteriorated. Petrol sniffing was one of the main reasons, she said.

A 20-year-old sniffer recently gave birth prematurely. The baby had to be flown to Darwin.

Ms Fletcher said complex cultural reasons were behind the deteriorating health of the people of Ngukurr, a former Anglican mission where the elders used to take maturing boys into the bush for secret men's business. The boys would come back with greater respect for themselves and their elders.

Mr Koeppen said he had been trying for months to get government departments to help deal with the problem. He wants to build retreats where problem sniffers can receive counselling while going fishing and hunting.

Mr Koeppen said he spoke to 18 people in the territory's Department of Health, all of whom referred him to someone else. "Where are the field workers?" he asked.

Ben Kiwikiwi, the council's substance abuse co-ordinator, produced a handwritten list of 20 sniffers he has tried to help. "In the end it ends up a mental health problem," he said.

Shayin Bush, 20, said he wants to give up sniffing. "I can't. I can't," he said, laughing.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Petrol-sniffing has claimed 60 lives

by Ashleigh Wilson

10 August 2005 - UP to 60 Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have died from petrol-sniffing-related problems in the past eight years and community leaders are too scared to intervene, a coroner's inquest heard yesterday.

Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh said it was a "cop-out" for the federal Government to throw money at communities plagued by petrol-sniffing while asking them to be "proactive" about the problem.

"We are talking about dysfunctional communities, and to say we will help you if you are proactive just leaves me open-mouthed," he said.

Mr Cavanagh described the "sense of hopelessness" that infects some remote indigenous communities as he began an inquest in Alice Springs into the deaths of three Aboriginal petrol-sniffers. Two men, aged 21 and 37, suffocated and died last year while sniffing petrol at the Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu, near Uluru.

Both were long-term sniffers who fell asleep while sniffing covered by blankets. The 21-year-old had previously been badly burnt on his arms and chest when the petrol he was sniffing caught alight.

The third death was that of a 14-year-old boy from Willowra, north of Alice Springs. A first-time sniffer, he was found dead by his grandmother with a petrol bottle pressed against his face.

Forensic pathologist Terry Sinton told the inquiry between 50 and 60 people in the Territory had died in the past eight years as a result of petrol-sniffing. Asked how many of those people where white, Dr Sinton replied: "To my knowledge, none."

Dr Sinton said about 10 per cent of the deaths were directly related to petrol-sniffing. While petrol can often cause brain damage, the inquiry heard that death was relatively rare.

As Mr Cavanagh said: "You end up like a zombie, but it's not going to kill you unless you suffocate yourself." The inquest heard petrol sniffing had become entrenched, tolerated and increasingly visible at Mutitjulu, with locals too afraid to step in because sniffers were unpredictable and violent.

Counsel assisting the coroner Helen Roberts said two mothers of petrol-sniffers at Mutitjulu told her "they know their sons are going to die but they don't know what to do".

Source: The Australian

Further information: health issues page - includes news index and external links

|| click to go to the top of this page