Blackfellas

Over the weekend I vowed to boycott young, inner-city blackfellas. So many drivers complain – those that stop for blackfellas, that is – about their propensity to do the Harold Holt.

Early in the evening on King Street, St Peters I stopped for a young bloke furiously dragging on a cigarette as I pulled over. That he elected to sit in the back alerted me straight off, and his destination of Glebe. Yet I didn’t request proof of payment.

On a short fare its tough challenging a tidly dressed, sober adult without massively disrespecting him. “Ya got any money, boss?” However it’s the safest way of avoiding runners, short of driving on.

We talked freely about local footy, Souths and his team, the Redern All Blacks. Some of this was bullshit but I didn’t care. I knew he was going to run. And he did.

We drove past some Housing Commission terraces to a local park where he opened the door and lazily loped off down a lane way next to the park. There were no street lights and it was dodgy as hell.

Oh well. For fifteen bucks I got a story courtesy of the dude with the well-practised scam. Thanks, bro.

Early in the evening last night a middle-aged white woman revealed she was from north-western NSW, here on business. The good news is her shop back home doesn’t need roller-door shutters, nor do businesses in other towns like Moree.

Late last century it was common for district shop keepers to employ such protection against the nightly vandalism by blackfella kids.

She said, “Nup, there’s good abo's and there’s bad abo's. Our town only has good abo's. We don't need shutters.” Which is actually good news for her town. It wasn’t always like that.

Just after midnight this morning at Central Station I watched a young black girl aged around 14. Drunk as a skunk she stagged about alone, bludging cigarettes and barely holding it together.

She wore the standard kit of over-sized tracksuit, runners, and constantly played with the phone as if expecting someone. Statuesque, pretty, and trouble. It was sad.

After twenty minutes the doors opened and two black girls climbed in, a big girl up front and the other behind, both around 18-20 years old. The big girl ordered, “Waterloo, boss. Mind if I change the music..?” She did, anyway.

Passing the drunken girl they remarked, ‘That’s _____, ain’t it?' 'Yeah, she’s with ______' 'He’s a fair bit older, eh.’ 'Yeah.'

And I was thinking - will it be two runners in two nights? We were headed to the Housing Commission towers. At night it was a dangerous, drug dealing bad land. Maybe I’d get rolled.

On arrival she directed me onto the property, ‘up to where them security guards are, eh?’ Phew, then I knew they would pay. And they did, with a tip. The blackfella ban is off.

Comments

[Alice]

i'm glad those girls made you ban your ban, though i see why you did it.. statistically your chances of getting paid by a young indigenous guy are just so low.

i know someone who lived in the Glebe houses for 19 years, or one in particular. She kept it in the best nick she could but the housing commission did no repairs, for 19 years. Now they have moved her out and sold it for a motza, but she has a better house, a private rental paid for by houso. I think houso is slowly dismantling the glebe estates which is good cos they are NASTY. i live very near to Johanna O'Dea in Camperdown, the big housing commission tower, and there just aren't any of the problems there are in Glebe despite it only being the next suburb. Adrian if you have any theories on this i'm all ears!

I hope that young girl got home and out of trouble but likely not :/

[manly cabbie]

adrian i stopped for a kid once(12 months ago)on Parramatta rd Stanmore,didn't see he was a blackfella till he got in.He wanted to go to Caroline st Redfern,as any cabbie knows a big no no adress,but off we went.Now i have worked 26 years as a firefighter as my main job 11 of those years at inner city stations including 5 years at Redfern so i know there's good and bad in all types.Engaged in small talk like you did got to adress and young bloke hands over the fare and says hey cous remember my face(i suppose he's used to cabbies takeing one look at who he is an not stopping)So never judge a book by its cover.

[manly cabbie]

Adrian before you and me get called a rasist by any overseas readers i'll explain here in Australia Koori's refer to themselves as blackfella's and call us pale skin brothers white fella's.

[Phil]

Welcome to the world of "non-reflective-skin passengers".

At least yours didn't mess up the car. I drove one such lady a few months ago who was very grateful for the ride. It was late at night, and it wasn't until later until I realised that she had urinated on the seat!

Another lot did pay the fare up front, but wanted their money back when we got to the destination. I declined. I was still debating the point with the parents when their teenage children poured a bottle of wine down my back.

Then there's the one that stole my car key at 2am on a Friday night and demanded money in exchange for the key. He panicked and ran off anyway, leaving me stuck in a crap area for a couple of hours, waiting to see if I got bashed/stabbed/killed.

[Frank]

Adrian,

Was there any news about the taxi driver that was assaulted on the up ramp to the Coke sign?

Did they catch the guys?

[Shelly]

My father grew up in a housing commission house. I grew up in Western Sydney where my parents worked hours that would be considered criminal these days, they scrimped to buy a house. We had one tv, no video player. I think I was lucky. Many of my friends lived in the old housing commission estates. Back then when I visited my friends, their houses were pretty bare but scarily clean. The parent/s were grateful to have a home and looked after them.
I work for Housing NSW now or what was the old housing commission. These days when we visit tenants, there are shiny new plasma or lcd tvs in almost every room with numerous games consoles connected, satellite dishes outside, but the rest is often (not always) trashed.
The people who are grateful for subsidised housing look after them. The people with no respect will smash a door in and expect it to be replaced tomorrow. Um, maybe not smash the door in in the first place? Grow some balls, learn responsibility, make your kids go to school and learn some respect. If you live in a HNSW house, you live in a house owned by the tax payers. Have some gratitude and respect.
I could go on for pages, but I'd probably loose my job simply because what some people do to tax payer property makes my blood steam.

[adrian]

Sorry Frank, no news. The investigation is as they say, ongoing.
Manly cabbie, that was a telling request from your passenger.
Alice, I'm not sure why that is but yeah, even Redfern feels safer than Glebe.

[Rainer the cabbie]

I decided to drop the term "Blackfellas" for the majority of my indigenous customer.
You do come across the genuine article ones in a while, but a lot of City Aborigines are second or third generation welfare dependent people. The dysfunction that comes with this doesn't separate them from any white scumbag that scams and cheats all of his life.

Therefore colour or heritage is not the issue here. I have picked up many Aborigines over the years and most of them have been OK. But the group as mentioned above has become so big these days that I do not take my chances anymore.

[vancouver shredding services]

Frank i am also new. I need sugest.