Australia: Sydney suburb remains tense following four days of conflict

By James Cogan
3 March 2005

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Tensions remain high in Sydney’s south-western suburb of Macquarie Fields following the deaths of two teenagers in a police car chase last Friday night and four days of street fighting between police and local youth. The violent clashes—which rank among the worst civil unrest in Australia in recent memory—have laid bare both the depth of anger in working class communities over inequality, poverty and constant police harassment, and the indifference and vindictiveness of the state authorities.

Matthew Robertson, 19, and Dylan Raywood, 17, were killed when the allegedly stolen car they were in slammed into a tree while trying to outrun a police pursuit in Eucalyptus Drive—a major residential street in Macquarie Fields. The alleged driver, 20-year-old Jesse Kelly, survived with minor injuries and escaped the scene. Just weeks earlier, another police pursuit along Eucalyptus Drive ended with a car crashing into exactly the same tree, leaving its driver with severe injuries.

The first conflict between police and locals broke out within hours of the car crash. Grief-stricken family and friends gathered at the site and denounced the police for causing the deaths. The police had pursued the boys into the narrow residential street, at speeds approaching 140 kilometres per hour (85mph), despite reportedly knowing their identities and addresses. Local youth continue to allege that police deliberately rammed the back of the boy’s vehicle, causing him to lose control.

The violence steadily escalated over the following three nights. The New South Wales (NSW) state Labor government, headed by Premier Bob Carr, responded to the obvious grief and anger in the community not with sympathy, but with condemnations and a provocative deployment of police into the area.

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On Saturday and Sunday nights, hundreds of youth, who were holding commemorations for the deceased boys, used rocks, petrol bombs and other missiles to try and prevent riot squads entering Eucalyptus Drive. Teenagers yelled “you killed our mates” as they fought with the police.