KEY POINTS:
On the banks of the Fitzroy River, in the remote Kimberley region of north-west Australia, stands the century-old Crossing Inn, a squat brick building with a facade adorned with paintings by local schoolchildren.
The inn is a local landmark. It operates the only off-licence in the town and is the source of most of the alcohol blamed for the appalling social problems that have ravaged the largely Aboriginal town of Fitzroy Crossing: domestic violence, child abuse, disease, dysfunction, premature death and suicide.
Indigenous communities across Australia suffer from such problems; indeed a recent official report blamed "rivers of grog" for a host of interconnected social ills.
But few places suffer to the same extent as Fitzroy, a "forgotten" outback town of 1500 people that barely figures on the national radar.
Despite hand-wringing by politicians and media commentators, life rarely seems to get better in such places.
But now Fitzroy may be proving the exception, thanks to the efforts of a group of local women. They decided that drastic action was needed and lobbied the State Government for a 12-month ban on all takeaway alcohol sales from the inn.
Last month, in a victory for the women, the licensing authority introduced a six-month ban on takeaway sales other than low-strength beer. These are now the toughest off-licence restrictions in Australia.
Fitzroy Crossing has become the site of a social experiment. Does prohibition - even partial prohibition - make any difference?
June Oscar, one of the women who campaigned determinedly for the ban, believes so.
She says the locals need a respite in which to put together a plan for the future.
Otherwise, she warns, they may have no future. Doctors report that up to one-quarter of babies in the Fitzroy Valley - the town plus surrounding communities - are born with foetal alcohol syndrome.
"It's about our children," says Oscar, the chief executive of the Marninwarntikura Women's Resource Centre, which runs a domestic violence refuge and other services.
"What's happening here is not normal. It's about the survival of our people. What will we become if things continue getting worse? Our cultural traditions, our language and laws, will be lost. We are facing the destruction of our people through alcohol and drugs."
While the ban is supported by Aboriginal elders, it has met bitter opposition from drinkers who claim that their "human rights" have been infringed and, not surprisingly, from the liquor trade.
Alcohol is only available from two outlets in the town: the inn and the bar at the Fitzroy River Lodge, a motel complex. In a bizarre twist, both businesses are Aboriginal-owned.
Most problem drinking takes place not inside the bars but back at the communities, where large amounts of takeaway alcohol are consumed.
Oscar says the ban is already having positive effects. "People are getting a good night's sleep. There's been a reduction in the number of women coming into our refuge and a reduction in alcohol-related trauma patients admitted to the hospital."
At the police station, Senior Sergeant Ron Boehm reports "a huge reduction in the amount of alcohol being consumed" and a marked decrease in after-hours call-outs to domestic assaults and antisocial behaviour, from about seven a week down to one or two.
Vivien Gordon, a police liaison officer in the town, said alcohol had blighted countless lives in the area. "My hope now is for the next generation," she said.
But police in other Kimberley towns are not happy. They claim that up to one-quarter of the Fitzroy population has migrated in search of alcohol. Police in Broome, 402 kilometres away across sandhills and scrub, complain that Fitzroy residents are "running amok" there. Similar stories of binge-drinking and misbehaviour are emerging in two other "neighbouring" towns, Derby and Hall's Creek.
While some Fitzroy locals have moved, others are driving to Broome and Derby to pick up carloads of full-strength beer and cheap wine. Oscar and her colleague, Emily Carter, the chairwoman of the resource centre, have been threatened with dire consequences if any fatal accidents occur during the long road trip.
"I've been told that if that happens, it's all my fault and there'll be tribal punishment and retribution against me," says Oscar. "I say to them, 'go and put a curse on someone who's trafficking drugs and killing people, rather than someone who's trying to stand up and fight it'."
The premature death rate is so high in Kimberley that the West Australian state coroner, Alistair Hope, is conducting an inquest into 23 alcohol and drug-related deaths and suicides in recent years.
In Fitzroy, the average age of death is 47. There is a funeral nearly every week. There have been 13 suicides in 12 months - in a population totalling 3000, if surrounding communities are included. Joe Ross, an Aboriginal elder, believes that more than 200 people have died in alcohol-related incidents in the Kimberley in recent years. Ross wept as he told the inquest, sitting in Fitzroy, about a young relative who hanged herself on her third suicide attempt. A week before giving evidence, he lost a friend aged 47 who suffered a heart attack after a prolonged drinking session.
Ross told the hearing: "We are not rubbish. We are human beings who want to live in this town and our community."
There were more tears when Selina Middleton, the mother of an 11-year-boy who hanged himself, appeared before the coroner. "We in this town are just rotting away," she said. "I hope the whole of Australia is listening ... and see that our town is crying for help. We're a forgotten town."
She drew attention to the lack of services in Fitzroy, a complaint echoed by many locals.
Fitzroy has no dentist, no mental health provision, no drug or alcohol counsellors. It does not even have a priest.
It has no banks and almost lost its post office. "It feels like we've been abandoned," says Wes Morris, the co-ordinator of the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre, which represents senior men and women.
Wayne Bowen, who manages the inn and lodge on behalf of the private company owners Leedal, and also owns a small share, has imposed self-regulation measures such as promoting light and mid-strength beer, banning the too-popular cask wine and reducing opening hours.
But Bowen believes the problem cannot be solved by prohibition. "It's far more complex than that," he says. "We believe we were making progress in educating people to drink responsibly and that's been stopped.
"The solution that has been imposed is not working. The problem has just been shifted to Broome and Derby."
Boehm, who has spent 24 years in Fitzroy, would like to see the ban extended and even tougher restrictions. "Six months is nowhere near long enough. It's tragic to see a race of people destroying themselves through alcohol abuse."
- Independent
