Elder John Jones: Fraser Island - Aboriginal mother shown door _

Article from Althaus News (Newsletter issued every 3 months)

Althaus News:- August-September-October Issue
By Robert E. Althaus

ABORIGINAL MOTHER SHOWN THE DOOR BY PETER BEATTIE'S ELECTORAL OFFICE Much has been said in recent times about the abject failure of the Queensland Government, hopeless Ministers and their Departments and other agencies as to their roles in monitoring and implementing adequate strategies in protecting children at risk and those who are in the care of or wards of the state.
It is very easy to see where the fault lies and the underlying reason why this discredited Labor Government has failed so many children.
Take this instance in mind as an example of the unconcerning 'don't care' attitude of a local Labor member of the Queensland State Parliament.

An Aboriginal mother who was a constituent in the Brisbane Central Electorate of Peter Beattie had her son removed from a local school by a self confessed convicted peadophile.
The peadophile was the boy's biological father.
This Aboriginal mother tried every avenue to have the matter rectified, protesting to the courts, the Families Dept. Aboriginal Legal Service, the local primary schools and any other agency she thought would be able to assist in getting her son returned to her full custody and his school.
All her protestations and pleas for help did not avail her any satisfaction.
This gross inaction and failure by the families Dept to act or the inability for anyone to enforce orders of the Family Court caused unimaginable anguish and frustration to this Aboriginal mother.
It made the remaining years of her life a living hell on earth; something no one should have to endure, especially as a constituent in the Electorate of the Premier of the State.

As a last resort the Aboriginal mother was taken by a friend to the Electoral Office of her Local Member, Peter Beattie, the State Premier who is now becoming as famous for his hypocritical stance on the abuse of children as he is known for self promotion at tax-payers expense.
She explained to electoral office staff in graphic detail how her son had been taken from his school by a peadophile who had at that time been recently released from jail. For some reason, possibly only known to Peter Beattie and his Electoral Office Staff nothing was offered to assist this woman nor did anyone remotely assume any mantle to represent her, as a constituent.
Nor was she referred to the Childrens' Commissioner for assistance.

This is just another glaring example where Peter Beattie's rhetoric is not matched by his deeds or actions.
He had a chance to make a difference in a caring mother's life, by making representations on her behalf to have her son returned to her. He did nothing, nor did the Families Dept, the Courts, and legal representatives.
Another Families' Dept. failure.
Yet no doubt we will hear the familiar Beattie cry "I was unaware of nor did I know this had occurred".

Apparently there is a belief with politicians, courts and the Families Dept. that a child is better off with a convicted peadophile rather than be in the care of an Aboriginal Mother.

THE ABORIGINAL MOTHER'S STORY (Feature Writing Assessment) As told to Robert E. Althaus

Please note that the names of all involved have been censured.
For this article, the Aboriginal mother will be called J.

J's Story

For a number of years considerable comment and controversy has raged regarding a part of Australian history commonly referred to as the 'stolen generation'.
This term refers to Aboriginal children who were allegedly stolen or illegally removed from their families by white Australian authorities.
But this scenario was not always the case. Many children - Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike - were put up for adoption by their parents. In common with many thousands of adoptees across Australia, many children don't know why their parents took the path they did. It was left up to the white authorities to take charge. How this was done is open to much criticism. How did the 'given away' children cope?
This is a story presented from the point of view of one of those children, J.

"I wasn't stolen, I was dumped. My Aboriginal mother placed me and sis into the Nudgee Orphanage, then went about having another nine children."

J is a 44-year-old woman whose face seems to echo the emotional pain she has endured, while her dark brown eyes appear to embark on an endless search. Speaking in a voice immersed in passion, with a slight quiver, J is keen to commence her story, to tell all as she sees it and as it was. At the age of two, she and her sister G were placed into the Nudgee orphanage for adoption. She does not know with any certainty why her mother chose this course but others have told her, "maybe it was because of abuse and domestic violence".
Perhaps the orphanage was the safest place to be. But J knows in her own heart she isn't one of the stolen generations, just an Aboriginal child, who at that point in time was not wanted by her parents.
A white Australian family, Mr and Mrs H , adopted J and her sister. Both children were enrolled at a school where they experienced racial abuse for the first time. As the only Aboriginal children in the school they copped the brunt of the racial taunts. 'Dirty black gin' were the words most commonly thrown at her by other students.

The H couple were elderly with grown up married daughters. Mum H, in her sixties, died during an epileptic fit approximately six years after the children's adoption. Mr H suffered a heart attack and followed his wife to the grave three weeks later. He was in his seventies. J and her sister were split up almost immediately and during the next five to six years she was shuffled from one place to another, never enjoying a real home life.

The owners of a hotel eventually took in 13-year-old J. "I don't know whether they were being kind to me or they needed someone to do the work. Baby sitting their children every night and using up any spare time in cleaning, ironing and washing clothes and linen seemed to be all that I was needed for," she says.
J was rewarded with a single bedroom and meals for all the work done.
"I put up with it for about nine months, and then I ran away with two other aboriginal girls. They were suffering the same discrimination as I was. We managed to get as far as Toowoomba before the police nabbed us," she says.
Police Sergeant K was notified to collect the girls. His scowling appearance and obvious displeasure having to drive all that way to pick them up is still a vivid imprint in her mind.

As the buried memories start to resurface J breaks into quiet sobbing. The stream of tears, so hard to hold back is evidence of the immense pain she suffers when recounting her childhood. But her need to express all the emotion and bitterness allows her to carry on with her story.

In 1972 at the age of 14 years she was placed in a share house with four other girls of similar age. This move proved to be unsuccessful, as J would not settle into these restrictive environments. Her unruly behaviour over a period of several months exhausted the patience of the authorities, she admits.

She was eventually detained at the Wilson Girls' Hospital, which adjoined the Sir Leslie Wilson Youth Detention Centre. "They put me in there because I kept running away and playing up, just like any lonely kid is liable to do. They reckoned I was uncontrollable. I still can't fathom why they called it a hospital. It was nothing more than a prison. We were locked in during the day and our rooms were locked at night. Most of these girls had nowhere else to go. Homelessness was the only visible reason why some of them were locked up," she says.

J says many of the girls became emotionally distraught and frustrated at the way they were treated under lockup. She believes many would deliberately play up just to make sure they were still alive, a childish way of reducing the boredom.
J was involved in this behaviour and says she sometimes found it to be a great relief to smash her head against the wall. "They would dope us up so we'd calm down. Sometimes they'd use a needle as an instant knockout. They were expert at jabbing the needle into anyone who played up. It gave them complete control," she says.
It is still hard for J to comprehend why these people resorted to the use of needles and drugs to restrain 14- and 15-year-old girls.

"Every day about 1:00 pm, after lunch we would be given this coloured substance to drink. It would relax us for the rest of the afternoon, drugged up to the eyeballs again," J says.

The Sir Leslie Wilson Youth Detention Centre and the adjoining Girls Hospital gained a reputation over the years as being an institution of sinister brutality. A spokesman for Queensland Youth Detention Centres says, "Those facilities were forcibly closed a couple of years ago after public concern and they were demolished not long after the closure."
J likens the year she spent there as being similar to living in a "hellhole".

One day she was taken from the Girls' Hospital and placed in a house with other young men and women. She remembers the tenseness in the atmosphere and how edgy everybody appeared.
A pastor, whose disciplinary measures J describes as extreme, supervised the house.
"There was no kindness, tenderness, love or understanding ever offered. It now seems hard to imagine this treatment was being dished out to children only 30 years ago".
"We worked most of the day. Slaves would have received better treatment. No wonder there has been such a concerted effort by churches and governments to cover up what really went on in its institutions and probably still does," she says.
She will never forget one instance when she was quite sick. "I could not move, couldn't dress myself and move my arms or even stand up. The Pastor approached me and told me to get to work. I was sitting down on a chair. I said to him I was so crook I couldn't move."

"He told me I was not allowed to sit down while addressing him. 'Stand up, stand up immediately', he said. I remained seated. He went and fetched a large jug of water and threw it over me. I will never forget the hard unkind look he had on his face, almost evil."

"When I was able to move I fled the Pastor's house and took off. I finally came upon a stranger's house and knocked on the door till a lady answered. I begged her to let me come inside. She said, 'yes'. It was such a relief to feel safe, even if it was only for a couple of minutes," J recalls.

"The pastor arrived. Evidently the lady had known where I'd come from and phoned the Pastor to pick me up. He finally begrudgingly accepted that there were serious problems with my health so he arranged that I be taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. But strangely they didn't treat me as a patient but as some sort of looney criminal. They imprisoned me again. This time it was in Lowson House, a security ward at the hospital," she says.

J remembers how the doctors provided tests and after appropriate treatment she gradually recovered, spending the next couple of months in hospital. The doctors explained to her that the illness and the painful immobility of her joints were a direct consequence of the amount of anti depressants and knock out drugs she was forcibly given at the Wilson Girls' facility, during her one year of imprisonment.
She says a hospital social worker arranged accommodation for her at a Hostel, a very large place with many residents.

"A lot of them were just like me. Lost souls with no family and nowhere we could really call home. It was strictly supervised, but in a more humane way than other places I had been sent to," she says.

Episodes of glue sniffing occurred at the hostel with the other Aboriginal girls. "We had a hidden place behind the banana trees where none of the staff could see what was going on. I tried it, but soon realised sniffing glue was the surest way of stuffing up your life," she says.

Severe bouts of depression followed and J found herself back in Lowson House and Wolston Park Psychiatric Hospital for varying periods.

Finally in 1976 at the age of 17 years she moved into a flat in Brunswick Street, New Farm, where she started living without being told what to do and when to do it.
She made many friends who accepted her without question. She says there was never a hint of racial discrimination as people in the New Farm-Fortitude Valley area were more understanding and tolerant.
"Work was regular and there was always a weekly pay cheque. One of my all time favourite working assignments was when I did photographic modelling for an agency. I was quite attractive, not a bad sort and everyone told me I had a good figure," she says.

As she grew older she noticed her friends were getting married, having children and moving out into the suburbs. Loneliness and depression, similar to her juvenile experiences, came back to haunt and overwhelm her. She realised she had no brother or sister or family member she could rely on. She was completely on her own and the need to search out kinships kept tugging at her heart.

After many discussions with D, her best friend, J finally was convinced to seek out her roots. "I obtained the address of my biological mum. She was living in ----- , so one weekend D and I set out to ----- to discover something about my past. We booked into a hotel and then went around to this house.
"I was all pent up, too frightened to knock on the door. In fact I felt numb all over. I then noticed all these kids gathering around wondering who I was and what business I had at their house."

"I got up the courage and knocked. I waited for what seemed an eternity, which possibly was only a few seconds. I was hoping that the door wouldn't open and that I could get the hell out of there," she recalls.
When B opened the door J established whether she was speaking to the right person and then told her "I am your daughter."
"She seemed a little shocked as she leaned her shoulder on the door for support. A puzzled look on her face wondering why I was there and what I wanted." she says.
J says there was no histrionics, no great realisation that some momentous occasion had occurred. It was just as if two complete strangers had met, who had nothing in common.

J and D were invited in for a cup of tea and something to eat and spent the afternoon having small talk about many different things, including her mother's remarriage but J father's name was not mentioned. "I could not form the words to ask her why we were dumped and she never bothered to say. The number of children she had, 11 in all, four with her first husband (my father), and another seven with her second husband, how could she have all these extras after abandoning sis and me?" J asks. "I thought, well I've seen her now. There were no bad thoughts. I don't have to wonder anymore."

"I went for a walk up the road with my new found half brothers, who were keen to talk and wanted to point me towards some of my long lost relatives. But I was not really interested. It was as if I was encased in a large clear bubble floating along the street, not being any part of what was going on, just an observer, as the kids identified the different houses where my uncles, aunts and other relatives lived," she says.

She says she felt such relief when they left and arrived back in familiar territory.

J says she doesn't feel as though she is missing out on anything by not getting to know them better or trying to cultivate some sort of attachment. "They've got their lives and I have mine."

Those times in New Farm and the Valley were great and life was good to her, with boyfriends and relationships. She never saw marriage or having children as being one of the options in realising life fulfilment. "But the day came when I realised there was a gap in my life because I didn't have a husband and no children. It seemed like my life was a deep chasm and right at the bottom, out of my reach was what I yearned for, a family of my own." she says.

J2, who has been J closest friend for nearly 20 years says, "J's dreams are now becoming a reality by the creation of her own family and providing a far better life for her children. She has always been a stable and level headed person, not aggressive or negative. I think that it is extraordinary that the treatment she received in her younger days has not done irreparable damage. It is more than evident that it has given her great strength and tolerance."

But the tale of J's family life is another story, which as yet has no ending. J hopes the future holds a few more blessings and memories she can cherish and value, rather than revisiting the times of loneliness and pain that was her lot when growing up and barely scraping through.

The following information was provided to the Queensland Opposition Party
by Mr Robert Althaus in September 2003

Please note that the names of all involved have been censured.
For this article, the Aboriginal mother will be called J.

Matters that relate to a face to face interview with J, of ------- , in April 2002.
The purpose of the interview was for tertiary assessment, in the subject of feature writing, done at QUT as part of a Journalism course which I have now completed.

Apart from the material used for QUT assessment I have enclosed the additional following information:

During the course of the interviews with J, I was provided with additional information about the removal of her son Z by a convicted paedophile.
She begged me to attempt to assist her in making the issue public because all of her previous attempts to have the matters resolved had failed.
These attempts included contacting
a. Aboriginal Legal Services, whom I believe at one stage were her representatives in Court action
b. The Dept of Families, who seemed to be acting in the interests of R and not J and her son Z,
c. The Courts, whose directions to R in the matter were being completely ignored
d. The local state schools in the Brisbane Central Electorate of Local Member Peter Beattie who were aware
of most of the facts.
The convicted paedophile who removed Z from his school and defied Court orders to return the child to his mother and back to his school was known as R the father of the child.

I personally contacted Family Services and the Family Court about the matters which J had raised.
Family services said that because I was relaying information on to them I could not be advised as to the outcome because those matters were of a confidential nature. They assured me the matter would be thoroughly looked into. The Family Court was very blunt in that they would not discuss anything and told me that any information pertaining to matters before the court could not be reported.

J advised me shortly after that she was visited by Family Services who she claimed harassed her by making insinuations about her treatment of her children.
If in fact the Dept were so concerned about the treatment of Z and she was an irresponsible mother then why didn't they remove the other child from her custody.
They did not. All they seemed to be concerned with was securing Z's place with and given custody to a known convicted paedophile.

J was very intimidated by the way she was being treated and feared that her children would finish up in some foster care homes as she had experienced in her childhood.

The Principals of the schools in the immediate neighbourhood where she had placed her son and where R had attempted to enrol Z would not return her phone calls.
She made these calls to the schools in desperation to find out if indeed her son was still attending school.

I rang the Principal of the ----- School and said that I was doing a story as a student journalist about J and it had been revealed to me about the circumstances of R removing Z from the school and keeping him at home; only bringing him to school when it suited him.
I informed the Principal that I knew he was aware that R was a known convicted paedophile and enquired why was he allowing this deviate to have access to a school full of vulnerable school age children.
I further informed him that the parents of all the children attending that school should be made aware he was allowing a paedophile to circulate in the grounds and amongst the children who were supposed to be in his care.
He then became quite agitated and flustered but assured me he would immediately contact J by phone and inform her about Z's well being and his attendance at the school.
J informed me that the Principal spoke to her and said that Z's attendance at the school had been irregular and he had spoken to R and been assured R would ensure Z's regular attendance.
She contacted some one in the legal service about R not returning Z to her home or to the school and I believe another court hearing was set down.
I then suggested to J that she put the whole matter in the hands of her local member, Mr. Peter Beattie, the Premier of the State.
I was under the misguided impression that if anyone was prepared to help this woman in the difficulties she was having with the Families Dept, the Courts, the Schools, the Police and not to forget the paedophile, then surely it would be the local member who would show an interest.
J lived only one street away from the Electoral Office and I took her there. I could not remain with her as I had a lecture at University to attend so I left her to discuss the matter with the Electoral Secretary, who was either M or the one who replaced her.

I rang J that night and she told me that Peter Beattie's Electoral Office would do nothing to help her.
She said she relayed the whole of the circumstances relating to Z's removal, R's criminal paedophilic record, the failure of the Courts or the police to enforce judgements, how she felt intimidated by Family Services and the Police and the failure of the Schools to have proper and due care for Z in that the principal knew the child had been removed by a paedophile and was subject to Court orders and chose to do nothing.

J said the Electoral Secretary made several phone calls after receiving all the relevant information from her.
She was on the phone for quite some time and J says the Secretary was relaying all the information she told her. She believed one was to the Premier's Office and another was to Dept Families.

J said the Electoral Secretary stated she was acting for and on behalf of the Local Member and could not do anything to assist as the matter was nothing to do with the Premier as the local member. She said there could be no interference as the matter was being handled by the Dept. or words and meaning to that effect.
J was also of the opinion that R was able to gain such wide support from a variety of people, namely, a school principal, several Officers in the Families Dept, several police officers, a Doctor, (now deceased) and others, because of homosexual connections and possibly part and parcel of a paedophile ring.

She felt helpless and unable to achieve anything; like coming up against a brick wall, nobody wanted to know, nobody wanted to help.

I was unable to assist her any further because of work constraints and sadly J developed stomach cancer which took hold very quickly and she died last February.

The terrible thing is that she died knowing she had lost her son to a paedophile, the Family Court giving full custody of Z to a known convicted paedophile.
He did not nor did he ever seek custody of J's daughter M who now is in foster care. The whole sad episode of J's childhood was being repeated.

I make this information available to you because I feel that J not only had to endure a horrific childhood but was forced to suffer once again at the hands of an uncaring Dept of Families and the Courts; a grave injustice was handed down to this unfortunate woman.

J may have had a few problems as a person but as a mother she loved her children and provided for them with all the skills at her disposal.

This can be attested to by her landlord and former employee S, school teacher, owner of the ----- , who is quite prepared to speak to your Office in connection with this matter and the abominable way in how J was treated and how her son finished up in the hands of a convicted paedophile with the approval of the Family Court and Families Dept.

How this unfortunate child will cope or how he will turn out bearing in mind all the traumas in his life; being torn between mother and a paedophile, associating with perverts, the death of his mother and witnessing sexual acts performed by his father with children and others.
If this child survives it surely will be a miracle and not because of good judgement by Dept. Families and the Family Court.
And certainly not because of any genuine concern by the local member Peter Beattie about child abuse and paedophiles.

What I now find most disturbing is how this hypocrite Premier Peter Beattie is now pontificating about his abhorrence of child abuse and paedophiles yet when he and his electoral Office had the opportunity to make a difference in one Aboriginal woman's life and protect her son from living within the confines of a grossly immoral lifestyle, he and his electoral office chose to say and do nothing.

Further it is my contention that all the problems she was put through by the Families Dept., the Courts, Police, and state schools in Peter Beattie's electorate were directly responsible for this caring mother's untimely death at the age of 45.

I give my assurance that all the information contained in all the documentation and this covering letter are true and correct in every detail as told to me by J and obtained by my own inquiries.