The boy at the centre of the Don Dale abuses that triggered a royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the NT spent the bulk of last weekend in a watch house on the Gold Coast after being arrested by Queensland police for entering a restricted area.
Dylan Voller, now aged 20, was on the Gold Coast with his mother Joanne taking part in the “Stolenwealth Games” demonstrations against the 2018 Commonwealth Games. His arrest on Saturday morning in Currumbin, a suburb about 25km south of the main section of the Gold Coast strip, came after a car he was travelling in was diverted by police onto a detour that passed through a designated Major Events Area (MEA). Bail conditions stemming from an arrest outside the opening ceremony of the Games 11 days earlier prevented Voller from entering these areas, commonly referred to as “yellow zones”.
Also arrested for the same offence was Ruby Wharton, 21, a key organiser within the Stolenwealth Games protest group. Video footage taken by Voller from inside the car suggests that the pair and a third passenger were headed to the southern end of the Gold Coast away, from the main games precincts, on a trip unrelated to a protest demonstration. Both were taken to nearby Palm Beach police station and held in custody to face the Southport Magistrate’s court on Monday morning.
It was Voller’s third arrest over the Games period and followed charges for the same offence on the morning of Friday 13, after the Stolenwealth Games group protested below a live beachside broadcast of the Sunrise television program. Police arrested an additional four activists involved in that morning’s demonstrations on charges of obstructing police and contravening a direction when they attempted to march through the nearby Broadbeach mall.
An official media statement from Queensland police that was released later in the morning said one of the five men arrested attempted to harm himself in the back of the police van on the way to the Southport Watch House, but was prevented him from doing so and transported to hospital. Protestors had already confirmed that the man police referred to in their 11:09 am statement was Dylan Voller, after being alerted to the incident by a tweet from Seven News journalist Robert Ovadia, which said that an Aboriginal protester had tried to hang himself.
Protesters said that Voller’s mother was initially not permitted access to see her son during his hospitalisation. Voller was later released from police custody but to date has not provided a public statement.
Within hours of Saturday’s arrests in Currumbin, police and Gold Coast city officials moved to shut down the protest camp, located within parkland 10km north of Surfers Paradise. Live video posted to Facebook shows health and hygiene inspectors informing some protesters that the site had to be vacated within an hour. The same footage shows one official saying that child protection agents would also be attending for an inspection of conditions within the camp.
One protester reported a tense stand off between the inspectors and protest camp leaders that lasted nearly two hours, with one elderly lady strip searched by police.
Later, a group of the protestors holding valid tickets to attend the closing ceremony were delayed entry to Carrara stadium for over two hours as police performed multiple security checks that involved repeated pat-downs and the removal and confiscation of items of clothing deemed offensive.
The Stolenwealth Games group say they consisted of First Nations communities, groups and organisations from around the continent who had come together to protest the 2018 Games to draw attention to the issues that continue to impact Indigenous people in Australia today.
Dylan Voller has next to no education because he was a violent child who kept assaulting other kids at school and was eventually kicked out. His family apparently had no interest in getting him the help he needed. Now he’s 20 yrs of age and instead of spending his days getting an education and trying to improve his life after a not great childhood he’s decided to join the professional protestor classes and take zero responsibility for his own life and future.
Can’t say I’m that surprised.
That’s right Bobby, blame the victim of years of abuse and torture for being angry. He was not kicked out of school for being violent, he was 11 years old when cops and other thugs decided he was fair game.
Your comment disgusts me beyond measure and you should hang your racist head in shame.
You don’t know what your talking about.
I spend my working days with lots of southeast Asian and Indian migrants. Guess how much sympathy Aboriginal disadvantage engenders amongst our newest and now largest migrant groups?
Demographics are going to kill the victim industry
Apparently in the broken and diseased minds of the far left like Shepherdmj wanting Aboriginals to get an education and decent jobs rather than wasting their time on pointless protests is racist. You couldn’t make it up.
My comment was to shepherd who has.a ‘racist’ fetish. I’m not sure if there is something you can take for that. Education is so important. When Mr Voller has a family his children will benefit greatly from that. I trusted you were trying to see a solution. Education based rehabilitation for young indigenous men is a vital part of work being done in the regions by indigenous educators and organisations.. When young people complete diplomas and language courses people have cause for hope. Many indigenous families are not afflicted by alcohol according to Dr Norman Swan it is the majority so it’s also important to keep that in mind that there are many many successful families working towards a better future for the next generation to have better lives than the very sad and tragic ones of the past.
Instead of concentrating on Voller who is an easy target, we should be asking why did the police divert his car into an area into which he was banned so subsequently he was arrested. Was this a ‘sting’ by the police? I can’t help but think it could be especially since the whole protest was shut down ASAP. More likely it sounds like the corporates didn’t like their cash cow being questioned so called in their help in the form of their mates in the Qld Police, Voller and his cohorts being the scapegoats for the protection of an image. In my mind this has tarnished that image even more.
A better question is why isn’t Voller out looking for a job or getting an education rather than being a useful idiots for professional protestors who are just using him to get media attention?
What is a ‘professional protestor’? Meaningless buzz word.
Getting an education might just mean being aware of injustice and showing it. Voller hurt no one, was asserting his right to disagree with the banal public image of the Games. Sport as diversion and charades- remember the 1936 Games. Seems the police were doing the bidding of the organisers, anxious not to lose money or tarnish their confected image.
Over-riding a question is ignoring it. Thanks for the detailed analysis of my question. Was it beneath your purview?
So “Bobby” (coincidentally a British word for police), the police corral him into an area he was not allowed to be in, and then arrest him for being there (and I assume they would have also arrested him for not obeying their directions, so he was unlikely not to be arrested due to police coercion), and you justify this because the young man was not looking for a job or getting educated on a Saturday morning.
The police were engaged in “ removal and confiscation of items of clothing deemed offensive. ”. Where are the free speech champions? This is what lack of free speech really is, the state censoring you (regardless of whether you agree with what is said of not).