Jack, Writer, Broken Hill Wilyakali / Barkindji Country

Jack is a writer who moved to Broken Hill in 2011, after hearing the story of a murder, and the wrong guy going to prison for it back in the 50s. When he began investigating it a series of bizarre events occurred; calls from the victims family telling him not to look into it, and water balloons filled with red paint were thrown at his house. He continued to investigate the story, finding out most of his information at the pub, from people who wished to remain anonymous for fear of what the town might do. For a while Jack was concerned enough to consider not writing the book for this same reason. He told me the thing about Broken Hill is that its strong union roots still linger on the psyche of the town, and dictate what people choose to say and not say. And they aren’t kind to those who choose to say the things they don’t want said.

Jack told me about a Stanford study he’d heard of about crows; people were sent to rough up the crows one day, and different people to be kind to them the next. Years later, the crows’ children were still wary of the people who’d roughed up their parents, and liked the ones who were kind to them, without ever having seen what had happened. Jack thinks there’s a language between the crows we don’t know, and it’s possible the crows in Broken Hill are the only ones who know what really happened on the night of the murder all those years ago.