Mingling amongst Victoria's elite that night was a rewarding and heartwarming experience for the boy who had been forcibly removed from his family as a baby for being Aboriginal, and who had endured years of horrific sexual and physical abuse while in the care of the Salvation Army.

The decades that followed saw Charles battle heroin addiction and live a life spent with equal time on stage as a vibrant actor and behind bars as a career burglar.

The award was a vindication for Charles. The establishment had recognised his talents and Charles felt his life had come full circle.

"I thought I had no bloody chance, and then they read my name”.

Usually Charles shuns praise but that night he had allowed himself to indulge in the adoration of the crowd. A few hours later that jubilation was cruelly snatched away.

"When I left the Hilton, as usual with us [Aboriginal people] we grab the nearest person with us if they’re white to hail the cab, so I did this with my manager,” Charles told BuzzFeed News.

“My manager was saying [to the taxi driver], ‘I want you to take me to my place and then Uncle Jack to his place and we have a taxi voucher is that all good?’, and he said, ‘No, he [Charles] must pay cash to me up front,’ despite having a Cabcharge.”

“He point blank said, ‘he [Charles] might not pay at the other end,’ I was so upset I said ‘I declare you fella to be a racist, you’ve just racially profiled me and I object to paying you a bribe at 8:30p.m. at night to take me home”.

In the second cab Charles got into with his non-Indigenous manager, the driver pointed out that it was common and accepted practice amongst taxi drivers to ask Aboriginal people for their fares upfront.

"The next taxi driver was a gentleman from West Africa and we told him about the incident and he told us that, ‘we are allowed to ask Aborigines to pay money upfront’,” says Charles who was then refused another taxi a few days later at the airport. The taxi had screeched off when Charles tried to open the door in front of his dismayed manager.

It was the final straw for the actor who has been refused taxis several times in the past few years, many of them well publicised incidents, including a booked cab that refused to take him to rehearsals at Sydney's Belvoir Theatre, despite having his face plastered on taxi advertisements across the city.



Charles doesn't want compensation for the discrimination, he wants to spearhead an overhaul of the Victorian taxi industry.

"The proof is in the rotten pudding. There is something awry with the taxi industry here in Victoria and right around the country. At the moment I am seeking a way forward and I want a roundtable. I want to hear their stories. I want to hear why they are racist towards us and they can’t say it’s not racist".

Charles is now working with renowned human rights campaigner and barrister Julian McMahon, who represented executed Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, to make the reforms happen. Charles can't reveal what those reforms will look like on paper, but does say he would like to see a heavy focus on cultural awareness for drivers and a policy ensuring drivers are aware of the damage racism can have on Indigenous people.

"Australians don't want to own up to being racist, but we as a nation are significantly racist and people are being raised to be racist. And the migrant taxi drivers who are racist toward the first Australians are obviously learning that from a toxic industry. Someone is telling them that Aborigines are bad, that they don't pay their fare".

As Jack speaks to BuzzFeed News, an enthusiastic blue heeler dog bounds up and almost jumps in his lap, Charles lights up and flashes a bright smile from a mouth that's buried amid an imposing and impressive grey-white beard.

This is Charles' kingdom, he's been living here since he was young, he knows these streets intimately, they served as his home in between prison stints and today he lives in one of those bleak government housing tower blocks overlooking the district.



He jumps on a small red Vespa and before pulling out onto the road he says, "I’m placing myself full at the front against this, trying to make this an issue that goes away".