Sarah Dingle: In the middle of the hot mining town of Kalgoorlie Boulder is a gully with a creek, laced with bike tracks. This is where the kids go to play.

Girl: The place where we played, where we have memories with them, where we had fun and it was just…

Girl: Where we had fights as well…

Girl: Yeah, build our cubby houses…

Girl: Makeshift cubby houses.

Sarah Dingle: Two months ago a 14-year-old boy was at the gully with a stolen motorbike. He was allegedly hit by a ute and killed. The 55-year-old driver is white. He's the owner of the stolen motorbike. The 14-year-old victim is Aboriginal, and tensions between black and white in town erupt.

Exactly what happened in the gully is the subject of an ongoing trial.

The day after 14-year-old Elijah Doughty's body was found, the 55-year-old man faced court in Kalgoorlie, charged with manslaughter, not murder.

Girl: The courthouse went on lockdown, from on the main street you can hear 'justice, justice' or 'we want justice', like you can feel the tension in the courtroom down on the street. I think everyone in the courtroom just looked at each other like woooow, you know, like I can't believe…it was very…

Girl: It was bigger than you thought it would be. Everyone was just tense and then it became very violent very quick.

Sarah Dingle: That morning, Elijah's grandfather Albert Doughty had come to court to see justice being done for his grandson. Instead, he went outside to put himself between riot police and an angry crowd.

In the aftermath of the violence he spoke with ABC Open's Nathan Morris:

Nathan Morris: When that line of riot police were moving down Hannan Street, I saw you standing between a very angry mob of young people and the riot police. What were you trying to do?

Albert Doughty: Well, I really didn't want to see our people get hurt with the riot police. They had dogs, they had everything there. They was very angry, you know, and I really think that something really had to be done.

Sarah Dingle: When Background Briefing visited Kalgoorlie, Albert Doughty had no doubts about why people were on the rampage.

Albert Doughty: The young youth went mad outside, they started throwing or smashing the place up. Because nothing had been done to address the racism in this town. Youth had just had enough of being bullied and stamped on and not treated the right way by police in this community. And, you know, non-Aboriginal people will do what they like to kids. Threaten them. Bashing them up. Nothing's been done. No one's been charged.

Sarah Dingle: In the violence, 12 officers were injured and 5 police cars were damaged.

The District Police Superintendent is Darryl Gaunt.

Darryl Gaunt: It was a really frightening time for a lot of people here, but they crossed a line that day and we can't accept that behaviour as their way of expressing their grief. You can't terrorise other people to do that. But we understand and accept why that outpouring of grief was there, and tried to manage that, but it got out of hand.

Sarah Dingle: The manager of local radio station Tjuma Pulka, was also there. Debbie Carmody says the anger had a focus.

Debbie Carmody: What happened was not a riot, the anger was only directed at the justice system, the courthouse and the police.

Sarah Dingle: I'm Sarah Dingle, and on Background Briefing today we investigate a death in Kalgoorlie which has exposed years of divisions between black and white.

On the Monday morning before the courthouse violence, police received a call just before 9am to head to the gully where the kids play.

Darryl Gaunt: The sirens of the ambulance and then the police attending and all the lights, yeah, a crowd gathered pretty quickly, so there were quite a number of people in the vicinity.

Sarah Dingle: That morning Albert Doughty did what no grandfather should have to do.

Albert Doughty: I got a phone call 29th august to say check on your grandkids, see if there are any missing and there's a boy injured on the ground. And so I went down there, and they said a boy on the motorbike, he had a gold watch and chain on, and he always wore that gold watch and chain, and detectives told me that it might be Elijah.

Sarah Dingle: Albert Doughty had the horrific task of identifying the body of his grandson, 14-year-old Elijah. It's not known precisely what time Elijah was killed.

Albert Doughty: The coroner told me the injuries he got.

Sarah Dingle: Severe?

Albert Doughty: Multiple injuries. Every bone in his body was broken. Plus his skull was crushed.

Sarah Dingle: As the investigation continued, people came forward with more stories about the accused, and officers themselves.

Elijah's death had unleashed a torrent of distrust and fear towards white people and the police.

Darryl Gaunt: We've had to meet with lots and lots of people to try and diminish those rumours. We are still hearing today about kids who are alleged to have been witnesses to this offence and we've interviewed those kids and they deny completely having been there.

Sarah Dingle: Feeding the rumours was a deep suspicion that in Kalgoorlie, racism has long gone unchecked.

In the two and a half years before Elijah was killed, one Facebook page in particular had become notorious for hate speech towards Aboriginal people in town. The Facebook page was known as 'Kalgoorlie Crimes Whinge and Whine', where locals reported property theft, and named those they claimed were the culprits. In one post, radio station manager Debbie Carmody says there was a photo of three boys with a motorbike, and some strong language follows:

Debbie Carmody: And the comments that followed that image was very racist, with one of them being, 'Run the fuckers over.'

Sarah Dingle: The Facebook page was finally shut down three days after Elijah's body was found. But the hate posts had been going on for a long time, and people like Debbie Carmody wonder why nothing was done earlier.

Debbie Carmody: Some of the comments on those social media sites talked about culling Aboriginal youth. Attempts to get the sites shut down fell on deaf ears. The people in authority did not see that it was offensive. If that's not offensive, what does that tell our youth? That their life means little.

Sarah Dingle: Superintendent Darryl Gaunt denounces the Facebook pages.

Darryl Gaunt: A lot of that quite clearly had racist overtones to it from the white community.

Sarah Dingle: In the last 18 months in Kalgoorlie a review of the town's high school found high levels of dysfunction. Local authorities have told Background Briefing the Aboriginal youth suicide rate in the region has risen dramatically. And Kalgoorlie Superintendent Darryl Gaunt says there's also been increased Aboriginal youth offending, which fed the hate on Facebook.

Darryl Gaunt: There's been tensions because of increased crime involving juveniles in Kalgoorlie and Boulder over the last year or two. Much of that has been attributed to Aboriginal youths, and that's probably correct. We know this year alone we've charged probably 50% more juveniles with offending this year, albeit prosecuting that large number of juveniles doesn't fix the problems, it just puts more people into the justice system.

Sarah Dingle: No one has yet been charged over any of the social media comments. There has been a wave of charges over the violence outside the courthouse.

Darryl Gaunt: All the CCTV footage and all the statements of evidence, at the last time I checked, about 23 separate people have been charged with offences out of the riots, for about 44 separate charges.

Sarah Dingle: At the riot that day was Constable Brian Enad. He's Kalgoorlie first Youth Crimes Intervention Officer, a role he's held for just ten months.

Brian Enad: That day, it was difficult. Like, I wish I could have just been able to open up my chest and they could see how I was feeling as well.

Sarah Dingle: So he was a boy that you were working with?

Brian Enad: Yes, he was a boy that we were working with. I'm not gonna paint a picture like he was engaging with us every day and things like that, because he wasn't, but he was on our list and we did conduct visits with him we tried things with him. And on that day I was just trying to reassure everyone that, look, I'm feeling the same. And I hope that that got across.

Sarah Dingle: The day after the violence, the WA Child Protection Minister was supposed to visit Kalgoorlie, but she cancelled and has not yet returned.

Less than three weeks after Elijah Doughty was killed, Kalgoorlie erupted again when a house linked to the events surrounding Elijah's death burnt down. As the fire burned, police went to the home of Elijah's father.

According to an account by Elijah's grandfather, Albert Doughty, police ordered almost everyone out of the house.

Albert Doughty: They just thought, well, someone from this house burned the house down. But no one's been charged.

Sarah Dingle: The one person remaining inside with the police was a 10-year-old boy.

Albert Doughty: And they were standing outside the house for a good two or three hours before they could let anyone back in the house.

Sarah Dingle: Police took the 10-year-old boy down to the station. The boy is Elijah Doughty's cousin.

Albert Doughty: They took him out of the house and reckoned it was him and that and they stripped him, took his clothes took his clothes off him. His aunty had to go up there and give him clothes and that. And she ended up getting him out of there. And they wouldn't let her go in for an interview, they interviewed him by himself, didn't want an adult with him.

Sarah Dingle: Police deny this.

Superintendent Darryl Gaunt:

Darryl Gaunt: A 10-year-old was taken into custody for an unrelated matter.

Sarah Dingle: Not related to the fire?

Darryl Gaunt: No. No, he was present at the house and was wanted for other matters, and he was taken into custody for that.

Sarah Dingle: Was he questioned?

Darryl Gaunt: Not regarding that, no, I don't believe so.

Sarah Dingle: Did he have an adult with him or a guardian?

Darryl Gaunt: Well, I don't know if he was interviewed. No, he would not have been interviewed without a responsible adult present, we don't do that.

Sarah Dingle: But according to Elijah's grandfather, that's exactly what happened.

Sarah Dingle: So they took a 10-year-old boy into the police station and interviewed him without an adult present?

Albert Doughty: That's right, they wouldn't let the adult in there.

Sarah Dingle: And they were questioning a 10-year-old boy because they suspected him of setting a house on fire?

Albert Doughty: Without an adult, yeah, without an adult. Kalgoorlie police.

Sarah Dingle: Background Briefing sought to confirm with police if the boy was interviewed, and if an independent responsible adult was present. However, the police declined to answer.

WA police procedures state that if a responsible adult is available, they should be present when police are questioning an Aboriginal child.

After Elijah's death, the community set up a memorial camp in the gully where Elijah was killed. Under a sign saying 'Save Our Kids', people lit torches and left flowers, and fixed a cross to a tree.

But that night of the house fire, they decided to pack up the camp, fearful of what might happen next. A woman we'll call Anna was there, as were some police officers.

Anna: Two police officers pulled up in an unmarked car and they asked what's going on in the camp? And we said, the camp's getting packed up because these people are unsafe, we'll get blamed for what's going on over there. And they said, oh well, good idea.

Sarah Dingle: Minutes later, as they packed up the camp, two four-wheel-drives appeared in the reserve and drove towards them.

Anna: We was looking at these cars, they're coming a bit fast. And once they hit the creek bed I think everyone in the camp knew then that no, this is not right. Both police officers shone their torches straight at the people in the car. The cars were heading straight towards the camp, and then when they must've realised that they were both police officers, then they wheeled off and you know went past hurling abuse and all the rest of it as well.

Sarah Dingle: Anna was glad the police were there and visible.

Anna: It was a good response from them but if they hadn't come, if they were a minute later, they would have been dealing with a completely different circumstance.

Sarah Dingle: You think people would have been hurt?

Anna: Absolutely. In the very least they were coming to cause fear, I definitely believe they were coming to cause harm.

Sarah Dingle: I asked Anna if she got a look at who was in the cars.

Anna: Yep, they were all wearing mining vests, one of them was in a mining company car, and the second one was a private vehicle.

Sarah Dingle: Could you say which company?

Anna: I couldn't say which company it is.

Sarah Dingle: Were they white people?

Anna: All of them, yes. All men between 30 to 50 years of age.

Sarah Dingle: The police are yet to charge anyone over that incident.

Elijah's grandfather Albert Doughty was at home that same night and he says he also had an unwelcome drive-by.

Albert Doughty: Come in beeping the horns and spinning the wheels, and that night they spun the wheels in front of my place. Nearly cleaned my fence up. A big skid mark in front, you can see it was a four-wheel-drive, they run off the road and…

Sarah Dingle: Did you complain to the police?

Albert Doughty: It's a skid mark, they'll say anyone can do that. But I know four-wheel-drive marks when I see em.

Sarah Dingle: Before he was killed, Albert's grandson Elijah Doughty was known to police. He was amongst a small group of 15 juveniles aged 10 to 17, who Kalgoorlie's three youth officers had decided to focus on. Almost all of the group are Aboriginal, all but one are male, and they've all had brushes with the law.

I'm in the patrol car with youth officer Brian Enad, doing the morning rounds. He says one of his kids is living in a backpackers'.

Brian Enad: Oh one of our kids is there. Living in the linen cupboard. I mean, it's true, like a glorified linen cupboard.

Sarah Dingle: Why is one of your kids in the backpackers'?

Brian Enad: Just because of the way they kept their government housing, the state that it was in, so they've been ejected from there.

Sarah Dingle: Constable Enad says this family is Aboriginal, and they can't get new housing, so they've been working at the backpackers' in return for accommodation.

The boy who is living in what Constable Enad calls a linen cupboard is ten years old.

Brian Enad: It's part of a downward spiral for that little boy because it's such a negative environment and then he doesn't want to be there so then he's wandering the streets and getting into trouble and consistently having to go to court for issues.

Sarah Dingle: Superintendent Darryl Gaunt describes the role of officers like Brian Enad.

Darryl Gaunt: What we're trying to do is get in early, and doing a lot of stuff that's traditionally not a police role, but we recognise that if we don't do it we'll end up with the problem anyway. So we're just trying to really manage that further down the road and getting to these kids before they get too embedded in a life of crime.

Sarah Dingle: It sounds like a social worker position.

Darryl Gaunt: Yeah, social work, de facto parent, mentor, role model, it's all of those things rolled into one. When some of the stuff you're doing is as basic as waking them up, taking them to school, going back and making sure they're still at school, that can be quite resource-intensive. It's really things that you wouldn't consider a police role, but as I say, if we don't do it, well, that kid doesn't go to school.

Sarah Dingle: So you've got police officers waking kids up and taking them to school?

Darryl Gaunt: Yeah, yeah. Not all of them, some of them.

Sarah Dingle: In the car, Constable Enad says some of his tasks were a surprise even to him.

Brian Enad: I thought that there would be a lot more involvement from some of the other agencies, and that things would be more…that a foundation would already have been set with regards to some of the things that everyone's trying to do.

Sarah Dingle: Today the youth officers are taking another boy, 16-year-old Len, to a boxing session. First they workshop a small problem: Len doesn't have any shoes today.

Brian Enad: Well, do you want to go into the gym or are you happy to do some boxing?

Len: Dunno.

Brian Enad: Anything? Well, if we just go boxing we'll forgo the shoes because then we'll just go straight there, and I'll sort out the shoes afterwards then.

Len: Yep.

Brian Enad: And we'll grab a feed, you don't need shoes. All good? Sweet.

Sarah Dingle: The boxing lesson takes place at the Oasis Recreation Centre. Len spars well with Constable Enad, but he's quiet. He's recently been released from juvenile detention. The kids the police bring here can use the gym for free. Otherwise it costs money, and you'd need to have the right shoes.

What would you be doing if you weren't here?

Len: Bad stuff.

Sarah Dingle: Like what?

Len: Stealing.

Sarah Dingle: Just for something to do?

Len: Yeah.

Sarah Dingle: Ask any kid around Kalgoorlie and they'll tell you there's nothing to do unless you've got money. This is a problem for all kids, but particularly the Aboriginal kids in town, many of whom are less likely to have spare cash.

What is there for kids to do?

Elijah Shaw: Nothing really

Sarah Dingle: It's school holidays. In a square on the main street I meet teenager Elijah Shaw, who happens to have the same first name as the boy killed in the gully.

It's the middle of the day, it's a Tuesday, we're just sitting in the plaza. Are there any activities around town?

Elijah Shaw: Nup. All dopey.

Sarah Dingle: So what do kids do?

Elijah Shaw: Walk around. Really boring. Can't stand it. If you're in Kalgoorlie and you got nothing to do, the only thing I can say is travel, find stuff to do. Don't get into, you know, bad stuff and get bored.

Sarah Dingle: Is it really easy for kids around here to just fall into bad stuff when they're bored?

Elijah Shaw: There's nothing here that's free.

Sarah Dingle: Elijah Shaw knew Elijah Doughty.

How did you feel when you heard about his passing?

Elijah Shaw: Just felt upset and, you know, like Kalgoorlie was getting more worse.

Sarah Dingle: He was the same age as you?

Elijah Shaw: Yeah, same age.

Sarah Dingle: At night I meet a group of teenage girls, all Aboriginal, who grew up with Elijah Doughty.

Girl: He was nice to everyone. He was a good kid. But he fell into the wrong crowd and he started doing the wrong things. Not only that but he had some trouble at home so he started living with his Pop.

Sarah Dingle: Another girl, who we'll call Kate, went to Elijah Doughty's funeral.

Kate: Like the way I see it, it's kinda weird burying someone I grew up with.

Sarah Dingle: Kate is 16. She's not one of the kids on the radar of the youth officers, but like Elijah Doughty, she's faced some trouble at home.

Kate: At home it's kinda difficult cos getting abused from parents and stuff, like they take their anger out on us. Mostly. My parent just went from a healthy mother to…started taking drugs and started abusing me. And then that's when it got difficult on me. So yeah. So like I was arguing with my mum and she just got really aggro and then turned on me and gave me a black eye. And another day she got really angry at me cos…I dunno what happened, she just got the broom and hit me across the face.

Sarah Dingle: I asked Kate what she thinks kids in Kalgoorlie need. She says a safe place to go, where there's things for them to do.

Kate: There's like no kids activities or nothing, but like there's activities but you gotta pay for them and not enough money.

Sarah Dingle: So you want to see more activities for teenagers and for kids around town?

Kate: Yeah.

Sarah Dingle: That you don't have to pay for obviously

Kate: Yeah. And for like kids that are a bit misbehaving in the whole community, to just not be ashamed and just come somewhere or find someone to talk to and go to that activity and do fun stuff with them and forget about stuff that happens at home or somewhere. And just somewhere to go and chill.

Sarah Dingle: What Kate wants is a drop-in centre in Kalgoorlie. There have been calls for this for years.

So I went to see the Mayor of Kalgoorlie, John Bowler.

John Bowler: We're working towards that. They cost money. They just don't jump out of trees.

Sarah Dingle: Mayor Bowler says thanks to the violence following Elijah's death, the federal government has indicated it will fund a drop-in centre.

John Bowler: And I've got to say, since the riot, things like the riot do help focus people. There is money coming from Canberra, but it's coming. That'll be planned and the centre will be built.

Sarah Dingle: What will council contribute?

John Bowler: Whatever it needs to be…

Sarah Dingle: After that?

John Bowler: We'll fill in all the gaps. We don't have spare hundreds of thousands of dollars in our back pocket that haven't been budgeted for.

Sarah Dingle: In recent years, the council has funded the creation of a new golf course, at an initial cost of $15 million dollars, in the hope that other backers would come on board. That never happened. The council also funds the running of the golf course, and for the last two years the golf club has also refused to pay its full $300,000 licensing fee to council.

Sarah Dingle: It just seems extraordinary that the golf course has never turned a profit and probably won't turn a profit for another six years, which would be 12 years of operations without turning a profit, and yet the city doesn't yet have a youth drop-in centre, given all the social problems that you say exist.

John Bowler: We'll address that.

Sarah Dingle: The council has now propped up the golf course to the tune of $25.5 million. That amounts to a council subsidy of more than $60,000 per golf club member. The golf club only has around 400 members, one of them is the mayor.

Sarah Dingle: Do you think you have a conflict of interest because you're a member of the golf club?

John Bowler: Don't be stupid. That's the dumbest question you have ever asked in your life isn't it? Because I'm a mayor I'm not supposed to play golf?

Sarah Dingle: No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying…

John Bowler: Yes, you did.

Sarah Dingle: No, I'm asking whether you think you have a conflict of interest, perceived or actual, because you're a member of the golf club, which owes the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

John Bowler: Well, that was built by a previous mayor and I think did a wonderful job. It's a fantastic facility for this community.

Sarah Dingle: The CEO of Kalgoorlie Council, John Walker, used the golf course recently. But even he finds it expensive.

John Walker: I played there last week and it cost me $170 for two people, so it's pretty expensive.

Sarah Dingle: In May this year Kalgoorlie-Boulder Council was named the second worst performing council in the state.

John Walker had just started in his role as CEO.

John Walker: Being 139th out of 140 is a bit of a shock, I knew there were issues but that was one of the reasons I chose to come. It's challenging.

Sarah Dingle: John Walker soon realised that during the mining boom, things at council had gotten loose.

John Walker: Things like retention and attraction allowances that staff got. But instead of them being used to retain staff or attract new staff they became a de facto pay rise for everybody. We had 21, no sorry 23 managers when I got here earning over $165,000 a year each, which is too many. We now have eight.

Sarah Dingle: I mean, that sounds incredibly profligate; 23 managers for a council for a city where there's only about 30,000 people?

John Walker: Yeah, I mean we had a $100 million budget and we had $28 million dollars in employment costs so that's a fairly high number.

Sarah Dingle: How much would a drop-in centre cost?

John Walker: That's probably…I don't know off the top of my head but a million or two.

Sarah Dingle: The local Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School only caters for years 7 to 10, but in May this year a scathing government review described a school falling apart at the seams. It said the curriculum was incoherent and jeopardised students' ability to transition to a year 11 college. It also found the leadership team was fractured, and morale was very low. In recent years there have been a number of physical attacks on teachers.

A girl we'll call Jen witnessed an attack last year.

Jen: One of my friends even, like, she assaulted the teacher. And she threw a chair at him and she booted into him or something or whatever. And that's when they were like we're gonna split youse up now.

Sarah Dingle: So you're in year 11 now?

Jen: Yeah. And really? So I'm the only one of that group of friends who still goes to school today.

Sarah Dingle: Elijah Doughty was also a student at Kalgoorlie-Boulder High, and when he was killed, he was on suspension.

More than one in five students are Aboriginal, but the review of the school found there was no formal recognition of Aboriginal culture by the school, and it did not have a welcoming environment for its Aboriginal pupils.

A current Aboriginal student we'll call Mel has asked repeatedly for the school to recognise her culture.

Mel: To be honest I feel ashamed of the school because this is the Wongatha community and the school, they keep saying, oh, we'll celebrate this, we'll celebrate that. And they force it to the support staff. And the support staff are too busy dealing with the troubled kids. I'm a student, I've had other students with me on it, I've had the other council members, and we've all put it across and no one's done anything.

Sarah Dingle: What kind of message does it send to you that they will not recognise Aboriginal culture in the school?

Mel: Well, I've got a bit of racism there.

Sarah Dingle: The Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier is also the state's Education Minister. He says change will come.

Peter Collier: Six months ago I launched the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework. We are the very first state in the nation to introduce that framework. So that is a line in the sand for our schools. That is to say that we must have embedded within our curriculum an awareness and an understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal culture.

Sarah Dingle: In recent weeks, stage one of a $45 million dollar upgrade of school buildings was trashed by vandals less than 24 hours after opening. Three 13-year-olds and one ten-year-old have been charged for damage to various buildings around town.

Minister Peter Collier:

Peter Collier: Several Aboriginal children were actually responsible for the vandalism that occurred at the high school.

Sarah Dingle: His spokesman says the Minister was told that by police, but later the Minister's office was forced to correct what he told us; only one of children involved is Aboriginal, and the advice from police was wrong. One of those four boys was hospitalised after officers released a police dog which bit his face and body.

Was that appropriate, should they have unleashed that animal?

Peter Collier: Well, I think that the child...I don't know the circumstances. From what I understand, the child was not being accommodating to the police.

Sarah Dingle: Would you expect the police to find some other way to deal with that situation other than unleashing a dog on a child?

Peter Collier: Well, as I said Sarah, I'm not sure of the circumstances. So as I said previously, the four youths involved had been pretty much on a tirade across the town for a number of hours.

Sarah Dingle: Was it one of the 13-year-olds or the 10-year-old boy who was bitten?

Peter Collier: I've got no idea.

Sarah Dingle: The injured boy was 13. There's now a police inquiry underway into whether that use of force was in accordance with police policy.

Everyone has a different theory on why there are social problems in Kalgoorlie. For Mayor John Bowler, each generation of Aboriginal people is worse than the last.

John Bowler: Everything comes in a way down to the parents. What I'm saying is, it seems that each generation gets a little worse than the one before. I worry, what's the next generation going to be like in 20 years' time?

Sarah Dingle: The manager of Kalgoorlie's Tjuma Pulka radio station, Debbie Carmody:

Debbie Carmody: I mean that comment is just offensive. What's he saying about me? We're all bad?

Sarah Dingle: The Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier says the Mayor is free to say what he likes.

Peter Collier: Look, John's a friend of mine but there's a few things I disagree with him on, I disagree with him on that one. Aboriginal people are beautiful people.

Sarah Dingle: But do you think he should be saying that as an elected public official? You are the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Peter Collier: That's up to him. He can make that call if he likes.

Sarah Dingle: Do you think it's appropriate for him to say that?

Peter Collier: Well, as I said, it's up to John to make that call.

Sarah Dingle: He is the mayor of a town which just had what your premier called a race riot. You're not going to condemn him for saying that each generation of Aboriginal people is a little worse than the last?

Peter Collier: I'm not going to...

Sarah Dingle: Is that a helpful comment?

Peter Collier: I'm going to disagree with him, Sarah.

Sarah Dingle: Mayor John Bowler told Background Briefing he thinks increasing Aboriginal social dysfunction is explained by the granting of native title rights.

Why is it getting worse?

John Bowler: I think their reliance on social handouts. I think native title has been a big disruptor. People in capital cities just think what you're talking about, native title is wonderful. Well, it's just destroyed them. Native title means a handful of the claim leaders get a lot of money, a lot of money. A few of the close relatives get a bit, and the bulk get nothing. Sadly, a lot of the native title money ends up in the hotel bottle shop or the TAB.

Sarah Dingle: In fact, there are no native title rights in Kalgoorlie. The Wongatha people are not entitled to any native title money from the town's gigantic gold mine, known as the Super Pit. Next door to the Super Pit is an Aboriginal community known as Ninga Mia. Aboriginal pastor Geoffrey Stokes has a very different idea of what feeds social problems in Kalgoorlie.

Geoffrey Stokes: Well, there's broken down cars, rubbish and yeah this place is a very terrible place, you know.

Sarah Dingle: The council doesn't clean up street rubbish at Ninga Mia, only on the road leading up to the community.

Geoffrey Stokes: It's cold and dangerous. You know, people come here, this place hasn't got any fences around it, the white kids in town they come out here yelling on their bikes and cars, come down looking for fights and abuse the Aboriginal people. We got nothing to protect ourselves.

Sarah Dingle: Pastor Stokes, we're standing next to the central building which is the church and I can see some graffiti on the side, it says 'KKK'.

Geoffrey Stokes: Yeah them mongrels come out here too, them demons.

Sarah Dingle: Who did that?

Geoffrey Stokes: I don't know, but black people don't do that.

Sarah Dingle: Kalgoorlie mayor John Bowler says the anti-social elements in town are mainly confined to a small group of teenagers, who are mostly Aboriginal. The mayor thinks magistrates should be able to order that young offenders to be caned.

John Bowler: It's for the courts and the magistrates and the judges to maybe even in liaison with the parents, the parents might say yes, please give them three whacks with a cane or whatever. That might turn his life around. I know once he goes away, the good chance is his life is never, ever going to come back onto an even keel.

Sarah Dingle: At what age do you envisage that would be appropriate?

John Bowler: As I said, 15 to 18.

Sarah Dingle: And just for males?

John Bowler: Probably. The girls don't…I think there's other ways to get through to the girls.

Sarah Dingle: The CEO of council John Walker disagrees.

Do you support it?

John Walker: No.

Sarah Dingle: Do you think it's helpful?

John Walker: I don't think it's helpful. It was in fact raised a lot of times during the riot as a comment. I think it upset a few people.

Sarah Dingle: Constable Brian Enad says there's more going on with youth offending than meets the eye.

At the police station, Background Briefing was granted access to the youth officer headquarters, where mugshots of their group of 15 youths line the wall. Elijah Doughty's photo is still up there.

Constable Enad is troubled by something he's observed in this group. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, is permanent brain damage in a child, caused by their mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

Brian Enad says there is FASD in his group.

Brian Enad: One of the reasons why they're with us, their criminality, can be based with the fact that they do have FASD and some of their decision-making can be poor. Their developmental age may not be their actual age, so then that's got legal implications as to whether or not they should be charged or not.

Sarah Dingle: Brian Enad says one of his group, a 16-year-old boy, was recently sentenced to juvenile detention. While inside, only after he'd been through the court process and found guilty, the boy was assessed for FASD for the first time in his life and diagnosed with the condition.

You guys have a group of maybe 15 kids that you work with intensively, mostly boys. Do you suspect that others would be picked up by FASD testing if you tested them all?

Brian Enad: Definitely, definitely. I could confidently say that a majority of them would probably be on the spectrum.

Sarah Dingle: Constable Enad wants all the kids he works with tested for the disability.

Brian Enad: I think if we can, let's get everyone tested that goes through. It is something that's important and it's something that if we ignore it will just hit us in a huge tidal wave of behavioural issues and education problems and things like that, which we're probably experiencing locally at the moment.

Sarah Dingle: And once those issues are there, the underlying problems become harder to solve.

In the last couple of days of school holidays, there has been one free activity for Aboriginal kids and teens.

Mel: So the dance we're doing now, it was expressed outside of the school. The school didn't have any involvement because to me it seems that the school does not care.

Sarah Dingle: A touring Indigenous dance company Ochre is appearing at Kalgoorlie's multi-million-dollar Goldfields Arts Centre, and has specially invited local Aboriginal youth to open for them.

Tonight they're on stage, holding the spotlight. Tomorrow morning, they'll wake up in the hot mining town of Kalgoorlie.

Background Briefing's co-ordinating producer is Linda McGinness, the series producer is Tim Roxburgh, additional research by Tjuma Pulka radio station, additional audio by Nathan Morris, technical production this week by Andrei Shabunov, our executive producer is Wendy Carlisle, and I'm Sarah Dingle.