Felix the Cat
12-14-2005, 11:05 AM
Refugees from a stricken suburb (http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17561696-5002201,00.html)
SOME are hunkering down to brave out the nights of terror. For others the rioting, baseball bats and fear of rape and murder have proved too much to bear.
But life won't be the same for anyone living in the one-time beachside idyll of Cronulla.
Already some families are packing their bags - the first refugees of Sydney's ugliest race attacks.
Those who are staying are living in fear of where the next wave of attacks will occur.
Construction worker Howard Beale, whose family survived a frightening raid by youths of Middle Eastern descent on Monday night, is at breaking point.
His work truck was set alight, a shovel thrown through his bedroom window and two family cars trashed.
As shocking as the attack was, the Beales are grappling with a more profound loss of something they once took for granted - their freedom.
"I'm going to be very wary now. You have to think about what you do, and where you go and when you do it," said the father of two.
"My daughter only works [nearby] but she won't be walking home anymore ... it's too dangerous.
"I think a lot of people will be changing their [lifestyle]. You don't know when they will return."
It's not simply the fear of the hoons returning, but the small changes to what was a blissful life beside Cronulla beach.
Mr Beale, who moved from Caringbah five years ago, said he was now considering leaving Cronulla. "I thought this was nice, quiet Cronulla ... it's always been peaceful and quiet here.
"If it keeps up we'll move for sure."
One couple has already made that decision.
Mick and Donna told The Daily Telegraph they were forced to shield their two young sons on the floor of their unit after it was attacked on Monday night.
The family yesterday packed their belongings to stay with relatives at Picnic Point amid fears the gangs would return.
"We are not staying here now. We are going to stay with relatives at least until this settles down," Mick said.
"We love it here but we have to worry about the kids," he said of his sons, aged one and four.
The couple were watching TV in their unit on The Kingsway when they went to investigate what sounded like gunfire and breaking glass shortly after 10pm.
The gangs descended on Cronulla down The Kingsway in up to 90 cars, with between five and six thugs intermittently jumping out armed with baseball bats, metal bars and sticks.
Mick watched in shock as a group of men began smashing a Commodore parked outside, before they turned their attention to the unit block, which they pelted with rocks.
Donna took the two children to a back room as the hoods taunted occupants to come outside and fight.
"I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life," said the primary school teacher.
Across Cronulla, young women spoke of their fear that they had become the main targets of youths of Middle Eastern descent in revenge attacks on their suburb.
"I'm the cliche of a young, blonde, tanned blue-eyed beach girl," one young woman, who asked not to be named, told The Daily Telegraph.
"In the past few weeks I've received threats from a gang of Lebanese men from the Eastern Suburbs," she said.
"They say: 'Watch your back, don't go out in the dark."'
"I don't want to live in fear of the gangs. I want them to leave me alone, I want my freedom back. I don't want to cry anymore."
SOME are hunkering down to brave out the nights of terror. For others the rioting, baseball bats and fear of rape and murder have proved too much to bear.
But life won't be the same for anyone living in the one-time beachside idyll of Cronulla.
Already some families are packing their bags - the first refugees of Sydney's ugliest race attacks.
Those who are staying are living in fear of where the next wave of attacks will occur.
Construction worker Howard Beale, whose family survived a frightening raid by youths of Middle Eastern descent on Monday night, is at breaking point.
His work truck was set alight, a shovel thrown through his bedroom window and two family cars trashed.
As shocking as the attack was, the Beales are grappling with a more profound loss of something they once took for granted - their freedom.
"I'm going to be very wary now. You have to think about what you do, and where you go and when you do it," said the father of two.
"My daughter only works [nearby] but she won't be walking home anymore ... it's too dangerous.
"I think a lot of people will be changing their [lifestyle]. You don't know when they will return."
It's not simply the fear of the hoons returning, but the small changes to what was a blissful life beside Cronulla beach.
Mr Beale, who moved from Caringbah five years ago, said he was now considering leaving Cronulla. "I thought this was nice, quiet Cronulla ... it's always been peaceful and quiet here.
"If it keeps up we'll move for sure."
One couple has already made that decision.
Mick and Donna told The Daily Telegraph they were forced to shield their two young sons on the floor of their unit after it was attacked on Monday night.
The family yesterday packed their belongings to stay with relatives at Picnic Point amid fears the gangs would return.
"We are not staying here now. We are going to stay with relatives at least until this settles down," Mick said.
"We love it here but we have to worry about the kids," he said of his sons, aged one and four.
The couple were watching TV in their unit on The Kingsway when they went to investigate what sounded like gunfire and breaking glass shortly after 10pm.
The gangs descended on Cronulla down The Kingsway in up to 90 cars, with between five and six thugs intermittently jumping out armed with baseball bats, metal bars and sticks.
Mick watched in shock as a group of men began smashing a Commodore parked outside, before they turned their attention to the unit block, which they pelted with rocks.
Donna took the two children to a back room as the hoods taunted occupants to come outside and fight.
"I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life," said the primary school teacher.
Across Cronulla, young women spoke of their fear that they had become the main targets of youths of Middle Eastern descent in revenge attacks on their suburb.
"I'm the cliche of a young, blonde, tanned blue-eyed beach girl," one young woman, who asked not to be named, told The Daily Telegraph.
"In the past few weeks I've received threats from a gang of Lebanese men from the Eastern Suburbs," she said.
"They say: 'Watch your back, don't go out in the dark."'
"I don't want to live in fear of the gangs. I want them to leave me alone, I want my freedom back. I don't want to cry anymore."