Walgett
Surrounded
But opinions changed when the incident was repeated. Once again Bill Packenham, the driver, managed to keep the bus on the road. On the third try the truck struck the bus near the driver's cabin, forcing the now speeding bus off the elevated road.
Food and suitcases were thrown all over the bus. We were shaken, but no one was burt. When the bus came to rest we could see that we were surrounded. Four or five sets of headlights pointed at as from all directions.
t looked like we were trapped, alone with four or five carloads of rednecks on a dark country road. some of us thought of the US Freedom Riders, Chaney and Goodman and Schwerner.
But there were thirty of us, not three. It looked like the numbers were with us. At the front I could hear someone shouting "girls to the back, girls to the back", while near me someone was crawling around the floor in the dark saying "Quick, get bottles, get bottles" - looking for drink bottles to smash on the back of a seat so the jagged edge could be used as a weapon.
There was no need for weapons. The cars surrounding the bus belong to Aborigines, who had followed to protect us. The truck that attacked us, and possibly some other cars, had driven away.
