Perhaps it’s our innate Aussie love for the underdog. Or even our traditional disdain for authority. Whatever it is, the wild success of the small budget 1997 film The Castle speaks volumes about our national sensibilities.
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The tale of Darryl Kerrigan taking on the institutional might of developers to stay in his modest home in the fictional blue-collar suburb of Coolaroo is emblematic of what we Aussies like to think we stand for. We pride ourselves on championing the battler, the little bloke who mightn’t have much but will go all out to defend it.
To this day – almost two decades after its release – The Castle still resonates. And it’s what comes straight to mind when thinking about the plight of the Evans family, whose home in Bomaderry is slated for council acquisition as part of the ambitious plan for a combined community and sporting complex.
Like Darryl Kerrigan, the Evans family are not taking this new cloud cast over their futures lying down. Our Wednesday edition showed them at the front of their small home with signs declaring “We are not going” and “If anyone is going it should be Joanna Gash”.
It was a simple but potent act of defiance in what has the potential to be a David and Goliath battle. The Evans are David and Shoalhaven City Council, led by Mayor Joanna Gash, is Goliath.
Yet in responding to the Evans’s very public display, Cr Gash attempted to cast herself as the victim when she spoke to the Register. She told us she was “pretty hurt” by the signs.
This is unlikely to win much sympathy whatsoever. In fact an online poll which accompanied the story shows that 78.3 per cent of 264 respondents were against council acquiring homes to build sporting facilities.
Cr Gash contended a politician and a councillor had told the Evans family the predicament in which have found themselves was her fault. She said she was only one vote.
This rings hollow. We know Team Gash controls council through its voting bloc. We also know Cr Gash is a very forceful person which has been a strength and a weakness over the years.
In Darryl Kerrigan’s words, she is dreaming if she thinks the community will buy her argument she is powerless to influence the machinery of council that has put the Evans family’s future on hold. The community at the Register will back the underdog.
