ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A 15-year-old Betoota Ponds skatepark regular has taken another step toward manhood this afternoon by pushing a shopping trolley off the Dixon Street overpass into the creek four-meters below.
Bryce Clayton, of Blaxland Avenue, spoke to our reporters just moments after he cast the Spar cart to its watery grave.
“I can’t speak for very long, the cops are probably on their way down here, bruz,” he said.
“But yeas, boss. Pissa, aye? Throwing carts off the Dicko bridge is what everyone does around here. Me brother done it a few years ago and even my Dad did it in the 70s. Anyway bra, gotta run. Cheers.”
But not everybody in the local area is too pleased with this coming-of-age story.
Just last year, another local youth was cooling off during a hot summers day by heading down the same creek for a swim.
Where the bridge is on the creek it holes up and provides a bit of depth, which why it’s a popular spot to do ‘a few double backies’ in front of some female classmates.
Tragically, on this occasion, the young man double backflipped onto a submerged pile of shopping carts and broke both his legs.
That incident lead to a town-wide ban on throwing shopping trolleys into bodies of water – but people like Bryce say tradition is more important than bureaucracy.
“Oi blokes will be throwing trolleys into creeks forever, mate,”
“It’s just what we do.”
More to come.
