Blair McFarland moved to Central Australia in 1986 and has spent more than two decades working alongside Indigenous people in the region. In 2002, he founded the Central Australian Youth Link-Up Service (CAYLUS) in response to the petrol-sniffing epidemic of the 1990s.
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00:00 In the 90s, there was a...
00:02 The sniffing problem was really rife in remote communities.
00:05 There was a huge range of people sniffing petrol
00:09 from, you know, 45-year-olds to five-year-olds.
00:12 You know, it was impacting on health and impacting on education,
00:15 impacting on the criminal justice system,
00:17 impacting on family cohesion and happiness.
00:22 There was so much damage being caused by petrol sniffing,
00:26 but there was no agency who had petrol sniffing in their sites.
00:31 Nothing really systematic was able to be done.
00:34 So a bunch of people, including myself, formed an advocacy group -
00:40 CALUS - Central Australian Youth Link-Up Service -
00:42 which is an agency that was formed to stop petrol sniffing
00:46 and to improve the quality of life of kids in remote communities
00:50 so that they wouldn't have to sniff
00:52 and they wouldn't be drawn to sniffing and other substance abuse.
00:55 The solution to this problem had two stages.
00:57 The first stage we rolled out very successfully,
01:00 which was low aromatic fuel.
01:03 Opal was the first one.
01:04 BP developed this unsniffable fuel
01:06 at the request of the federal government,
01:09 and kids just couldn't...couldn't get high from sniffing it anymore.
01:13 So that's the first half of the solution, is the supply reduction.
01:16 And then the second half, which we're still engaged in,
01:19 is trying to address the factors that push them towards sniffing,
01:23 like we could reduce sniffing in a community by 50%
01:26 if there was a youth program there,
01:28 because often people were sniffing because there was nothing else to do.
01:32 Youth programs are really important in remote communities
01:35 because they're an inclusive and friendly space.
01:38 We set up computer rooms for kids and Wi-Fi hotspots,
01:41 and we sort of, like, do some IT training
01:46 in fun things for kids to do,
01:48 and we know it works when it sort of takes off virally.
01:51 I don't think there's ever been a health initiative
01:53 that's been so successful,
01:55 like 95% reduction in substance misuse.
01:59 It's outstanding, and it reflects really well
02:02 on the community acting together the way it did.
02:06 If I could achieve the goals that I think are really achievable,
02:10 then remote communities would become fantastic places to live
02:14 and where there was good food, good education, good employment.
02:19 It is possible to make life better for kids out bush.
02:23 It's quite possible, and it's really important to do so.
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