The Bowraville Murders

Between September 1990 and February 1991, three Aboriginal children disappeared from Bowraville. First, a 16-year-old girl, and then a few weeks later her four-year-old cousin. Three months later a 16-year-old boy also disappeared. While their remains were all found off the same local dirt road, their families felt the investigation was never taken seriously by the police, and the only suspect, a white man, was acquitted of two of the murders after a botched investigation. Director Allan Clarke, a Muruwari and Gomeroi man, tracks the cases – from barefaced disregard to public apology, then to reinvestigations and countless days in court. And still the families are denied justice. As Stan Grant says in the film, “Racism is not a big enough word to describe what happened here.”

Allan Clarke is an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker whose work focuses on the relationship between the justice system and the Aboriginal community. In 2018, his six-year investigation into the death of Aboriginal teenager Mark Haines culminated with the ABC podcast and two-part Australian Story Blood On The Tracks and the police reopening the case. His previous work includes hosting NITV’s The Point, senior reporter for SBS’s Living Black program and reporter for ABC News. He also created the NITV series Cold Justice (2018).

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