Barrister breaks down near Barrow Creek

UK criminal barrister Felicity Gerry in the Top End ... Meeting Les, witness number five at the Bradley Murdoch trial ... Picked-up by "ex-police officers with a mining interest" ... Spicy meat pies at the Barrow Creek Hotel and other Territory treats 

Australia's Stonehenge

ON July 14, 2001, Joanne Lees and her boyfriend Peter Falconio were travelling at night along the Stuart Highway (known as "The Track") which runs between Adelaide and Darwin, across central Australia.

In a murder trial which took place some years later, she gave evidence that they had been flagged down by a man (later identified to be Bradley Murdoch) who said they had a problem with their engine.

Falconio went outside, a shot was fired and he was never seen again.

Joanne was tied with cable ties and a sack put over her head. She managed to escape by slipping the ties over her head in a manouvre she was later required to demonstrate in court.

She hid in the bush for five hours until the killer gave up and she was later picked-up by a truck driver who removed the cable ties and took her to the Barrow Creek Hotel.

At trial, Murdoch accused her of lying, alleged that Falconio had faked his own disappearance as part of a drugs conspiracy and his counsel claimed that DNA evidence was unreliable.

The expert was one Dr Whittaker, whom I have called as a witness at Lincoln Crown Court.

Last week, just short of 13 years later, I broke down in a mobile home at Devil's Marbles, Australia's version of Stonehenge. 

Barrow Creek Hotel - signage

It's near Tennant Creek, a town built around a beer truck which broke down in the 30s, which is a few kilometres up the track from Barrow Creek.

Such is the remoteness, there are no phone signals and I had to hitch a lift into town for help.

Picked-up by some "ex-police officers with a mining interest", I was dropped off at the police station.

After several phone calls, which established that there was no tow truck and the only taxi driver (who works out of Rocky’s Pizza Place) was in Adelaide for heart bypass surgery, I secured a lift from a local man to rescue my family marooned in the outback.

Driven by Peter, former Rugby Union, Rugby League and Rodeo champion, who now works in Youth Services, I learned of the problems of sexual abuse, alcohol dependency and crystal meth production in the area - never far away from the day job.

Having rescued my family and our belongings we were put up in The Bluestone Motel.

As I say, this place is remote.

There is no doctor; the flying doctor landed just as we got into town. There was no hire car available for two weeks and the bi-daily eight seater flights were full.  

The only way out of town was on the bush bus.

Pausing to tell the "ex-police officers" that crystal meth is in production in the old mines, as they are still hooked-up to power and water (probably blowing their cover if my police officer radar was working), we made our way south, without air conditioning.

Having stopped to pick up 16 sick aboriginal women and children on their way to Alice Springs for dialysis, we broke down again just north of Barrow Creek.

This time I hitched a lift with Derek, the courier, and found myself at the bar of the Barrow Creek Hotel chatting to Les who turned out to be witness number five in the Murdoch trial. 

Kangaroo Dundee

It was he who took Joanne from the truck, who saw the marks to her wrists and who was entirely satisfied that she was telling the truth, although he would not have been allowed to have given his opinion at the trial.

As I waited to rescue my family for a second time, the irony of explaining low copy number DNA to Les was so improbable that my daughter and I signed the wall with the backpackers to prove we were there.

I could tell you about the rescue kangaroos we met in a back garden, or the dutch mechanic called "Mouse" who fixed the bus or the surprise visit to Kangaroo Dundee thanks to Ben, the son of the bush bus owner.

I can't tell you any more about the Devil's Marbles as it is a woman's place and Peter, although part indigenous, is not allowed to know the story.

Felicity Gerry: low copy number DNA on her mindI could write about Maxine Zimmer the jolly police officer, our new friend Jay whom we met in the bar, Destiny the feisty Aboriginal girl with rap music on her iPod, the flight back to Darwin, or the museum of pioneering women at Alice Springs - but, most of all, I urge you to share a spicy meat pie and a glass of wine with Les in the dusty outback for a true taste of the Territory, to spare a thought for the health workers who have to choose who gets on the bus and for Dr Whittaker and his low copy number DNA, the final piece of circumstantial evidence in a world famous trial from the outback. 

Felicity Gerry is a barrister at 36 Bedford Row, London, and a door tenant at William Forster Chambers, Darwin. An edited version of this article was published in the latest edition of Criminal Law & Justice Weekly in the UK.