This year 25 Bond University criminology students have volunteered for
the Jungle Patrol and we need to balance them with more old heads and locals. The
Jungle Patrol needs you! Plug into the training and planning sessions.
We also need volunteers to
come and make art for Mardi Grass. We want to sew up, print and paint a whole host
of banners, flags and signs. We need a bamboo sculptor to rebuild the Big Joint. We
want to create a fire spectacle for the opening ceremony. A mass of lanterns is
already in production and this year we will be lining the village with special Mardi
Grass lighting. Our aim is to create colour and movement by day and enchantment by night.
Call in at the Nimbin HEMP
Embassy Arts Factory or ring 6689 1842. Backpackers welcomed (and fed!) And if you
can't come help the making, make art at home and bring it to the Mardi Grass. A
costume, a mask, a flag. Dare to be visible! Dare to be powerful! Dare to be
beautiful!
Graeme Dunstan
Commander, Jungle Patrol
PS. Can anyone lend me a pith helmet?
|
Bond
Students join Jungle Patrol Twenty
four students (24) from the Crime and Deviance course of Bond University's Faculty
of Humanities and Social Sciences have signed on to assist in the crowd friendly
crowd management of the Nimbin Mardi Grass and Cannabis Law Reform Rally (29
Apr2 May).
The Nimbin Mardi Grass celebrates
the hemp harvest and all things hemp. It is the biggest annual drug law reform rally
in Australia attracting a crowd of up to 10,000 to the Northern NSW village that
houses 600.
The students will be working
along side Nimbin residents and other volunteers as members of the Nimbin Mardi
Grass Jungle Patrol. Their job will be to maximise crowd enjoyment of the
celebration and to minimise the impacts the event will have on the non-
participating residents of the village.
The students and other volunteers
will be participating in a 2 day training session on Crowd Friendly Crowd Management
on the weekend before Mardi Grass. The training program will be led by Snr Sgt
Neville Plush, the officer in charge of Nimbin Police station, and Graeme Dunstan,
the Mardi Grass crowd friendly manager.
The students will be given course
credits based on the written work they turn in on the Mardi Grass experience as a
practical experience in community policing.
"Many of my criminology
students are seeking appropriate qualifications for careers in Australian police
services; others come from overseas and value the opportunity to gain some direct
Australian community experience and understanding of policing issues and community
based policing responses," said Professor Paul Wilson, Dean of Humanities at
Bond University. |
"Prohibition policies have clearly failed. Drug law reform is on the
political agenda and will not go away," said Professor Wilson. "Change is
inevitable and I want my students to be at the cutting edge of new thinking and
practice in regard to drug laws and community policing approaches." "We are delighted to have Professor
Wilson's students to help out on the Mardi Grass," said Superintendent Barry
Audsley, Lismore Area Commander.
"They are in good
hands learning cooperative, community policing approaches from Sgt Plush who is the
region's senior and most experienced police negotiator."
Sgt Plush has described planning
the crowd management of Mardi Grass as the most difficult, most time consuming and
most successful negotiations that he has ever undertaken. He was awarded a NSW
Police Service citation for his work negotiating the crowd management of the 1998
Mardi Grass.
"It is local Police
experience from previous Mardi Grasses that the crowd is peaceful and
co-operative", said Superintendent Audsley. "For the most part, the Bond
students and other volunteers will be managing gates, parking, information
dissemination, emergency responses, radios, camping, first aid and chill out
services - all the back up and infrastructure services that managing large crowds
requires."
Further Information:
Professor Paul Wilson
07 5595 1124
Superintendent Barry Audsley
02 6623 1523
Graeme Dunstan
02 6689 1842 |