New Dennis Eagle takes to the race track in Western Sydney for a good cause
Blacktown City Council’s newest garbage truck has played its part in an ongoing series of domestic violence awareness events in the Western Sydney suburb, with the vehicle completing a hot lap around the Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek.
The first of its kind to take to the track, the $450,000, 12.5 tonne Dennis Eagle reached 111km/h down the Brabham Straight carrying the message: “There’s no excuse for domestic violence. It’s rubbish.”
Local mayor Stephen Bali says the truck, which will take up its role in the suburbs in the coming weeks, probably set a track record.
“Of course nobody expects a garbage truck to set speed records, but as we understand we are the first to lap the track in one, so of course we claim the record,” Bali says.
Adorned in White Ribbon logos and slogans, Bali says the truck will be a “moving billboard challenging the scourge of violence against women” as it makes its rounds.
“All forms of violence are totally unacceptable, which is why the fact that our city has the 29th highest incidence of domestic violence in NSW is so alarming,” he says.
“With one woman a week killed by an intimate partner, and one in three women experiencing physical or sexual violence at the hands of someone they know, we need to change the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate men’s violence against women.”
As part of Blacktown’s aim to become the first local council in New South Wales that is an accredited White Ribbon workplace, Bali says men will be encouraged to be ambassadors.
“Blacktown City Council is strongly committed to supporting locally, the work that the White Ribbon Campaign does internationally, in Australia and here in Blacktown City,” he says.
“The high incidence of domestic violence in our City is alarming and it is vital that we as a community come together as a united front and do all we can in order to stop violence against women.”
While the rubbish truck will serve as a weekly reminder for Blacktown’s 335,000 residents, Bali says the coming months will see a number White Ribbon efforts for the region, including the installation of giant white ribbons on council buildings; a White Ribbon bike ride from Newcastle to Blacktown on November 23; and a White Ribbon Breakfast at Blacktown Workers Club the same day, with guest speaker Australian of the Year Rosie Batty.
The Blacktown City Council’s garbage trucks also made national news during the airing of the SBS documentary Struggle Street, where they were used to blockade the television station’s Artarmon office.