Kerry Carter
I’d go back to Minto tomorrow

I had been in Minto for about 16 years before being moved to Macquarie Fields. People said, “What would you want to go to Macquarie Fields for?” and I said, “I expected it to be rough.” But it’s not. Minto’s worse than this.

It’s probably the same as when we first moved to Minto. But everybody spoke to you when we’d just moved into Minto, they’d say, “Good day,” or something, you know. There’s nothing here for the kids. At Minto there was always the youth centre for kids, always something for people to do.

All we’ve done here is sleep, it’s so quiet. Johnny sleeps until the alarm goes off. Over there (in Minto) you couldn’t do that. Johnny was always worried that someone was going to pinch his tyres, burn his car out or burn the shed down. You worry like that about things. Over here it is so quiet. You don’t have to worry about anything like that. You just sleep all the way through. Sometimes you hear people opening their gates, that’s the only noise. I’d die for a police chase now. It’s so quiet. You call the coppers over now to have a conversation with them. I knew everybody up there. I’m going to go mad in this place being here by myself all the time.

My years at Minto were both good years and bad years I suppose. I liked Minto. I’d go back to Minto tomorrow if they said, “Kerry we’ve got a place.” Fancy wanting to go to Minto.

It was such a friendly place and we were all such a close-knit community. We looked out for each other’s kids. We looked out for each other. A couple of them had their rows and fights and whatever, but if we got heaps of bread or something from somebody, we’d share it, and vice versa. I can’t see that happening here.