A Mafia murder !

Thirty-five years ago Australia came of age in a developing era of organised crime.  Liberal candidate and furniture store proprietor Donald McKay disappeared from the car park of a Griffith hotel.  Blood and bullet casings were found on the ground beside his vehicle - but his body has never been discovered.

This murder set off a trail of revelations that shook Australia.   Griffith - in the Riverina - had a high proportion of immigrants from Italy farming the fertile soil served by irrigation canals.   It was common knowledge that hidden amongst the tomato, rice and grape  crops were illegal plantations of Marijuana.

This was " Mafia  Country ".   Huge profits were being made growing the " Pot " that supplied the drug pushers of Melbourne and Sydney, and the rewards of those profits were plain to see.   The area was dotted with opulent " Grass Castles ",  imposing mansions with gold fittings, set in immaculate grounds.  The streets of Griffith provided a showcase of glitzy, high priced cars for hordes of swaggering young Italian men.

It was a cozy little arrangement.   The local police were not adverse .to turning a blind eye  to what they termed " harmless local commerce " and there was a constant and growing market for the merchandise from Australia's expanding drug culture - and then a troublesome local political candidate started to blow the whistle and draw attention to this Mafia fiefdom.

The response was quick - and deadly.   The Mafia Dons put out a contract on Donald McKay and in true Mafia fashion - he " disappeared ", but it was a case of " too little - too late ".     The media were onto the story and there was no relent.  Colourful characters like " Aussie Bob " - Robert Trimbole drew newspaper headlines, and eventually the whole sordid affair became a very successful TV series under the title of " Underbelly ".

To mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of Donald McKay's killing the police have increased the reward for information leading to the discovery of his remains from one hundred thousand  dollars - to double that figure.   So far, the Mafia code of silence has held firm, but we live in a changing world and it is likely that many of those involved have now passed on - and perhaps their children will be more  inclined to exchange old secrets for hard cash.

Each wave of immigrants have brought with them organised crime from their former country.  With the Italians it was the Mafia, but since then we have hosted the Triads and more recently Middle-East crime gangs have been shooting up the western suburbs of Sydney.

Initially, each crime wave hides behind a wall of silence.  New citizens from their old country have no love of the police and can be deterred from speaking out by threats.  Eventually, the passage of time and the integration of their offspring dilute that fear - and information becomes more readily available.

Perhaps Donald McKay may yet end his days in a marked grave !