INVESTIGATION: Two Years Since the Greyhound Racing Ban - Where Are They Now? (Part I)

^{BY JAMES JAMESONSON}

AS I DRIVE down around the crest on an overcast Newcastle day, I pass an upper-middle-aged woman wearing a blue rain coat with three greyhounds on leads. Could this be the woman whom I'm running close to twenty minutes late to meet? Part of me hopes so, because by the time I park the car she's still a good 150 metres away. On the other hand, I was completely oblivious to her and her three dogs when I came dangerously close to them as the road narrowed. Let's hope she's not great at remembering cars.

I park the Passat on the crater-ridden tarmac among tradies' Hi-Luxes and Rangers. It sticks out like - well, you know. I look nervously around, waiting for someone to ask me if I'm lost or to tell me I'm parked some place I'm not supposed to. I fish my phone out of my pocket, but there's no message from Cheryl. I open the last message I sent to her, double-checking that I'm where I'm supposed to be. I decide to wait in the car, for the simple fact that I'm on a construction site and have no idea where else to go.

Have I been set up? Did she get cold feet? I keep my gaze over my right shoulder to see if that woman I almost collected turns into the car park. Then I see her. Bingo.

It is just after two years since the intention of the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Act 2017 came into affect. On the first day of July, 2019, it became a criminal act in Australia to engage in the competitive greyhound racing industry. Australians had watched for months and years previous with horror at the abusive and downright torturous treatment inflicted upon greyhounds who were part of the industry. Media coverage showed the discarded carcasses of dogs who had been horrendously murdered when they became unprofitable. Mass graves took feature nearby race tracks, skulls and bones littered in banal fashion.

Four Corners reported on Australia's greyhound racing industry two years before the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill was introduced to parliament by then-Australian Democrat MP u/dyljam. It reported that up to 17,000 healthy greyhounds were being murdered by the industry annually. This does not include the unnecessary injuries those dogs sustained, or the issue of live-baiting - also common across the industry. Yet despite this, the law to ban greyhound racing very nearly didn't pass the parliament. The greyhound racing industry was one of the most ardent lobbyers in parliament house, and their efforts were not in vain.

The woman in the blue rain coat approaches me as I get out the car. It must have been the car that gave me away. She introduces herself and the three dogs - Dexter, a beautiful glossy black-haired dog; Baxter, with tan patches against an otherwise ghostly presence; and Rocco, a brindle which has had its attention stolen by a nearby cement mixer.

I realise that up close Cheryl looks older than the woman I almost killed earlier, but relatively young for her 55 years in greyhound racing.

'It's been a long time since I've been here', she says, finally noting the fact that we're standing in the middle of a construction site.

'Not quite two years.'

The construction site is the former Gardens greyhound track in Birmingham Gardens, on the edge of suburban Newcastle. Built for the Newcastle Breakers (the precursor to the Newcastle Jets A-League club) and used for a while by the Hunter Mariners in Rupert Murdoch's Super League, which lasted for one season, the place is almost unrecognisable.

'New athletics track by the council', says Cheryl, noticing that once again, my attention has been diverted to the fact that we are standing in the middle of a construction site. I politely suggest we move out of the way for a large semi entering the car park. I notice this truck was not Rocco's first close shave here today.

I finally get a moment to ask the obvious.

'What's been your perspective on this whole thing?'

Cheryl looks over my left shoulder with a contemplating gaze.

'I was very saddened by it all. But we also always knew that day would come eventually.'

Cheryl and her former husband Ken were not just local, but national champions in the greyhound racing leagues. She tells me at one point they owned twelve dogs, before they amicably split, and Chery re-joined the industry with six dogs owned by herself and her current partner, Loretta.

'We loved our dogs, and I continue to love my dogs. Just the five now, unfortunately, but they're too much trouble to take more than three of them walking at a time.'

She looks at the grandstand currently being rebuilt in front of us with a momentary pause.

'Come on, let's go take a look then.'

To be continued in Part II.

Editor's note: Please note the events described in this article took place prior to current COVID-19 restrictions being imposed.