First Drug Raid in Mullumbimby

The First Drug Raid in Mullumbimby

The first big marijuana raid in Northern NSW
A screen play written about the police raids on the Hippy communities in the early 80s
This is a true story with a few changes to protect the innocent.
Many people might say “where are the helicopters the police used”, well they are too expensive for a movie budget, so I left them out and added the army boys.
This story was written in 1984 as a 26 page outline for a screen play – the story is of the drug squad’s first raid on the hippy communities in the early 80s, in those days men were men and did not do things like nurse babies or hang out the washing.
The bare footed hippy lifestyle was in complete contrast to that of the black booted drug squad members, however the hippies had a friend, the local police sergeant.

During the raid four characters were locked up for outstanding traffic warrants, they spent there days in the local watch house with access to one cell and the exercise yard. The other cell held the evidence, 3 million dollars worth of marijuana

OUTLINE

Original Screenplay

A comedy drama.

The story begins with a beautiful bush land scene of an estuary with prominent mountains in the background.
There is a small fishing boat harbor with fishermen and others going about
their business, in the distance can be seen three figures on a wharf, one sitting
and two standing above the first.
The local police sergeant’s voice can be heard above the sounds of the sea birds.
He is sternly reading a list of traffic offences.
.
We move closer to the three and see that the one fishing is Toby, a forty five
year old rather scruffy, rugged looking fellow.
Above him in full uniform stands the local sergeant, an older, bigger, and
stern gentleman, and a young constable.
The sergeant, warrants in hand, explains to Toby that he has no choice but to
lock him up for five days for failing to pay traffic fines encountered some
twelve months ago.
Toby`tries to pull the wool over the sergeant’s eyes by saying, Are you sure it’s
me? and you know I don’t drive now”.
The sergeant becomes agitated, quickly throws Toby’s bait into the water and bundles
Toby gently into the paddy wagon, saying “You should know better than to
drive on the highway in that old bomb of yours, it hasn’t even got any
lights”.
The constable picks up the fishing gear and a bucket with a large live fish in
it.
They decide to take the fish with them rather than throw it back. It is put
in the back with Toby and the fishing gear. The door is locked; they get in the
cabin and drive off, but have only gone a few yards when Toby starts bashing on
the cabin with his fist and yelling for them to stop.
They have forgotten his bicycle.
They stop; both get out and load the old bicycle into the wagon with Toby.
They drive off as Toby sits in the back clutching his cherished bicycle.
The paddy wagon crosses a busy highway. We see huge semi-trailers and the
Highway Patrol flashes by, they carry on through beautiful bush land and turn
off at a sign saying “Bringabongalong”.
They then go slowly down the main street of a small
Australian country town, a quiet town with a few shops and a hotel, banana
trucks, farmers and others going about their business happily. A group of
hippies are seen loading their shopping into an old truck. They wave, the
sergeant waves back sternly.
A light plane flies over the town and off into the mountains surrounding the
town.
The plane is watched curiously by all including the shopkeepers.
The paddy wagon has stopped in front of the police station. An unmarked police car
is in view and the sergeant’s wife is watering the flower garden in the private
residence next to the police station.
Toby is helped from the paddy wagon by the police. He greets the sergeant’s wife
cheerfully and politely, she greets him cheerfully. She is an elegant lady with
a peculiar laugh.
The three enter the police station carrying Toby’s fishing gear; the sergeant
says he will put the bicycle in the shed.

€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦..

Inside the sergeant is set upon by a very excited detective who takes the not
so enthusiastic sergeant into another room where we see maps and aerial photographs
spread out upon the desks.
The detective is young, bright and hyperactive with a balding head problem.

SAMPLE DIALOGUE:

DETECTIVE

TALKING FAST POINTING EXCITEDLY AT SMALL CIRCLES DRAWN ON THE PHOTOS
Look here Sergeant, look, dope, dope, dope there, dope there. Nearly every
house up there is got dope growing near it, that’s them hippies, something I
can’t stand is dirty stinking hippies with their long hair. Look at them houses
there, who lives there Sergeant? There’s a big patch near there.

SERGEANT

LOOKING AT THE MAP CLOSELY – HE IS NOT HAPPY WITH THE SITUATION
That could be the Winsom community. I’m not sure, Ihaven’t been up
there, had no need to.

DETECTIVE
Community hippies, eh they’re gunna
get a shock.

SERGEANT
Are you sure it’s marijuana?

DETECTIVE
Yeh it’s marijuana. That camera they’ve got in the plane canpick up
one plant from five miles away, comes up like a red dot on the screen. You’ll
have to take us up in the morning and show us the way up.

SERGEANT
Who’s us?

DETECTIVE
The lot of us are going, we’ve got the Swat Squad coming up from Sydney, and
we’ve got some Army fellows coming over, I want to get started about six
o’clock, them hippies are going to get a shock, we’ve got to get back by ten
o’clock because the Inspector’s going to be coming over.

SERGEANT

LOOKING WORRIED AND PUZZELED
The Inspector, great, why wasn’t I told
about this?

DETECTIVE
Top secret Sergeant, top secret, them hippies are going to get a shock.

€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦.

A scene of the Winsom community, beautiful bush land
setting, children playing and swimming, small alternate cottages separated by
lush bush land, peaceful gardens full of birds, topless ladies and men working
together on a new building.
The old truck arrives and all go to greet it and start unloading the goods.
There is some hugging and kissing as a new couple has arrived. The gathering
appear alternative lifestyle, rather than hippy. The adults are in their
thirties and the children range from babies to teenagers. They all speak
correctly and peacefully. The children speak well and are spoken to as if they
were adults.The newcomers are ushered inside the nearest cottage where tea is
made. They are introduced, the lady is a school teacher, the man is a European
visitor with a strong accent. The children have names such as Sky and Rainbow
and Moses. They talk about the house and how it was built mainly by material
from the local tip, and how nice it is living away from the rat race, and which
university they went to in Melbourne. A joint is being passed around. Food is
being served.

€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦

Meanwhile in the watch house the sergeant delivers Toby’s evening meal on a
tray, a large meal of vegetables and the fish which Toby had caught. Toby thanks
the sergeant again and again and apologizes for being a hassle. The sergeant tells
Toby that he can go out in the garden after lunch tomorrow. He then leaves. Toby
has made himself a bed in the exercise yard using all the foam mattresses and
blankets.
The watch house has two adjacent cells fronting the exercise yard. In each cell
is a toilet bowl with a low wall for privacy. Above the toilet is a small
window with bars. The doors are of solid steel and have a half circle shaped
peephole with a steel flap hanging down. Both doors are open and both cells
empty.
The walls are thick and the building obviously old. The exercise yard is
about six meters square with half the roof of iron and half of wire meshing.
Toby
sits on his bed eating his meal off the floor. He looks up at the night sky through
the wire mesh and notices that the wire has been unwoven making an opening
through which one may escape.
Toby examines the opening then laughing to
himself settles back down to eat and sleep.
We see there is peace in the
valley.

Next morning the scene outside the police station:

Police cars everywhere, paddy wagons; a big panel van; police everywhere, some
in uniform, some in blue overalls and a group on the lawn in black combat outfits.
They are doing loosening up exercises and sparring with each other.
The sergeant is dressing and about to walk out his front door while his wife is
giving him stern orders, helping him to straighten his clothes up; she mentions
the Inspector and insists he wear his new shoes.
He acts humbly towards her and
changes into a stern person as soon as he leaves his house.
He goes outside
where the policemen in black are unloading the van – two trail bikes and some
rifles.
The rifles are put in the four-wheel drive. The detectives come out of
the police station with maps and spread them on the bonnet of a car.
They talk
about roadblocks. The whole thing is being watched by the local milkman, baker,
and a paper boy, plus a few others. The rooster can be heard crowing.
An army
Land Rover pulls up full of army personnel.
The detective gives the message to
pull out and the whole convoy drives off together down the street being chased
by a few of the local dogs and watched by a few locals.
The kookaburra laughs
from above everything. The convoy disappears.
The town is left in silence
except for dogs barking in the distance.
……………………………………………………………………
The commune appears deserted.
One lady
is lighting an outdoor fire while two small children push a doll’s pram.
One man stands alone on a sunny outcrop doing tai chi. The air is full of bird
sounds.
…………………………………………………………………..
The convoy carries on and is held up by a herd of cows wandering home
for milking. This agitates the detective who is driving the first vehicle, a
four wheel drive paddy wagon.
The convoy is curiously watched by the people in
the farm houses and barked at by their dogs.
At an intersection near a bushy
creek the convoy stops and the detective gives orders to form a roadblock with
the police cars and search anybody looking a bit suspicious and also search every
car, suspicious or not.
Some policemen stay at the roadblock, including two in black
with guns.
The others cram into the off€”road vehicles, one of which is a four
seated truck with a German shepherd dog in the back cage.
The scenery changes
as they start climbing up the rugged steep mountain roads – the bush becomes
thick and beautiful.
Up and up they go across open creeks. At a cottage on the
bank of a beautiful creek they frighten hell out of Wayne, a good looking young
long blond haired surfie.
He is about to drive off in his little old Datsun,
surfboard on top, when he sees them approaching.
He runs back in the house and
hides his little pot plants.
His girlfriend is on the phone to her parents
overseas.
She is excited and yells in a strong accent that her dad is sending her money to fly home for a holiday.
Wayne is rushing around the house trying to hide his bong. The convoy goes past. He kisses his girlfriend goodbye; she says she’s going to town on the bus and he says he’s going surfing. He rushes off and drives straight into the roadblock.
The police have already stopped a car and are searching it, they direct Wayne to
pull over.
They search him and his car and find out by their two-way radio that
Wayne has warrants current for not paying his traffic fines.
They arrest him and place him in the police car handcuffed to the door handle. The roadblock
police remark that they may get a whole car full of persons with outstanding warrants.
Wayne watches as they carry on bragging and practicing their kick boxing, waiting for the next car.
Wayne acts uncaring and amused as he watches.
The convoy passes another old cottage close to the road and a maze of old sheds and farm junk, including an old damaged car on the front lawn.
Twelve pairs of eyes are seen peering from the windows of the small friendly cottage and shed (eyes
all of the same family, from small child to adults).
The convoy goes through banana plantations where the tracks wind up through the rows of bananas, then into the forest again. They are watched by possums in the trees and a few wallabies scamper away.
They pass a few alternate looking houses and are peered at through the window by rather weird looking people with beards and long hair.
“We’II get them on the way down”, the detective explains to the convoy on his two way radio.
………………………………………………………………………………….
The convoy reaches the commune.
They pull in noisily and the commune doesn’t stir.
The detective walks straight up to the front door of
the nearest dwelling and issues a search warrant to the new hippy European.
The European is bewildered. The detective barges into the room. The lady is in bed, sitting up naked, covering herself with the bed clothes.
The bed is beneath a mosquito net.
The European is naked.
The detective orders them outside and watches them dress.
The lady dresses under the bedclothes.
The detective is excited at almost seeing a naked woman.
He ushers them out, perving on the sexy looking lady.
The police take up positions. Those in black get the dog out and surround the area with rifles.
The army all jump out of their truck and stand around lighting cigarettes.
The detective yells to the police to see who is in the dwellingsfurther up the track.
He orders them to “Bring the lot of them down here, we’ll start from here, we’ll search this lot first”.
The police set off on trial bikes and on foot.
The sergeant is seen talking to the lady at the fire.
The detective and his suspects go into the garden where the army boys are cheering as police flush a number of partly clad ladies out of a building.
Their cheering increases when the ladies are followed by a partly clad man with a long beard.
The detective calls them to order as he hurries to his vehicle.
The suspects are herded to the fire where they sit and are watched by the sergeant.
The children are scooped up and held by the men of the group.
The detective examines his map secretly on the seat of his vehicle, then returns to the fire and starts questioning the group about where their marijuana crop is.
He does not tell them that he already knows where all the plants are.
The suspects deny any knowledge of marijuana.
The European is saying that he has only been here two days from Germany and he sees guns, etc. The police are searching the buildings and the old truck.
They find a bong and call the detective.
He gets more excited and shouts “You are all liars. Look!” He questions them more and begins writing their names in his book.
The police return with a dozen suspects from up the track.
Men and women.
Some crying.
The men carry the children.
They are all barefoot. They group in front of the fire and are told to sit without talking.
They are individually told to stand while they are questioned about their names and where they live as well as marijuana.
They all deny having marijuana plants, this delights the detective as he can see a plant in the nearby bush.
During this interrogation the detective keeps looking at the women, almost forgets what he is there about when a lady sits with her legs open.
This confirms his suspicions that the lady has no pants on and the detective has to tell the nearest policeman. Which he does.
The detective then takes the owners of the first dwelling and marches them into the low bush, straight up to their marijuana patch.
Holding a plant above his head the detective yells to the sergeant.
And then on to the next patch. On the way around he orders the army boys to find a path onto a distant ridge. They select cane knives and trot off, cheered by the lady suspects.
The suspects start questioning the sergeant about what right has he got to bring the army and police in for a few marijuana plants.
The sergeant explains that it’s not his idea but the law is the law and marijuana is illegal. The argument goes on with the women becoming the most outspoken.
The detective makes the suspects pull out their plants and carry them back to the vehicles.
The plants are big and healthy in groups of three and four scattered around the area.
The army boys cannot find a path, and resort to slashing a track through the jungle-like undergrowth.
The detective carries on up the track with the suspects and other policemen.
He is delighted at the success of his pinpointing the plants and at the surprise on the suspects’ faces.
The pile of plants grows bigger.
The police find more bongs and start gathering other evidence such as hoses, garden tools, and water pumps.
The plants are tied together in bundles with labels marking each bundle.
One suspect stands and yells to his friends that they should not say anything to the police.
He is quickly quieted by a kick in the leg from a policeman in black.
Other suspects are yelling about the moral aspect of marijuana compared with alcohol and cigarettes and hard drugs and prescribed drugs, they appear to be becoming increasingly distressed.
The army boys have made a track onto the ridge. The detective tells the sergeant to come with him and bring a couple of suspects towalk in front in case of booby traps.
They make their way to the ridge and find an old shed -covered with weeds.
They enter the shed. All are amazed at what they see. From the rafters of the shed, giant marijuana plants are hanging to dry.
Bags of marijuana are stacked in the corner. A large crop is seen growing outside the back door. A tall young man is seen leaving the crop: he escapes into the bush but is recognized by the sergeant as young Gary Jones from town.
The detective attempts to chase him.
The sergeant says he’s a State runner, you won’t catch him.
The detective gives up. The boy has a trail bike hidden in the bush.
He gets on the bike and rolls off quietly.
The police examine the plantation, insist that their suspects knew about it and were involved in it as they are the only people living around there.
The detective orders the crop to be pulled out and bundled up for evidence and the lot to be taken into town.
He also orders the suspects to be taken into town, the teenagers look after the children.
As the suspects are being loaded into the paddy wagons the detective has a face to face argument with a lady suspect.
The detective calls her a hippy and voices his disgust at long hair and how they all live together and sleep together and get around with no clothes on.
The lady sets him back with laughter as she tells him they haven’t had an orgy for fifteen years, and if wants hippies and orgies he’s fifteen years too late.
He glares at her.

…………………………………………………………………………………….
The detective and sergeant and two other policemen start down the hills back to town in the vehicle carrying the police dog.
The detective is bragging about how successfully they went and how surprised the hippies were.
The sergeant suggests that they are not hippies; the detective screams in frustration “WeII what are they?€
They carry on in silence through beautiful scenery.
The young man is seen speeding down the hills on his trail bike, well ahead of the police, towards the roadblock.
The sergeant asks the driver to pull over at the cottage with the old car out the front, the one with the faces at the windows.
They pull over.
The place is alive with people and dogs.
The sergeant explains that this man has ten children.
They all come out to greet the sergeant, except one child who is on the roof of the cottage and two teenage boys who are preoccupied chopping the car on the front lawn in half with an axe.
The father, a big man, and his big wife greet the sergeant amidst the yelling of the children, the barking of the dogs, the chooks getting out of the way, and the boys banging with the axe.
They all look scruffy like hillbillies and all look like each other.
The children are beautiful.
Amongst the noise the sergeant asks the father who owns that particular ridge where the crop was found, and s despite the detective’s interrupting and disagreeing, he insists that the ridge could only be approached by the adjoining valley and the Winsom people would have had nothing to do with it.
The sergeant asks what the boys are doing. The father explains that it’s going to be a bush basher and they are not allowed to take it on the tarred road. The detective wanders over to inspect the bush basher.
The boys start the engine for him and say how they’ve been hotting it up.
The engine splutters away, backfiring several times.
The detective stops the engine and moves the plug leads around.
Meanwhile the mother is yelling to the child on the roof that the policeman has come to get him for being naughty. She sounds Iike a parrot: “The policeman’s coming to get you, the policeman ‘s coming to get you”.
The father says ‘No dope on my place, I’d put the dogs onto them or the kids onto them
He asks his boys who owns the dope patch.
The boys don’t know and do not appear to care. The bush basher starts up.
The detective is pleased with himself.
He gets a bit of a surprise when the boy revs the engine – it screams and revs out like a full house racing engine.
The detective scampers back to his vehicle.
They drive off as the engine splutters to a stop.
The young man on the trail bike passes an old lady in a Morris Minor.
She has a lot of big pots in her car and yells to herself what a naughty boy he is.
She calls him by his name and says he’ll end up breaking his neck.
At the roadblock the school bus is crawling along between the dozen vehicles.
Some vehicles have defect stickers on them and appear very un-roadworthy.
Police are searching cars and questioning people.
One bearded man is being strip searched, he stands in his underpants.
Wayne’s girlfriend is on the bus.
She sees his car abandoned and realizes he has been arrested.
As the bus passes the man being strip searched the children all hang out the window and call out “Hello sir€
He is the local schoolteacher, he explains.
The police reply with “I don’t care who you are, you can’t drive around in a bomb like that”
He explains that the condition of the local roads do not allow for a good car.
He runs for the school bus, clothes and shoes in hand.
The young man on the trail bike is heard approaching the roadblock.
He enters the roadblock and is stopped by police in black with rifles.
He is marched, hands in air, to a vehicle where he is questioned by another policeman.
He is told to take his shirt, jacket, and trousers off and place them upon the bonnet of the vehicle.
The young man does this and we see he is a very well built, handsome, tall man.
He stands naked.
The policeman – embarrassed – asks him where his underpants are.
The young man says “l don’t wear them”.
The old lady drives her Morris
Minor into the roadblock.
The policeman tells the young man to stand back into the bush so no one can see him naked.
The policeman goes to speak with the old lady and the young man instantly disappears into the bush.
The old lady starts abusing the police telling them she is meals on wheels and she has more important things to do than be frightened by them.
The police are running up and down the side of the road trying to see where the young man went.
We see him gracefully streaking across an open paddock.
The old lady pulls away as the police vehicle enters the roadblock.
The police ask about the young man; the trail bike confirms with the sergeant that he knows who he is.
They brag about their success; the roadblock police state that they have never seen so many unregistered or un-roadworthy vehicles.
The old lady is putting along when she is waved down by the young man.
He is still naked and holding his hand over himself.
She stops and reverses back to pick him up.
And off they go.
They are passed by Billy going the other way. Billy T – a medium built, middle aged,
smooth talking crook – is driving a big beat up American car towards the roadblock.
Also in the car is a tall old cowboy with a guitar and Billy’s lady and children in the back with three dogs.
The back of the car is weighed down with the boot full of bales of hay and the boot lid open and tied down with string.
They are all singing and passing a big joint around.
Billy sees the roadblock and throws the huge car into a broadside.
The joint goes out the window.
The car pulls up inches from the police vehicle which is on the wrong side of the road.
Police swarm towards the car.
Billy jumps out and starts yelling at the police for being on the wrong side of the road.
The dogs attack the police and cause havoc with the police dog.
The police threaten to shoot the dogs so thecowboy calls them off.
Billy is recognized by the sergeant who arrests him for non-payment of traffic fines.
The police let the others go.
As the cowboy drives off he assures Billy they will come back with money to bail him out.
Billy is put in the cage with the police dog and taken to town.
Meanwhile in the exercise yard Toby and Wayne are talking about Wayne’s girlfriend going overseas – Wayne says how he can’t afford to pay his fines, let alone go overseas.
He explains that his girlfriend runs up huge phone bills talking to her parents but he is going to be devastated when she leaves.
The door bangs and opens €” Billy is forced in.
The door shuts. Billy stomps around cursing. He kicks the waste bln,.smashing it up against the wall.
He keeps saying “I’ve got to get out of here”.
He kicks the bin again.
The door opens again and in come the police with huge bundles of marijuana plants.
They start stacking them in a cell and order the prisoners into the other cell, shutting the door.
The three peer out the peephole.
The detective sees Toby’s face at the peephole: he slams the peephole in Toby’s face.
This hurts Toby’s feelings. When the police finish loading the cell they put a big brass lock on the door and one on the peephole.
The constable sweeps up the bits then lets the prisoners out into the exercise yard again.
The prisoners walk around stunned.
Wayne starts laughing as Billy, looking under the cell door, says “We got to get in there.
We got to get in there”.
They all agree and start checking out the lock.
Toby points out the hole in the roof.
They talk about picking the lock, and agree it’s impossible.
Toby tells them he will think of something just to spite the detective.
The police inspector has arrived. He is being briefed by the detective.
The Inspector congratulates them but is disappointed that they haveno firm suspect for the big crop.
He suggests that they stake out the next big crop which has shown up on new photographs which he has with him. The police in black suggest they mount cameras in trees and catch the growers this way €” a method used with much success on another occasion.
The inspector agrees, thanks the sergeant for his cooperation, and leaves.
The scene in the police station is hectic with accused persons being booked and finger printed.
Outside, the local people watch as police unload marijuana and other evidence.
The area is constantly guarded with guns.
The sergeant goes into his residence, obviously frustrated.
He changes into his old shoes and complains about his feet hurting.
When his wife enquires about the raid he informs her that it is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever seen, and today was the first time he felt ashamed to be in the police force.
He felt a fool hassling those people over a bit of pot. He fears that someone might get hurt before it’s all over. She asks how many prisoners there are. He replies “three” and tells her not to go over there.
The old lady arrives at the local opportunity shop with her nude passenger.
They alight;he is wearing a ‘Meals on Wheels’ tea towel like a napkin.
They enter the shop where three old ladies of all shapes and sizes admire him and say how he has grown so much lately.
He goes into the dressing room while they all fuss around finding clothes for him.
He leaves the shop dressed like a clerk.
The sergeant tells Toby and Wayne to go out into the garden – they have just finished theirmeal.
Billy remains in the cell and more marijuana is carted into the other cell.
Suspects are still being booked.
Billy asks why the dope growers are not locked up.
The sergeant explains that they all get self as surety bail.
Wayne complains about his car being abandoned with his surfboard on top.
The sergeant says he will make arrangements for it to be parked behind the police station.
The sergeant tells Wayne and Toby to stay up the back and weed the garden.
They go up the back where Wayne discloses to Toby that he has some marijuana, about three leaves – he picked up off the floor on the way out. They put the leaves in the sun to dry and start hoeing the garden and raking up leaves. Wayne laughs and asks Toby whether he thinks they will get into the cell with the dope.
Toby replies that he is working on it.
They see the detective and three policemen in black loading video cameras into a vehicle. They finish loading and leave.
Toby and Wayne have a joint behind the shed, it’s Toby’s first joint and he starts coughing.
Toby tells Wayne to watch out while he looks in the sergeant’s tool shed for a tool to open the lock.
Toby carefully selects a drill bit.
They carry on in the garden.
A policeman in black calls Wayne out to the front lawn and orders him to carry some pots of soil up the back yard. On Wayne’s second trip the policeman tells him to use the barrow which is amongst the evidence on the front lawn.
Wayne notices the barrow has about four pounds of marijuana head in it. He covers this with the pots and wheels the lot right past the policemen with guns guarding the evidence and up the back.
He cannot stop laughing as he hides his prize under the rubbish heap.
He returns the empty barrow to the front lawn.
The sergeant’s wife comes outside and starts pruning the garden with Toby and Wayne.
She likes Wayne and shows this by inviting him to stay close to her and help her with the pruning. Wayne’s car arrives, driven by a policeman.
Wayne laughs at the fact that the car is not registered and nobody has noticed.
BiIly’s lady arrives with the bail money.
Toby calls to Billy through the cell window; Billy yells back to tell her to piss off, and he doesn’t want to get bailed out. BilIy’s lady leaves confused.
The detective and the police in black are creeping through the bush with their guns and cameras.
The bush is thick and wet. They stop to pick the leeches and ticks off themselves.
Ticks are seen on the detective but he is too impatient and does not pick them all off.
They struggle on, with one policeman saying how ticks can send you delirious.
They reach the patch. lt is on flat ground and bigger than the previous big patch.
There is no one there.
They start mounting the cameras in the trees.
They finish mounting the cameras and start off back to their vehicle. The ticks are still on the detective’s head. They drive down the hills past the hillbillies who have almost finished building their bush basher.

………………………………………………………………………………………….
The bar of the local hotel is full of people, all talking about the raid.
The young man dressed as a clerk is looking scared; he overhears people talking about the big crop and fifteen years jail.
The people in the bar range from businessmen to banana farmers.
The suspects are also there. All are worried about the outcome of the raid.
The sergeant calls for Toby and Wayne to come in and be locked up.
The evidence has all been removed from the front lawn and the last of the police are leaving for the day.
Wayne gets some extra clothes from his car. As Toby and Wayne enter the watchhouse they see.
Dave sitting in the exercise yard.
The door shuts behind them.
Billy is standing looking at Dave who is skinny, small, pale and ugly.
He looks not unlike a dog with rabies.
Toby and Wayne give Billy the “Who’s that?” sign.
Billy replies loudly that Dave is a junky with a thousand dollar a day heroin habit, he has just returned from Taiwan. Wayne asks if he’s doing warrants.
Dave replies “Yes, ten days”. He also mumbles that he wants to get out.
Toby jokingly suggests he get out the hole.
Dave takes this seriously and the three sit and watch as Dave makes a vain attempt to climb out the hole. He ends up falling heavily onto the concrete floor.
He looks miserable and half dead.
Billy jumps to his feet and, banging on the door, calls for the sergeant as Dave crawls to a sitting position. The sergeant opens the door and Billy insists he call a doctor for Dave.
The sergeant agrees and shuts the door.
Dave stares up at the hole.
The other three sit staring at Dave.
Billy breaks the silence by asking about a
tool for the lock. Toby shows him the drill bit, being careful not to let Dave know what’s going on. Billy comments that the doctor will probably give Dave something to put him to sleep but he won’t be a worry for them.
Billy raises and lowers his voice allowing Dave to hear only parts of the conversation.
Time passes as Billy sits flicking lighted matches at the closed cell door.
He is trying to get one under the door, just for fun.
We see a lot of matches have been flicked when the sergeant opens the door. He calls Dave out to the doctor. Dave returns mumbling that the sergeant has gone to the chemist for him.
Time passes as Billy continues to flick lighted matches under the cell door.
The peephole in the wall rattles open and the sergeant’s wife passes four plates of food andfour mugs of tea through.
She asks who wants the paper to read and who are the pills for?
Dave talks her into giving him a double dose as he has been waiting so long.
The three share Dave’s meal amongst them. While the three sit and eat their meal Dave grinds the pills up, rolls up a piece of paper and snorts the pills up his nose.
Billy just watches, Toby looks amazed, and Wayne starts laughing.
Dave is instantly rejuvenated; he starts raging, yelling and racing around, looking in the locked cell and raving about how they can smash the locknwith a big hammer and escape through the hole with all the dope.
They tell him to shut up.
He starts sharing all the blankets out and telling what a great car salesman he used to be.
They finish their meals. Billy starts putting the papers together to roll a huge joint.
They sit talking for some time.
They talk about Wayne’s girlfriend and how she is going overseas to visit her family and leaving Wayne behind. Wayne wishes she was not going, Wayne tells Billy about the dope in the wheelbarrow.
They talk about concealing the hole in the lock with soap and the fact that the steel bit will drill the brass lock, and smuggling the dope out through the hole in the roof. They decide not to include.
Dave or tell him anything. Therefore they have to wait till he’s asleep.
Dave is still raging around when Billy finishes rolling the huge joint.
Dave wants to light it straight away; Billy snarls at him telling him to shut up as it is too early as the sergeant might smell it.
They settle down to rest, Dave still mumbling away while going to a lot of trouble to make his bed perfectly.
He makes it in the cell.
We see the town quiet, the suspects in the pub looking worried, the hippies in the hills covering up their dope plants with bushes and moving the potted ones into the thicker bush.
We see a hippy family loading their vehicle up, intending to leave the area.
The hillbillies are wide awake.
The lads still working on the engine of the car – the engine starts, gives a mighty roar, then coughs and splutters out. All is quiet. We see a few peaceful night animals.
All becomes black.
……………………………………………………………………………………….

A match strikes in the darkness and Billy lights his joint: it looks huge.
Dave is in the cell being quiet, Toby is working on the lock.
They pass the joint around, commenting on how good the quality is.
They light a match to see how the lock is going. Billy takes the joint in to Dave.
Dave comes out of the dark cell.
They stop working on the lock in front of Dave and all stand around joking and enjoying the joint.

From outside smoke is seen to drift up through the wire roof of the exercise yard and drift across the building in the moonlight, it drifts on past an open window with the light on.
Through the window we see a fire chief’s hat.
A face appears at the window sniffing the air.
He can see the smoke rising from the police station.
A private phone rings and is answered by the sergeant’s wife in her nightdress.
She puts the phone down with a devilish look on her face.
The prisoners are standing in a circle passing the joint around and joking with each other.
The peephole opens with a rattle and the sergeant’s wife’s face appears.
The four freeze, the joint is thrown in the corner.
Dave races into his cell.
Wayne dives into bed and pulls the blankets over his head.
Toby starts doing exercises, and Billy acts like he is making a speech and unaware of anything going on.
She says are you boys burning something in there?€ They all say “No€
She says “WeIl, the fire chief lives next door and he reckons the police station is on fire”.
She slams the peephole shut and returns to bed and cuddles into her sleeping husband. She smiles with satisfaction.
Wayne laughs as the four recover from their shock.
They remark how close it was. Dave comes out of the dark cell and makes an announcement that he is about to retire.
The others cheer him saying “Hurray, congratulations.€
Dave goes back into the dark cell, Billy and Toby start working on the lock again as Wayne giggles away saying how unbelievable the situation is and that no one would believe you if you told them.

Meanwhile the detective is in bed feeling the full effects of the tick bites.
He has a fever and is slightly delirious; his mother is pampering him, telling him he is not going to work tomorrow if he is sick.
He brightens up a bit and tells her not to worry as it must be something he ate during the day. His mother calls him Beresford.

Back in the cell the three are still working on the lock.
They are working out shifts so that two can work at a tiny hole being made in the lock while the other sleeps. Dave’s feet are seen poking out of the dark cell.
Billy goes to check on him and calls the others in; they strike matches and see the side of his face pressed to the concrete floor, his twisted mouth half open and saliva has run out onto the floor. “Is he dead?” they ask each other.
No, they decide and remark how he went to so much trouble to make his bed and then fell asleep on the concrete beside it.
They lift him onto his bed and Billy places a blanket over him gently.
They return to the drilling, remarking if they keep at it they will make it tonight.
We see the drill bit in the lock with fingers twisting it round and round. We see the sergeant asleep, then the lock. We see the detective asleep, then the lock.
We see Dave asleep, then the lock again.
Each time we notice the bit is deeper into the lock.
We also notice the moonlight becoming brighter as the night goes on. Toby, while drilling, remarks that it is good, the moon getting brighter, and then says “We got it, we got it, the bit”, the bit is deep in the lock.
With a final push of the bit into the hole, the lock clicks and flies open.
Wayne is the first to respond.
He goes straight to bed saying that he does not want anything to do with it.
He pulls the blanket over his head.
Billy and Toby quietly and slowly open the door; the cell is dark except for some moonlight shining through the tiny barred window.
The two creep into the cell striking matches and holding them close to the floor.
There are bundles of plants stacked against the walls right to the ceiling.
Prominent tags are on each bundle.
They come across big green plastic bags and take one each.
There are some candles, says Toby. €Good€ they say.
They light a candle each and continue to quietly investigate their prize.
We see bundles of plants, gardening tools, rifles, hoses, bongs, scales, and petrol-driven pumps, all with tags on.
They put the candles on the floor and start picking the heads off the plants and putting them in the bags. & 39;2Just the heads” Billy whispers loudly.
Wayne has come over to the cell door and stands laughing silently.
Billy and Toby carry an eight foot long bundle of plants out into the exercise yard to strip it in the moonlight.
They strip the heads off quickly and put them in the plastic bags.
Wayne goes back to bed and pulls the blanket over his head still laughing.
They return the stripped bundles to the cell and bring more out.
They put the full bags in the dark at the end of Dave’s bed in the other cell.
They go into the cell to investigate the prize some more. Very quietly,
Dave stirs, sits up, and starts feeling the bags at the end of his bed.
He jumps up, runs out of his cell and into the other cell.
Yelling at the top of his voice “We got in fellows, yahoo, yahoo”.
He throws himself onto a pile of plants grasping at the heads.
Billy and Toby grab his arms and legs and drag him screaming back to his cell.
Toby runs out and shuts the other cell door and quickly places the plants in the exercise yard under a mattress. Wayne hides under his blanket while Billy sits on Dave holding his hands over his mouth.
Toby enters the cell while Billy is telling Dave to shut up and he will get his share.
Dave stops struggling.
We see the sergeant and wife cuddled up in bed. She smiles and goes back to sleep; he stays asleep.
The four are now in the exercise yard. Wayne hiding, Toby and Billy trying to listen for anyone coming.
Dave keeps whispering loudly, walking about saying “How did you get in? Let’s have a joint”.
Billy tells him to get back in his bed and shut up or he will break his neck.
Dave does as he is told. Billy and Toby start putting the plants back and putting soap in the hole in the lock.
Billy wants to go out through the hole in the roof with the dope before the sun starts coming up.
He plans to hide the dope in the garden and return through the hole.
Toby helps him up and with some effort he gets his torso through the hole.
A huge dog starts barking directly under Billy.
He drops back into the exercise yard and discloses that the police dog is out there.
They sit puzzled.
Dave suggests that because he is not scared of dogs he should go out.
Billy gets cranky and almost hits Dave.
Dave quietens down.
The decide to wrap the dope in newspaper parcels so as to pass it out the window into the garden the next day. They start wrapping the dope and placing the parcels in the plastic bags.
They pick up all the scraps on the floor and repack the hole in the lock with soap.
The sun is starting to come up as they try to get some sleep.
………………………………………………………..
Daylight. The sergeant’s wife is fully dressed and taking the prisoners’
breakfast to them on a tray.
She opens the peephole to find them all asleep.
She wakes them up and tells them they shouldn’t have late nights.
Billy asks her for a newspaper to check his racehorse.
She says he can have it when the sergeant has finished with it.
As the four are sitting eating, the sergeant, in full uniform, bursts through the door mumbling about the fire chief. He yells “Stand up” to the prisoners then he throws each mattress over, empties the dust bin on the floor and, finishing his fruitless search, leaves as quickly as he entered, saying nothing, leaving the place in a mess.
Wayne laughs at Dave’s bed strewn everywhere after Dave had been so long making it.
The green bags of dope are hidden on the roof of the exercise yard.
The day goes well for all. Toby and Wayne are seen in the yard.
Wayne keeps the sergeant’s wife amused while Toby collects the parcels passed out the cell window.
The roadblock is quiet and most houses raided are vacant. The sergeant explains that word passes quickly in the hills and that a lot of people moved out during the night, taking their dope plants with them.
lt is seen, as they bring the plants into the police station they get passed out the cell window
and hidden in Wayne’s car. The detective is a bit sick with tick bites.
The hillbillies’ bush basher is going and they go off into the scrub with it.
Wayne is helping the sergeant’s wife burn clippings in the incinerator when a policeman in black calls him to the front lawn to sweep the marijuana off the path.
He is watched while he sweeps up a bucket of leaves and is told to burn them in the incinerator. The sergeant’s wife says she will watch that they are all burnt.
She and Wayne stand by the incinerator and are engulfed in smoke.
She becomes obviously stoned and we hear her laughing out of control.
The sergeant is meanwhile at the young Jones boy’s house looking for him.
His mother is saying what a good boy he is and how he bought her a brand new refrigerator.
The house shows us that they are poor people.
His little old mother has no teeth. She keeps saying “He’s a good boy sergeant€, the sergeant leaves.
That night the town is quiet.
The prisoners have eaten and are relaxing, while they wrap up more marijuana.
The detective is in bed sick. The Jones boy is at home, his mother is telling him that the sergeant came around twice looking for him.
He walks out the back door and into the garage where we see the light go on.
We soon hear a rifle shot.
His mother runs to the garage and screams.
The sergeant’s phone rings.
He answers it. His wife is snoring.
He hurries off out the front door.
……………………………………………………………….
Next morning the police are assembled outside the police station.
They do not look as enthusiastic as the first day.
The army boys are there waiting for orders.
The detective is sitting in his car with the door open and his feet on the ground.
His head is in his hands.
The sergeant drives up and gets out of his car.
He is in uniform except for his pajama shirt which hasblood on it.
He tells the detective that the Jones boy has shot himself.
The detective looks up, his face is swollen, he says “good on him”.
The sergeant says that the boy is in hospital and he’II be alright.
He then suggests that the detective see a doctor.
The sergeant has had enough of the situation.
He takes charge of everything as he encounters it.
He answers questions, gives orders deftly.
The detective keeps sitting in the car.
The sergeant conducts the scene like an orchestra.
He instructs the army to fix a fence, cut during a raid.
Others ask about the twenty seven abandoned cars at the roadblocks.
He says he is notifying the owners to take them straight home.
He sends some children home who are hanging around the front of the police station.
The whole crew is outside preparing for the day.
The sergeant goes indoors to clean himself up.
The prisoners remove their dope from the roof while they watch through the crack under the door for anyone coming. Wayne helps,Dave behaves well.
They put the two green bags in Dave’s cell.
The sergeant returns;nand tells them that they are all to go out in the garden today, out of the way, as they have a lot to do in the cell. This is devastating news to the prisoners.
He says Toby can go home after he tidies up and puts the mattresses back properly in the cell.
He leaves the door wide open and unlocked and goes off about his business.
The four start putting their shoes on.
They cannot think what to do with the big bags of dope.
They hide as many parcels as possible in their clothing.
The cell window is in view of everyone and cannot be used.
Three prisoners walk out through the police station full of police, and up the back to the garden.
The sergeant’s wife is in the garden poking the incinerator in anticipation.
The constable passes them and comments on how well Dave looks and that he appears to have put on weight. They are now safe. Toby is stacking the mattresses and blankets up.
The sergeant walks in and looks around at the mess, remarking to Toby how stuffy it smells.
Toby asks whether he can take the prisoners’ clothes to the Laundromat and wash for them as he was going home.
The sergeant walks off to the other police as Toby calls to him, holding up a prison towel.
The other police are watching as the sergeant says ok.
Toby scoops up all the laundry and takes it into the cell, puts a towel in the green bag on top of the dope, places the clothes under the mattresses.
He sweeps the floor waiting for his moment of escape.
He walks straight out through the police with all the dope under his arm.
As he springs off the front steps with excitement he lands accidentally right in front of the detective standing on the path. The detective gets a fright and faints, falling into a bed of flowers.
Toby instantly puts his bag down and tries to help the detective to his feet saying “don’t squash the flowers”. The detective says ‘Keep your hands off me” as Toby notices a tick behind his ear.
The detective and Toby exchange words of abuse as Toby marches off with his bag, yelling about the tick.
The detective goes inside where the sergeant removes the tick.
Toby marches on, the sergeant’s wife calls to him from the kitchen window “What have you got there Toby, a big bag of dope?”.
He walks off down the street at quickening pace, watched by the locals.
He enters the mechanic’s shop and asks him to mind his bag.
The mechanic asks whether it’s a big bag of dope.
Toby catches a cab home and the cab driver wants to know if it’s dope.
Toby hides his parcel in the bush near an old car near his humpy.
The car is the original one in which Toby got himself into trouble.
Meanwhile the other three are in the garden washing the police cars.
Toby returns for his bicycle.
Billy puts his arm around Toby and makes a deal with him.
Wayne’s girlfriend arrives.
Billy tells Toby to tell his wife to come and bail him out.
Wayne tells his girlfriend to take the car home and hide the stuff in the boot.
He then tells her to take one small parcel to the local drug dealer and get two
hundred dollars for it, then come back and bail him out.
She drives off. Wayne’s girlfriend is seen doing a deal with a small parcel.
The dealer is pleased and wants more.
She takes the money and leaves.
The three prisoners are locked up.
Wayne is called out by the constable.
He is released and walks off, arms around
girlfriend. Billy and Dave are alone.
Dave looks frightened.
The police are preparing for a barbecue and tidying up the office.
They arrange the barbecue in the garden close to the cells.
Billy and Dave stand up on the toilet bowl and watch out the small barred window.
Billy’s wife arrives and balls him out leaving Dave alone and looking very depressed.
………………………………………………………………………………..
Time passes. Dave watches the police rejoicing out the back; more beer arrives (cartons of cans); the army
boys arrive; the pig is on the spit and the smell is drifting into the cell
making Dave sick.
More time passes as the partiers become drunk Dave can hear them bragging about how they hassled the people they busted.
The three police in black arrive on their trail bikes with video cassettes in hand.
It is bad news they say, but won’t know till they see the videos.
The detective asks if he can watch them on the sergeant’s machine and a group go into the house with beers in hand.
They put the cassette in the machine and sit back to watch.
They see the hillbillies come boring into the picture in their bush basher, they sit in horror as the hillbillies do wheelies everywhere, completely destroying the whole crop of six foot plants.

Meanwhile Dave is getting anxious.
He takes one last match, lights it and flicks it under the door.
He gets a fright when there is a loud but low thud like petrol igniting.
We see the petrol which has leaked from one of the pumps in evidence has ignited.
The fire is well alight and spreading.
Dave begins running around like a rat in a trap.
He rushes backwards and forwards in a frenzy as the smoke starts to spread into the exercise yard.
We see the smoke going out the barred window and mingling with the smoke from the barbecue, quickly thickening.
The partiers do not notice at first. The fire chief notices and rings the sergeant’s house.
His wife answers the phone and goes into the garden where the party is continuing and the smoke is billowing out of the barred window.
She rushes in and tells the others and tells the fire chief that the police station is on fire.
They run out and we see the detective’s face of fear.
The fire bell rings, the shopkeepers drop what they are doing and run to the Fire Station, we see that they are all trained firemen.
Dave is running around the exercise yard.
He hides like Wayne, then makes a
speech like Billy, and exercises like Toby.
We see the petrol tanks on the pumps and the rifle ammunition threatening to explode.
Dave takes a mighty leap and pulls his head and shoulders up through the hole in the roof.
He kicks his legs and is stuck.
The petrol tank explodes, almost blowing the door off the cell.
Dave appears to be blown up through the hole.
A large smoke ring appears from the window and holds its shape above the scene.
Confusion breaks out as the smoke engulfs everybody.
The sergeant helps Dave off the roof.
Dave gives a feeble yahoo.
The sergeant tells him to piss off and go home.
The firemen arrive; they put on gas masks.
The ammunition starts going off and above all can be heard the hilarious laughter of the sergeant’s wife.
We see the fireman’s sledge hammer smash the lock.
We see the evidence has been destroyed, the police and Army boys stagger about obviously stoned.
……………………………………………………………………………..
Weeks later Toby drives into town in BilIy’s car, bicycle in the back.
lt is Court day and the Court building is surrounded with the police and the accused.
Toby pulls up and tells the sergeant he has registered the car and all, and has a driver’s license now.
The sergeant smiles for the first time.

In the Court the magistrate is announcing that in his Court if there is no material evidence there is no case.
The detective rips his photos up.
A hippy lady asks him what star sign he is.
The hippies and other persons accused cheer and disperse.
We see Wayne and his girl on a plane to visit her parents.
We see Billy at the races.
We see Dave sadly wandering off down a long road, on his own.
THE END