Australian Story: Season 31, Episode 21

31 - 21: Blood on the Tracks

Monday's Australian Story looks back on the death of an Indigenous teenager in 1988.When Indigenous teenager Mark Haines was found dead on a train track near the NSW town of Tamworth, his family immediately suspected foul play.The 17-year-old was doing well at school, was popular with his friends and much-loved by his family.Despite family concerns that Mark's death was suspicious, the initial police report suggested he'd died by suicide. "He would not walk out there and lay down on railway tracks," says school friend Jason Wann."I knew that something horrible had happened." His devoted uncles decided to take matters into their own hands and began investigating. "It was a cover-up. Right from the word go," says Uncle Jack Craigie.The family quickly uncovered key leads overlooked by police which hinted Mark may have been deliberately placed on the tracks. And when they took the story to Indigenous journalist Allan Clarke, a joint 2018 ABC investigation revealed new evidence that contributed to a second coronial inquest. When the coroner handed down her findings last month, the family felt vindicated.This new episode looks at fresh evidence from the inquest and hears from Mark's devoted uncle Don ‘Duck' Craigie who for decades pursued justice for his nephew Mark.