Knives used in brawl

By Jim Mynard
BRAWLING youths at the Bemersyde Drive, Berwick shopping centre near Kambrya College on Friday, 24 November fought with knives, fence palings and timber.
The fight erupted just after 3pm and residents said it was the result of trouble that has been brewing in the area during recent weeks.
Berwick Village Chamber of Commerce president Michael Hall, who was near the shopping centre when the brawl started, said it was “serious stuff”.
Mr Hall tried to stop the fight and took two knives from the youths, but said they kept on fighting.
One of the knives was taken back from him, but the other is now in police hands.
Mr Hall said one youth was flattened with a fence picket and there was plenty of blood about.
“They were using filthy language to women who were calling for the fight to stop,” he said.
“People there to collect children were shocked. Someone will be killed if this is allowed to go on. It’s been brewing for far too long and has peaked with this brawl.”
Mr Hall has called for police to clean up the mess and move the troublemakers away. He put himself in danger when he went among the pack in an effort to slow the fighting.
He said someone had to do something because it was getting out of hand.
“I can identify some of the fighters, but they had all gone when the police arrived only a few minutes after the call.
“The fight appeared to start when two or three young bucks laid in wait for a couple of kids coming from the college at home time,” he said.
“Twenty or 30 young people were milling around, but five or six were in a real blue. One kid had a paling with a nail sticking out and they had knives.
“This is more than an afterschool fight; they were out to get each other.
“I tried to break it up, but I felt threatened and called on one big guy to help me. I yelled ‘enough’ to slow their momentum and a young teacher came up and tried to stop it. She was brave.
“We can’t stand by and watch these kids stab each other. This was like downtown New York,” he said.
Kambrya College’s assistant principal Michael Muscat said he believed the trouble was coming from a few former students and certain outsiders.
“If any of them are our students they will very quickly become former students,” he said.
Senior Constable Matthew Dickie from Narre Warren Police station said there were 1300 students at the college, but only four or five troublemakers.