The Cracker Box Clan in action


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Anything a weapon as picnic turns into brawl
Alan Mascarenhas
January 16, 2007


THEY came at each other with saucepans and kitchen knives, even a
folded-up picnic chair. As food fights go, this was bloodier - and more
resourceful - than most.

Details emerged yesterday about how a serene Sunday picnic at Dolls
Point in southern Sydney had degenerated into

a 45-minute brawl. Police say the fight, in fading light between two
clans, erupted when a child from one family was struck by a soccer
ball.

Photographs passed onto the Herald by a witness show furious
bare-chested men flinging punches as a woman waves desperately.

"You could see the heated body language before it started," said the
witness, a 66-year-old named Nick who was playing Keno at the nearby
Georges River 16ft Sailing Club.

"I looked through the window and thought something's going to happen.
Sure enough, the first biff came, then the second biff, then all the
other groups start flying in from the side.

"There was a bloke walking around with a folded chair and he was having
a swing. There was screaming and shouting ... even the women were
having a go at each other."

At one point an elderly man smacked a youth, possibly his son or
grandson, Nick said. "That young boy then stopped, he was solemn for a
couple of minutes like he'd been chastised. But it was short-lived
because a couple of minutes later he was back in, hoeing into everyone
else."

Scott Hughes, the manager of the sailing club, described the flare-up
as out of control.

"A guy in a red singlet, he went and grabbed a saucepan from the
camping site and he's gone and hit the other guy," Mr Hughes said.
"Then the other guy picked up a piece of wood ... the guy with the red
singlet was bleeding from the head."

Police swooped on the scene within 10 minutes, but soon called for
reinforcements as the fight "kept flaring", Nick said.

Photographs seen by the Herald depict a virtual mob scene in the picnic
area car park, with several officers wearing protective riot shields.

Paramedics treated a man for a gash to the head. A man, 19, was later
arrested and charged with wielding a knife in a public place. He has
been granted bail to appear at Kogarah Local Court on January 30.