2004 Redfern riots

The 2004 Redfern riots took place on the evening of Saturday, 14 February 2004, in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern, New South Wales, sparked by the death of a young man named Thomas Hickey.

The circumstances surrounding Thomas 'T.J.' Hickey's death are disputed. The 17-year-old Indigenous Australian was riding his bicycle down hill without brakes as a police vehicle was patrolling the nearby area. According to police, he collided with a protruding gutter and was flung into the air and impaled in a 2.5-metre high fence outside a block of units off Phillip street Waterloo, causing penetrating injuries of the neck and chest. Police officers at the scene administered first aid until NSW Ambulance officers arrived. Hickey was transported from the scene to the Sydney Children's Hospital in a critical but stable condition. He died with his family by his side on 15 February 2004 due to the severity of his wounds.

According to police, they arrived at the scene quickly, but were unable to save him as "the injury was probably non-survivable." There was an outstanding arrest warrant in his name, but police have consistently maintained that the patrol car was searching for a different individual, wanted in connection with a violent bag snatch at Redfern railway station earlier the same day.

The Hickey family and supporters fiercely dispute this version of events, claiming that witnesses saw Hickey's bike clipped by the police car, thus propelling him onto the fence. This claim was supported by the testimony of two Aboriginal Liaison Officers to a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the death, though neither of the Officers were present at the scene. Despite calls to re-open the coronial inquest, the New South Wales government has refused to do so.

Doubt remains over the veracity of the evidence presented during the case. One of the Aboriginal Police Liaison Officers who gave testimony for the Hickey family, Paul James Wilkinson, later admitted to the murder of his pregnant girlfriend five months prior to making his allegations. Wilkinson pleaded guilty to murder on 13 November 2008, judged as being 'well-versed in deception and motivated by self-interest' when receiving a 28-year custodial sentence.

On the evening of 15 February, Aboriginal youths gathered from across Sydney to the Redfern area, and when police closed the Eveleigh Street entrance to the station, the crowd became violent and began to throw bottles, bricks, live fireworks and Molotov cocktails. The violence escalated into a full-scale riot around The Block, during which Redfern railway station was briefly alight, suffering superficial damage. The riot continued into the early morning, until police used fire brigade water hoses to disperse the crowd. Total damages include a torched car (previously stolen from a western suburb), and 40 police officers injured.