This is a Blast Box Media Podcast. Why do you seem so scared? All I wanted to do is play with you. Please come and play with me.

I am so lonely. You're not afraid of the door, are you? Don't briefly. Come with me. I will show you where I play hide and seek. Do you want to play hide and seek? Do you hide and I'll find you. She did. I'm going to see. If you've never heard of the Colt family from Burroa, New South Wales, Australia,

here are some basic facts. They lived on an isolated property in a rural area.

They had little contact with outsiders. Even when the courts mandated that

their children were required to attend school, their attendance was checkered that their

attendance was checkered by frequent and prolonged absences. In fact, it was only when social workers visited

when the children would be forced into attending classes to receive remedial instruction.

Since they were so far behind the other children, they were also unprepared to deal with outsiders

whose lives were markedly different, with evidence obvious

to the five senses of how they did not play by the rules of Australian society.

For one thing, they lived in squaller.

The colts were not equipped with showers, bathtubs, or running water for any means.

They were not in the habit of bathing, so their hygiene or lack thereof was highly unpleasant for interlopers.

They slept in tents and sheds. They lived in abject poverty. Their living arrangements consisted of two caravans, a garden

shed and a larger shed with two tents inside. The floor of caravan number one was caked with dirt, mud, garbage, and cigarette

butts. The kitchen was filthy. The children's beds were squalid. A barbecue was used for heating. Its safety features were broken or rendered unusable for some other reason.

Caravant number two was just as putrid and foul.

With the absence of plumbing, a tub of water was used for hand washing,

though it didn't see a lot of action.

The caseworkers returned with two camping toilets, a camping shower, and a safety plan.

Occasionally, with the men would cut and sell firewood.

Two of the men worked as council laborers.

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