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He was 27. She was 24. And this is how they died in Victoria last week.

The front page of Ballarat’s Courier newspaper.

 

 

 

By LUCY ORMONDE

Her name was Shannon Knowles.

She had a four year old son named Deegan. And according to her family, she had “a special glow that made her stand out in the crowd”.

On Friday night, the 24-year-old was found dead in a car parked on a muddy road just outside the Victorian regional centre of Ballarat on Friday night.

Alongside her was a 27-year-old man and their dog, both of whom had also passed away.

Police say the couple were homeless; that they were living in their car because they had nowhere else to go. They also believe fumes from a butane gas heater that was found in the car probably poisoned the pair to their deaths.

The temperature in Ballarat reached a low of 9° Celcius on Friday night.  The night before, it reached a low of 4° Celcius.

And while you or I were lying flat in warm and layered beds, this pair were curled up on car seats, desperately trying to stay warm and get a few hours’ sleep on a night.

It’s just too tragic.

There are currently 105,000 homeless people in Australia, which equates to one in every 200 people. Some of those people may be in overcrowded shelters, others are sleeping on their relatives’ and friends’ couches. And six per cent of those 105,000 are sleeping in improvised dwellings, tents or sleeping out because they have nowhere else to go.

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The reaction on social media in the wake of the pair’s death was one of shock and a search for answers.

But it was perhaps Wendy Harmer who said the most relevant words when she tweeted:

So the question has to be asked. How many more Australians will suffer a similar fate when the government introduces its changes to welfare rules from January 1?

And what are we going to do to stop any more deaths before they happen?

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