One man's campaign against a representative of the 'forces of Satan' has boiled into a tornado, dragging in fringe participants, writes Geoff Strong.
On a hot, dusty summer's day, two ravens peck for scraps outside the home of Olivia Watts, who watches warily from behind a locked screen door. It has not been an easy year for the naturopath and witch.
In the past six months, Ms Watts says, her business on the city's outer suburban fringe has collapsed; she has been physically attacked; and her home and car vandalised.
Now she is at the centre of a religious war due to be played out before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. On one side is a committed Christian Labor councillor fighting what he has portrayed as the forces of Satan. On the other are Ms Watts and her supporters, who claim that what is going on is, quite literally, a witch-hunt.
But this time it is the witch who has taken the Christian to the inquisitors. Ms Watts alleges religious vilification, and her case has been accepted for a March hearing before VCAT. Such is the acrimony that an attempt last Friday to mediate before the hearing was unsuccessful.
The opening salvo came in early June from the City of Casey's Rob Wilson who issued a press release claiming that a satanic cult was about to take over the city. He named Ms Watts, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the ward of Balla Balla in the council elections earlier this year. Ms Watts is also a transsexual who practises the Wicca religion. In other words, she is a witch.
Cr Wilson called on Casey's church leaders to consider calling a day of prayer to hold back the occult forces he believed were on the march. Ms Watts responded by taking the matter to the Equal Opportunity Commission, which later referred it to VCAT. Ms Watts at one stage sought to include in her action the city's Mayor, Brian Oates, and the council, but she has since dropped her claims against these two parties, leaving the council to seek compensation from her for the alleged cost of preparing its defence. The Sydney-based Pagan Awareness Network, which is supporting Ms Watts, has also taken Cr Wilson and Cr Oates to the Equal Opportunity Commission.
The City of Casey, Victoria's fastest-growing municipality, is one of its most religious, with 42 different houses of worship including many new independent Pentecostal churches. Cr Wilson's original claims led to stories, letters and comment in the local media.
Cr Wilson says he is making no further comment on the public record and that his position was explained in his submission to VCAT. At the time of Cr Wilson's press release about her, Ms Watts had just set up a business as a naturopath working from her home in the small community of Junction Village, south of Cranbourne.
Since the claims became public, Ms Watts says she has been subject to attack. "On August 16 a gentleman came to my door and asked me if I was the naturopath Cr Wilson was talking about. When I admitted I was, he grabbed me and started hitting me on the forehead saying he was driving the demons out of Casey. He just kept screaming 'Out you demon, out you demon'."
These days Ms Watts keeps her curtains closed and has changed her phone numbers.
She said she originally decided to stand for council over local issues and concerns about corruption, not to spread her religion. She took the action against Cr Wilson because she wanted an apology.
Cr Wilson has since been quoted in a newspaper as saying he stood by his claims "absolutely". In his submission to VCAT, he said he was concerned that Ms Watts had said in an earlier newspaper interview that many young people were being attracted to witchcraft as a symbol of rebellion against mainstream faiths.
He claimed he issued his press release in the public interest not to incite hatred, contempt, revulsion or ridicule of Ms Watts. "As a member of the community, I was concerned about the spread of witchcraft onto the council."
In his submission he relies on a number of sources to link witchcraft and Satanism, including an evangelical Christian website called The Watchman and the Collins paperback dictionary: "Witchcraft: noun, the use of magic especially for evil purposes".
Ms Watts said her family originated on the Scottish West Coast islands of Barra and North Uist and had a long history of practising Wicca, which has similarities to other early-European, nature-based religions - such as Druidism.
"We are a bit like the Jews. No matter how hard people have tried to suppress us, the faith has survived. Both faiths have aspects to them that Christians don't appreciate," she said. "I am a witch; I am quite proud of it. I don't do evil against people. We have nothing to do with Satanism."