“It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll
If you wanna be a star of stage and screen
Look out, it’s rough and mean
It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll” – AC/DC

High Octane. Photo © Nat Cartney

On a Thursday in Campbelltown, as the evening sky blushes into a dark bruise, an audience for a new dance work scuffs into the amphitheatre outside the Art Centre. As the Welcome to Country from Aunty Glenda Chalker reaches its end, honouring the custodians of Country and offering visitors safe passage, in the distance the rasp of an engine rings out.

This familiar interjection gains the attention of a few people in the crowd. We who live in the West know it well; the bubbling purr of a gleaming machine testing its potential, breaking the silence of sleepy suburbs with a growl that grows into a roar.

Within a few moments, a souped-up black Commodore fishtails down the driveway, headlights glare as squealing wheels swerve and circle: there’s an art to doing doughnuts. And Campbelltown knows it. Plumes of smoke...