Crime crackdown: Plans people will be relocated from North Tce to the Parklands

Interstate visitors have been blamed for contributing to the North Tce crime wave – and Adelaide City Council has been tasked with finding an area they can be relocated to.

Adelaide CBD business owners have been left feeling “unsafe” amid a crime wave in the area. Picture: Riley Walter

Interstate visitors from Alice Springs and Western Australia have been blamed for contributing to the North Tce crime wave – and Adelaide City Council has been tasked with finding an area they can be relocated to.

Details of the State Government’s multi-pronged attack on crime and anti-social behaviour on North Tce was provided to Adelaide City Councillors at a meeting on Tuesday night.

After denying media reports this year that crime in the CBD was a major problem, Police Minister Joe Szakacs last month confirmed the problem and launched a major operation, flooding the area with officers.

He also revealed a major boost in the existing Safety and Wellbeing Taskforce which was established by Cabinet in March last year to better support people in Adelaide visiting from remote indigenous communities.

But at council on Tuesday night it was revealed the visitors are not South Australian, a council briefing stating; “A younger cohort of remote visitors, primarily from Alice Springs and to a lesser extent Western Australia have been identified as congregating in these locations and using alcohol excessively”.

Council director Sarah Gilmour told the committee meeting that a “cultural response” was being applied.

“What we are seeing there (in North Tce) is a different cohort of remote visitors using that location and there has been an increased response,” she said.

“In the light of those issues the Lord Mayor and CEO took a safety walk and we have increased our response about vandalised lighting.”

North Terrace at night, Adelaide/ Kaurna Land The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

The report on the SAPOL briefing states: “The behaviours include theft from bottle shops and hotels in the CBD and surrounding suburbs and violent behaviours”.

“The cohort involved are using SA Housing Authority tenancies across metropolitan

Adelaide for accommodation, community to the city by bus or train.”

The Advertiser has been told that social dislocation caused by booze bans, Covid-19 restrictions, and violence in their own communities, has forced many people to travel to Adelaide.

The council will now make a shortlist of places to relocate the groups, and the report was on Tuesday night accepted without dissent.

“City of Adelaide’s commitment through the Task-force is to identify safe places to gather in the Parklands,’’ the council briefing explains.

To deal with APY lands dislocation caused by flooding and Covid-19 travel restrictions, the council used Park 21 – Puti on Kaurna Yerta in December 2021.

Last summer it used Park 23/Edwards Park.

The sites are likely to be used again and councillors will be allowed to vote on the location.

The task-force is also considering strategies like; “ … suitable temporary accommodation such as hostels, culturally appropriate detox and rehabilitation and intensive case management”.