Grog-runners exploiting the most vulnerable people in Ceduna

Locals in Ceduna say grog-runners are buying cask wine for cheap and selling for three to four times the market value to the most vulnerable people in the community.

Greg Peters lives on the outskirts of Ceduna in an area where multiple tent camps are growing, which people living there call "Indian Hill". Picture: Douglas Smith

Grog-runners illegally supplying the most vulnerable people in the state’s Far West Coast with alcohol, are buying cask wine for around $15 per box and selling it for almost four times the value, locals say.

Early this week, the Ceduna Foreshore Hotel placed alcohol restrictions on their drive-through bottle shop, which prohibited the sale of cask wine, spirits or fortified wine before midday.

However, people are still able to buy all the restricted alcohol from people illegally bringing it into Ceduna and selling it to those who are sleeping rough and have problems with alcohol addiction.

Ceduna is a dry town but evidence of heavy alcohol consumption can be seen across the town. Picture: Andrew Brooks

Tent camps have sprung up on the outskirts of Ceduna, where people sleeping rough are being sold illegal alcohol. Picture: Douglas Smith

On Wednesday, SAPOL Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott told FIVEAA that SA Police were aware of grog-runners who were “very clandestine” in the way they operated.

“Where there’s a vulnerable community, there’s always people who are going to take advantage of those people, and grog-runners are certainly who we consider to be people that do take advantage of the more vulnerable people,” he said

“So yes, we’re absolutely aware of it (and) yes, we do target the grog-runners.

“The people who run grog into communities illegally and to other places and supply illegally, they by their nature are very clandestine in the way they operate.”

Mr Parrott said while local police in Ceduna were aware of the issue and doing what they could to stop the flow of illegal alcohol, he urged community members to take up the fight as well.

SA Police Assistant Commissioner, Ian Parrott says local Ceduna police are aware of grog-running and need community help to stop the flow. Picture: Russell Millard

“What we actually really rely on here, as well as the great work from our local police, is information from the community about who is responsible,” he said.

“Perhaps how they are getting grog into the communities, maybe when they’re getting grog into communities and even where they’re sourcing it from.

“These are the types of things that we really encourage our community members to provide that information to police.

“This is a whole of community effort here in terms of helping to make sure that the people who are grog-running or perhaps providing drugs, or any other harms that are being caused in the community.”

The far west community has been plagued with anti-social behaviour for the past 18-months, with 29 letters written by concerned locals who have detailed incidents of public intoxication, domestic violence and “out-of-control” anti-social behaviour daily in the town’s CBD.

Locals across the board say it is a “small minority” of vulnerable people from surrounding communities, many who are sleeping and living in dire conditions on the outskirts of Ceduna in multiple tent camps.

In an area called “Tent City” by locals, the people who live there say the number of homeless people “sleeping rough” is growing by the day, with alcohol also being illegally sold there.

Greg Peters from Yalata, an Aboriginal community 200km west of Ceduna, told The Advertiser that people living in the tent camps were being illegally supplied alcohol because they could not buy it from the bottle shop.

Mr Peters, who does not drink alcohol himself, said it had become a real problem to the health and overall wellbeing of people living there.

“If you want to buy grog (cask wine $15), you have to pay them $50 and that’s why people don’t want to give money away, they want to buy grog,” he said.

“If these people have to suffer, then keep them (grog-runners) in Adelaide.

“They buy it in Adelaide and they sell (it) here. They go to Adelaide and buy it and they go to Port Augusta and Port Lincoln to buy it and when they come back, they tell everybody, ‘I got thing (cask) you know’, and it’s $50 for one cask.”

Mr Peters said he found himself living at the tent camp because he moved closer to Ceduna to be closer to the health services, which is the same as many others from surrounding communities.

In South Australia, the penalty for grog-running and supplying alcohol to dry communities is $20,000 for the first offence and $40,000 for a second or subsequent offence.

The townships of Ceduna and nearby Thevenard are both alcohol dry-zones.