Inside Adelaide’s most dangerous suburb Noarlunga Centre where someone gets assaulted every three days
A girl gang punches another’s tooth out, a man’s outnumbered and kicked to the ground, and a volunteer hands out food in fear. Welcome to SA’s worst neighbourhood.
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Every three days someone is assaulted in a tiny southern suburb that only 211 people call home, according to crime statistics.
Among them a volunteer giving out free food, a man ganged up on by a group of teens, a woman who tried to intervene and a girl forced to jump a stranger’s fence in search of safety.
Noarlunga Centre has the highest crime rate in metropolitan Adelaide with 72 “against the person” offences committed per 100 people, according to The Advertiser’s analysis of the most recent annual South Australia Police crime statistics.
The next worst was Elizabeth at 28, with Port Adelaide ranked the state’s third most dangerous at 17.
EXPOSED: SA’S 400+ MOST DANGEROUS SUBURBS RANKED
The analysis compares the number of crimes ranging from blackmail to assault and murder recorded in South Australian suburbs by their population.
At the heart of Noarlunga Centre - a shopping and service hub located 28km south of the city - is Colonnades Shopping Centre.
Inside, charity groceries store Heart & Soul has been given a space for free to hand out food and while manager Margaret Dixon said “it’s reduced so much crime”, it’s not without risks.
The full-time volunteer stands at the counter facing Ramsay Place for four hours each day and admits she gets scared at times.
“I’ve been assaulted twice,” Ms Dixon said.
“Those men came back some days just to (verbally) abuse me but we still come back everyday making sure people get fed.
“If I see someone acting up I ask them if they want something to eat and drink. It calms most people down, we have a homeless guy in here and he has a chronic addiction to sugar so we give entire sugar bags to calm him down, but it does not always work.”
Ms Dixon’s alleged attackers have been banned from the shop but it is unclear if she reported the assaults to police.
Last financial year 136 assaults were recorded in the suburb up from 117 the year prior.
Visiting the centre on a weekday afternoon, a Colonnades staff member said life inside was normally pretty quiet but to head out its northern doors.
“That’s where it all happens,” the man sitting behind a counter said.
“Just the other day a group of teenagers kicked another guy till he lay on the ground.
“Thump after thump. Every time he tried to get up they would kick him in the head again.”
A local resident waiting at the bus interchange backed up the staff member.
Martin, not his real name, is a convicted criminal who did a stint in jail in the 1990s for cooking meth and said he once smashed up a police car breaking all the windows.
“You want to know why it all happens here?’ he asks.
“In this 100 metre radius you have the tavern and a bus interchange but also a train station, a needle exchange, Centrelink and people leaving the forensic mental health centre with nowhere to go.
“The gentrified areas around here are probably glad it’s all happening in one spot and not in their neighbourhood.”
Martin describes a nearby housing block as “rat infested, my hooker friends goes there to score”.
Back at Ramsay Place, Janaer who lives just outside the perimeter of the suburb is not surprised that Noarlunga Centre is the state’s most dangerous.
“It’s about meth and grog - and one other thing - men,” the woman in her 30s said.
Janaer pauses to think.
“But actually, do you know what? It’s not always men. Not every time,” she said.
“I had a teenage girl jump my back fence a few months ago hiding from a group of girls who were after her.
“She was bleeding and they had knocked out one of her front teeth.
“They had stolen alcohol from her. I took her inside, locked the door, dabbed her face with a cloth and said to me ‘I don’t understand. They have already beat me up, broken my tooth, stolen my alcohol, why are they still continuing, what else do they want to do to me?’”.
An SA Police spokesperson said it responded to all reported incidents at Colonnades and worked with security to investigate crimes committed within the centre.
But also said suburbs that attract people because they are shopping and service hubs are seeing a spike in crime as the southern suburbs grow.
“People from various areas frequent Colonnades, not just local residents,” they said.
“The southern region includes several new population growth areas, and like Marion and other shopping centres, people travel from a wider area to utilise the services offered.
An Onkaparinga Council spokesperson said it was working with SA Police to reduce crime and improve safety in the area and Streetlight delivered a weekly outreach service in Ramsay Place.
“The program engages young people who are at risk of mental health, homelessness, drug and alcohol misuse, anti-social behaviour and social isolation,” they said.
Vicinity Centres which owns Colonnades Shopping Centre did not comment.
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