Port Augusta Pastor Grant Hay fears the town will become the ‘next Alice Springs’ amid a spike in gang-related violence
A 15-year-old SA boy has been set upon by a group of teenagers and hit in the head at full force with a hammer in an attack that’s shocked even seasoned medical staff.
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A 15-year-old Port Augusta boy was set upon by four teenagers he did not know and bashed in the head with a hammer as he walked home from work.
The terrifying incident is just one example of youth gang-related violence besetting the town that has a local pastor saying the community is bracing for worse to come in the school holidays and fearing the town is the “next Alice Springs”.
The Advertiser understands the boy was listening to music through headphones while walking home after dark when he was approached by four teenage boys near Young St.
The group held him down and hit him at full force with a hammer.
According to a source, even seasoned medical staff at the local hospital were shocked by the incident and one doctor said if the boy had been hit a few inches lower, he might have died.
The boy’s family has been left reeling by the senseless attack which was not a robbery – his belongings including a skateboard, mobile phone and headphones were left on the ground near where he was bashed.
Pastor Grant Hay, who runs a boxing program with SA Police at Port Augusta Youth Centre, said people were scared to go out at night because gangs dressed in durags (a cloth tied around the top of the head) and tracksuits roamed the streets concealing “hammers and knives”.
“We are on our way to becoming the next Alice Springs,” he said.
Mr Hay said he was recently approached by five boys aged 8-10 who told him “you think you’re tough because you do boxing, how about you take us on”.
Port Augusta, Port Augusta West and Davenport all featured in The Advertiser’s ‘Most Dangerous Regional Towns’ ranking list published last week.
Port Augusta recorded 791 violent crimes last financial year while Port Augusta West recorded 255.
The Advertiser had also learned Port Augusta Secondary School has recently hired full-time security guards.
The school has also been offering free breakfast and lunch to students in an effort to address plummeting attendance rates – particularly among Indigenous students – with almost of half enrolled Indigenous students absent on any given day.
One victim of crime, who asked to called ‘Amanda’, 44, said there were boys as young as eight joining young adults in gangs, who were also known to break into houses.
Amanda said on one recent morning, she was at her house when she asked her friend if they wanted a coffee and a “male voice responded with ‘yes that would be good’”.
The voice came from a man who had broken into her house. She rang triple-0 and he ran off.
In another incident that Amanda witnessed, she said some girls were slamming the head of another into concrete, telling her “it’s OK, it’s just for TikTok”.
“This girl was not consenting,” she said.
In mid-October, police made Port Augusta a Declared Public Precinct allowing officers to conduct metal detector searches of a person or property, carry out drug detection on any person within the area and order a person or group posing a risk to the public to leave.
A spokesman for SA Police said “crime rates in Port Augusta remain stable” and “community members have reported a notable improvement in community safety across the Port Augusta CBD since the establishment of the (precinct)”.
Since October 18, 17 people have been directed to leave the Declared Public Precinct.
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