South Australia’s most dangerous country towns and cities exposed: Search where your area ranks for crime

Only one suburb in SA’s capital comes in above this country town on a table no one wants to lead. See the map.

It’s a coastal mining town that boasts one of the world’s largest lead smelters.

It’s also home to South Australia’s second-busiest port.

But behind the hustle and bustle of Port Pirie lies a more ominous issue – its interpersonal crime rate.

The Mid-North town has emerged as the state’s most dangerous country town or city, according to analysis of the most recent SA Police crime statistics.

The statistics are broken down into individual suburbs within towns, therefore the Port Pirie statistics are specifically for the geographical area that is Port Pirie and does not include Port Pirie West, Port Pirie South or other suburbs nearby.

The Advertiser’s analysis of the crime statistics per head of population revealed Port Pirie has the highest rate of crimes “against the person” in regional SA in 2023-24.

Crimes against the person range from murder, assault to blackmail. Towns with populations of less than 100 people were not included.

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Port Pirie has emerged as the country town with the highest interpersonal crime rate per head of population in SA. Picture: Dean Martin.

Note: Population data is for specific suburbs and not greater regions

In Port Pirie 35 on person crimes committed per 100 people – a 32 per cent rise on the year earlier.

It ranked only marginally more dangerous than Davenport, a small community near Port Augusta, with 33.

While Kaltjiti, 30, and Iwantja, 26, both in the APY Lands, and Coober Pedy, 17, in the far north, rounded out the top five towns for crimes against the person, respectively.

The top three ranked more dangerous than all but one Adelaide suburb including Elizabeth where a violent crime is committed almost daily.

The exception was Noarlunga Centre where 72 on against the person crimes were committed last year.

Other towns that featured high in the rankings included Ceduna, Port Augusta and Whyalla Stuart.

One born-and-bred Port Pirie local, who wished to remain anonymous, said they didn’t feel unsafe in the town but acknowledged that the community had changed in the 50 years they had lived there.

“I think it’s a safe place to live (but) it’s probably changed in recent years,” they said.

“We seem to have a few more colourful characters around but you just steer clear.”

Further north an assault was recorded almost daily in Coober Pedy.

A local, who also wished to remain anonymous, said their town was plagued by drug and alcohol issues, exacerbated by a dwindling police presence.

“Ten years ago, we had 22 coppers here, now we’ve got 12, and we’ve got a bigger population and more problems,” they said.

“We get a lot of people just hanging around the streets drinking. Well, that never used to happen, until they closed Mintabie (in 2018).

“They tried banning the alcohol. There are signs everywhere that say no public drinking, but they’re just standing in front of the signs, just flagrantly disregarding them.”

Coober Pedy police station. Picture: Supplied

The resident said it was a “bad look” for a town that relies on tourism.

“I wouldn’t recommend anyone walking around after dark here, not now,” they said.

“I was just helping clean up a house the other day, and there was an elderly, elderly Greek gentleman living there by himself, and some people come up to his door one night and just kicked his door down, beat the sh-t out of him. There was a pool of blood in the middle of in the middle of his sitting room floor where he was. He’s in hospital in (Adelaide).”

Flinders University criminologist Dr Andrew Groves said regional hubs – such as Port Pirie, Coober Pedy and Port Augusta – had a greater likelihood of higher rates of interpersonal crime rates as they were more densely populated than surrounding areas.

He said these towns serve as hubs for business and social activities, attract people from nearby towns as well as travellers, seeking to use their services and entertainment facilities.

Dr Groves also said challenges in accessing services, such as health and wellbeing supports, financial and employment services, and housing, in regional towns could further increase interpersonal conflict.

“More so than metropolitan spaces, (people in country towns) are more likely to be exposed to the broader socio-economic, cultural impacts of phenomena like the cost of living crisis, poverty, and disadvantage, compared with larger cities because of the nature of living regionally,” he said.