Bundaberg’s Safe Night Out Precinct helping people get home safe

From crews carrying vomit bags and phone chargers to ‘taxi marshalls’ keeping things calm at ranks, this dedicated team is ensuring locals get home safe. See their full list of services here:

Crews carrying everything from vomit bags to phone charges are among the local legends ensuring pub and club goers get home safely on a night out.

Now, these dedicated professionals and volunteers have announced new initiatives and called for more helping hands.

A Safe Night Out Precinct (SNP) meeting is regularly held at Bundaberg Police Station where the safety of individuals, banned patrons and any issues are shared.

At these meetings, the most recent of which was held on Tuesday, the committee, police, council staff, publicans, licensees, transport representatives, security and local volunteer services discuss everything from responsible service of alcohol to wellbeing and security improvements.

President of the Safe Night Out Precinct, Lloyd Finnis, told the NewsMail the committee was dedicated to making sure Bundaberg’s SNP secured government funding to enhance resources, stop violence and reduce pressure on emergency services.

He said the most important issue the group had recently addressed through funding was fighting at a popular taxi rank on Woongarra Street.

‘We’ve appointed a taxi marshall who’s getting people into taxis safely between the times of 12am and 4pm Saturday night,” he said.

“It stops queue-jumping, it’s stopping fighting at the taxi rank, and as a taxi gets in, we get people in and gone as quickly as possible.”

Changes made to the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act last year mean people who act up in a Safe Night Precinct well be issued an initial 30-day ban from the area.

“It gets brought up in the meeting to make people aware of each individual if we have problems,” Mr Finnis said.

A little known ‘guardian angel’ service, which has also been recently implemented in the region by a national non-for-profit, is also aimed at helping people in need and stopping violence before it occurs.

ChaplainWatch crews walk around the CBD on Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm-4am, providing free services such as first aid, and even a phone charger, for people who need it.

Team Leader, Frank Fiorenza, said the nightwatch service was run by volunteers and catered to everyone, no matter their situation.

“It’s as simple as not knowing where a taxi rank is, or not knowing where your friends are to getting intoxicated and having a first aid incident to conflict with other people,” Mr Fiorenza said.

“Our goal is to step in and potentially intervene in everyone's situation when things aren’t going well, and try and divert the situation.”

Mr Fiorenza said volunteers were easily recognisable and could be flagged down by anyone who needed assistance.

“We try to say ‘hello’ to everyone we walk past,” he said.

“We carry a weight-bearing vest like the police wear, but ours is fluoro yellow.

“We have everything in there from vomit bags, to something as simple as wipes, tissues, bandages and enough supplies to brace someone’s arm.”

The service has an office on Bourbong Street which is currently used as a safe space for people to go to, but is expanding to include four beds and a bigger chill out space by the end of this year.

“Generally people when they’re intoxicated don’t require emergency, they need a good sleep,” Mr Fiorenza said.

“Instead of going into the emergency room, we can have people in there for an hour to find out who their friends or parents are and get them home with those people.

“We have a room for people to come in and talk to a chaplain, we’ve got trained staff that can support anyone”

ChaplainWatch is a small volunteer team of three and seeking more volunteers to assist.

Mr Fiorenza said while ChaplainWatch was modelled off Christian values, anyone, regardless of their faith, was welcome to get involved.

“All you need is your first aid training and a blue card and apply on our website.”

Officer In Charge of the Bundaberg Police Station, Senior Sergeant Michael McGarry, said there’s one thing people could do to give themselves the best chance at a safe night.

“Plan your night,” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be strict, but a general plan to know where you’re going to be, know who you’re going to be with and have a plan B.”

Senior Sergeant McGarry said police relied on community partnerships such as the SNP to continue to keep the community safe.

“Whether it’s preventing or disrupting crime, preventing road trauma, preventing domestic and family violence, police can’t do any of that alone.

“Our community partnerships and collaborations are critical to achieving those objectives.

“However, we’re very fortunate to have a very safe town.

“Bundaberg locals should feel very confident that they can go out to our CBD and have a safe night.”