Burleigh crime and safety: Residents Ubering due to unpredictable illegal campers
Burleigh residents have resorted to catching Ubers rather than risking a three minute walk home because of “unpredictable” behaviour from illegal campers – worried it’s only a matter of time before a child is attacked.
Burleigh residents have resorted to catching Ubers rather than risking a three minute walk home because of “unpredictable” and “abusive” behaviour from long-term illegal campers.
One Burleigh resident who lives opposite Justins Park said a particular group of campers have lived in the sand dunes in front of her home for the last two years.
In that time she has been charged at while pushing her child in a pram, followed home, barricaded in stores on James St, spotted a myriad of used syringes in the area and has been verbally abused on countless occasions.
“They’re always around, but there’s a few that are obviously very schizophrenic and they’re the ones that really scare me because they’re so unpredictable,” she said.
“They run at people – and because I have a pram they’ll run at the pram screaming.”
The resident said she’s been in multiple situations where she’s been locked inside a local shop waiting for police.
“I’ve been down at the chemist on James St and staff have had to lock all of the doors because of the abuse and call the police,” she said.
“These people are abusing staff wanting drugs, methadone, those sorts of things. The pharmacist said it’s quite a regular occurrence for them. After I left I was followed back to my apartment – I was so scared. I won’t walk at night now – I will Uber from James St because I don’t feel safe.”
The mum said the area had changed drastically in the last year, with its tranquil village feel lost amid an influx of homeless, many with serious mental health issues.
On Sunday morning the local witnessed a brawl involving residents of the camp opposite her home which resulted in a dramatic face off with police.
“There were two guys on the bigger guy – they were obviously all off their head because they could barely stand up,” she said.
“They usually get moved on, but then they just come back two days later which is pretty common. They also have a few vans they live out of in front of The Mondrian as well as tents. They charge their phones there, blare music out in the middle of the night – and there are lots of syringes and needles around as well, which is hard having a young toddler who loves playing down at the beach.”
She said after living in her home for three and a half years, she’s been at the point of becoming desensitised to the chaos.
“They often have fires as well down in the sand dunes and often lose control of their gas burners – it’s terrifying and sounds like a bomb going off when that happens,” she said.
“They have quite a few dogs and one of them is dangerous. It’s never on a leash. It’s only a matter of time before a child is attacked.”
Despite lodging multiple police reports, the resident said nothing changes.
In parliament on Tuesday, Burleigh MP Hermann Vorster pledged to address the anti-social behaviour affecting the area.
“An anti-social culture is plaguing this beautiful part of the Gold Coast,” he said.
“There should be consequences for action and those that engage in behaviours that offend standards should be discouraged from doing so, because if you don’t, you give tacit endorsement for those behaviours. Our traders have had enough and the situation has got so bad that young women now feel too afraid to work a shift in Burleigh.”
Mr Vorster said the government will “get on top of this problem” by looking into laws, delivering more CCTV, a police beat and a stronger police presence in Burleigh.
“On October 22 we will be convening a round table where my community can send an unequivocal message to our government that there must be a reversal of Labor’s soft laws so that we can restore everything that makes Burleigh beautiful,” he said.
“Not only are there consequences for action, but there will be a reason to return to Burleigh.”
The resident said it was vital for the state government to send more police resources into the area to keep up with its growing population and needs.
“Burleigh is no longer that little coastal suburb anymore, it feels like a little city,” she said.
“It needs the resources to reflect that. CCTV won’t do much – these people struggle with such bad mental health, surveillance won’t act as a deterrent.”
