Cairns Hockey Association suffers four allged break-ins, in two months
A Cairns sports club is becoming all too familiar with completing police reports after suffering four alleged break-ins, in two months, while forming plans to join forces with rival codes to combat crime.
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A Cairns community sport operator is becoming all too familiar with completing police reports after suffering four alleged break-ins, in two months, while forming plans to join forces with rival codes to combat crime.
The Cairns Hockey Association staff were again sweeping broken glass from its smashed clubhouse on Monday morning after its neighbouring facility Tobruk Memorial Pool raised the alarm over damage it had also suffered overnight.
Cairns Hockey Association office manager Jodie Dennis said the pool’s ANZAC memorial had been damaged and its security footage showed 12 alleged offenders were involved at the aquatic facility before making their way to the hockey fields.
Ms Dennis said the previous three alleged break-ins had racked up a damage bill of about $5000 and estimated the latest destruction would leave the club out of pocket by another $2500 – which was mainly smashed glass, and graffiti.
“We just don’t know what to do, we obviously need to upgrade our security, but we have no money,” she said.
While the club hosts its off-season training academy and summer competition, the cost to the organisation has gone beyond just repairs.
“After the third time, we completely shut down our bar, so we removed everything from lollies and chips to all our drinks. We haven’t been able to open our bar in three weeks – there’s nothing left to steal.
“It does impact our members and participants, for them it can be a second home; we don’t make a lot of money from it but it’s some revenue but it’s mainly social impact.”
Ms Dennis said she had little faith an empty clubhouse and bar would now be a deterrent.
“We had posters up saying ‘no food, no drink, no money,’ all the fridges are empty and the doors are open, there’s no tables and chairs, there’s nothing there. We’ve made it pretty obvious there’s nothing to take but they wanted to break in anyway.”
She said while the damage bill wasn’t threatening the viability of the club, participants were becoming concerned about footing the cost through membership fees.
“But that’s unfair to put it on them, it’s not their fault. But this is threatening community sport in general in Cairns – the pool has been targeted, Sugar World has been done, cricket has been done, soccer has been done, tennis has been done.
“If we could afford better fencing, pull down shutters or a 24/7 security guard, we’d have that tomorrow.”
Ms Dennis said she would be looking to meet adjacent sporting operators including the tennis centre and the pool to investigate joint efforts to mitigate the crime wave the Cairns North precinct had suffered.
She said police had attended the clubhouse but were “unable to find any fingerprints” while searching for the alleged offenders.
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Originally published as Cairns Hockey Association suffers four allged break-ins, in two months
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