Optimism that violence that had plagued Alice Springs was declining faded after horror weekend
Optimism around Alice Springs on declining violence issues all but faded away after a horror weekend that resulted in authorities imposing a three day curfew on the troubled Northern Territory town.
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It was only last weekend that Darren Clark was talking to mates and reflecting that Alice Springs seemed to have calmed down a little in recent months.
Over the past four years, he has become well known in Alice Springs for his Facebook page which documents incidents of violence in the Northern Territory town.
On landing at Alice Springs Airport, even the bloke in the car rental desk was advising that ‘If you want to know what’s happening in Alice, look at Darren’s page’.’’
“I went out to the (Alice Springs) Show on Saturday and I was talking to cattlemen and people from around the Territory and they were saying ‘How’s it been mate, you’re not posting much through your pages,’’ Mr Clark said.
“That’s because there’s been nothing to post. I don’t make it up. It’s been fantastic. It’s been really good.’’
But that all came to an end the same weekend after four off-duty policemen were bashed in Alice Springs and a woman was stabbed. The sudden upsurge in violence prompted the NT government to bring in a three-day 10pm to 6am curfew for all residents.
“By Sunday morning, my inbox was full again,” he said.
And so, Mr Clark, owner of the NT Bakery, was again posting, including one that detailed the gruesome injuries suffered by one of the police officers.
“Officer run over suffered fractured, dislocated finger. Laceration to the bone on elbow.
“All major bones in foot broken and moved requiring plates and wire after being knocked over and run over twice,’’ he posted.
While Mr Clark attributed some of the recent calm to the first curfew in March, which was imposed after a violent surge, he was not sure this latest one was much more than a “band-aid solution’’ to the town’s deep-seated problems.
Traders in the Yeperenye Shopping Centre have mostly welcomed the curfew, while expressing concern about a lack of punishment handed out to “gangs” of repeat young offenders who steal goods and damage their shops. However, others are worried the bad publicity is driving away tourists and making the already tough business conditions worse.
The manager of the Katies fashion store, Aggie Prus, said that in recent days youngsters had kicked in the door, thrown drinks over clothes and ripped jewellery off mannequins.
“They know there will be no penalty for their actions, so they feel free to do whatever they want,’’ she said.
Another store owner, who didn’t want to be named, was also angry about the lack of consequences.
“The police do a wonderful job, ambulance officers do a wonderful job, but the law lets them down,’’ the owner said.
Sportscene owner Ben Wade said politicians needed to pay more attention.
He said he had tried to talk to federal Indigenous Affairs minister Linda Burney when she visited Alice Springs but “she won’t listen’’.
“It’s worse, it’s way worse,’’ he said.
President of the Todd Mall Traders Association Venita Poblocki said the bad publicity was scaring off tourists.
“Every time Alice Springs is in the media, we get waves of tourists cancellations, and we are a tourist town – that’s our primary income,’’ she said.
Yipirinya school principal Gavin Morris, who also sits on Alice Springs Town Council, said curfews did nothing to address the underlying issues of abject poverty within town camps – something he linked to the behaviours that had led to curfews being imposed.
“There’s a collapse occurring in front of our eyes in terms of Aboriginal culture and society and living standards in the town camps, and those basic needs of those Aboriginal families are not being met,” he said.
Mr Morris said the Tangentyere Council, which administers the 17 town camps, had “a lot of questions to answer”.
“Tangentyere Council has neglected the town camps now for so long that the abject poverty that these families are forced to live in is producing young people who aren’t prepared to live in society,” he said.
“It has now resulted in them undertaking this absolutely abhorrent behaviour across the weekend.”
The council was contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, the owner of one the bars that Territory police shut down hours before the latest Alice curfew began has spoken out – disputing the police version of Saturday’s night events.
Bojangles Saloon owner Pearl Randhay said she was surprised when officers served a temporary liquor suspension notice on her establishment as the weekend had been full of good nights with good crowds.
Ms Randhay said the fight on the Alice Springs Town Council lawns, opposite her venue, was news to her.
“We saw there were a number of young people on the council lawns … that was it,” she said. “There were no fights or anything like that.” Ms Randhay said when leaving the venue, some patrons went left down Todd St, some went right, and some chose to walk across to the council lawns.
But she disputed where this fight took place.
Ms Randhay said it happened further away from Bojangles, with the bar’s security cameras not recording any violent incidents.
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