Streets of Alice Springs eerily quiet on second night of curfew

Bottle shops in Alice Springs are set to re-open tonight and the temporary ban on the two closed bars also will expire, ahead of a three-day curfew ending.

It was quiet on the streets of Alice Springs on the second night of the town’s 10pm to 6am lockdown.

Todd Mall was mostly deserted. The steel shutters that grace every shop front firmly closed. The multitude of CCTVs overhead were keeping a close eye on the proceedings below. Helped by a temporary surveillance hub half way along the mall, which had cameras as well as speakers, helpful if the watchers needed to give sudden instructions to the locals.

Parts of Alice Springs resembled a ghost town. Picture: Grenville Turner

The three-day snap lockdown for the entire town of Alice Springs was declared on Monday in response to a horror weekend, including an alleged assault of four off-duty police officers, and is the second time restrictions have been imposed this year.

Unless it is extended, the curfew will end at 6am Thursday. But there will be one major difference on Wednesday night. Bottle shops, which were closed on Monday and Tuesday in Alice Springs, will re-open and the temporary ban on the two closed bars will expire.

On Tuesday night, hardly anything was open. Two pubs – Bojangles and Red Rock had already been closed down by authorities – another, Uncles Tavern was deserted.

One of the few places open beyond 10pm was Roberto’s Pizza. It attracted a few customers and was also offering a delivery service. Manager Sandy said it was a pretty standard business for a Tuesday night and the curfew had not caused him much trouble.

The curfew did not stop the business operating and it was not illegal for customers to be there even after 10pm. The rules meant people could still enter the CBD if they were going to a restaurant or hospitality venue.

The streets of Alice Springs were all but deserted on the second night of the curfew. Picture: Grenville Turner

Police patrol the streets. Picture: Grenville Turner

The rules meant people could still enter the CBD if they were going to a restaurant or hospitality venue. Picture: Grenville Turner

Unless it is extended, the curfew will end at 6am Thursday. Picture: Grenville Turner

Still, Roberto’s Pizza carried a few scars from old battles. There was cracked glass. Plastic panels that replaced previously broken glass had been punched out. In some places, Sandy, who has been running the pizza shop for four years, had given up and replaced both glass and plastic with wood.

“We can’t afford it. It’s too much insurance,’’ Sandy said.

He was, though, not taking it personally. He said fights in the area were a “normal’’ occurrence and sometimes the shop was collateral damage.

“We are OK, but the windows get broken when they fight each other,’’ he said.

Before the 10pm curfew kicked in, there were isolated pockets of people walking around Gregory Terrace and down Todd St past Roberto’s Pizza towards the closed pubs. Cars were cruising the streets and the police were a visible presence.

Alice Springs police were boosted by colleagues from other parts of the Territory and confirmed the streets were pretty quiet. One drunk was persuaded to take a ride home in the back of a police van. Two other officers escorted two young men out of Todd Mall after the designated curfew time.

“They’re good boys, we’re just walking them home,’’ one officer said. It might have been true.

The other presence on the streets were the “bush buses’’ taking people home to their communities.

A driver for the Lhere Artepe Apmereke-Artweye Patrol – slogan, Keeping our Community Safe – said they had given a lift to about 30 passengers so far that nights in their brightly coloured lime green Toyota van by about 10.30pm. “It gets them home to a safe place and it’s better than walking around and there is nothing open,’’ she said.

Originally published as Streets of Alice Springs eerily quiet on second night of curfew