Tomahawk brawl turns quiet Darwin suburb into ‘war zone’

Afrodite Larentzou feels imprisoned in her Darwin home after a pitched battle between warring families erupted in broad daylight just outside her apartment | VIDEO

More than a dozen men and women, with their children watching on, ran at each other in the suburban Darwin street wielding tomahawk axes and other makeshift weapons on Friday.

Afrodite Larentzou feels imprisoned in her Darwin home after a pitched battle between warring families erupted in broad daylight outside her apartment on Friday afternoon.

More than a dozen men and women, with their children watching on, ran at each other in the suburban street wielding tomahawk axes and other makeshift weapons.

The single mother who lives alone with her two daughters – a six-month-old and a 14-year-old – is deeply afraid of speaking out after witnessing what she says was an “attempted murder”.

Video footage of the attack emerged as Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles told The Australian she did not believe knife crime had “taken a hold”, but believed the issues plaguing the Territory could be overcome.

Parliament last week passed new laws legislating a presumption against bail for violent offenders carrying certain types of weapons.

Ms Fyles acknowledged the NT was undergoing a “particularly challenging time” but said she was optimistic “long-term change will start to take place”.

The comments came as the Territory government asked Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker to resign, indicating it had lost confidence in him.

The alcohol-fuelled violence that has engulfed Alice Springs in recent months appears to have spread to Darwin, with the latest outbreak taking place in front of Ms Larentzou’s apartment in the suburb of Moil – only 15 minutes from the CBD.

After posting footage of the “war zone” online, Ms Larentzou received threats and abuse – some witnessed by The Australian – from Indigenous passers-by.

Ms Larentzou, who left Greece for Australia six years ago, is also speaking out after the death of 20-year-old bottle shop worker Declan Laverty, who was allegedly murdered after refusing to serve an Indigenous teenager alcohol just over two weeks ago.

Her footage shows what appears to be a dispute between families who she believes live around two separate nearby parks. Ms Larentzou’s street is a common thoroughfare connecting the two parks.

Afrodite Larentzou in her Darwin home. Picture: Liam Mendes

As the yelling and screaming began, Ms Larentzou struggled to open the camera app on her phone – her heart was racing and her hands shaking.

“I was terrified,” she said. “They came out into the open streets in the middle of the day and tried to murder each other.

“Before I started filming, at least two men were on top of one man, and they had an axe up against his neck; I thought he was dead.

“I really thought they were killing someone, I’m surprised that nobody got killed.”

As she hit the record button, the group of about a dozen men and women, at least three wielding tomahawk axes, began trying to hold back others from attacking each other.

Shocked and some not-so-shocked locals watched on.

One older, white-bearded Indigenous man standing in the middle of it all appeared helpless.

As quickly as it started, the combatants dispersed, retreating to different parks while still yelling and screaming at each other.

Men fighting in the street in Darwin on Friday.

But then some of the crowd noticed Ms Larentzou filming and not long after began hurling abuse at her.

“You f..king slut,” one said.

“This is our land,” another said.

Ms Larentzou retreated back inside her apartment where her children were, out of fear someone might throw an axe towards the balcony.

“They own this place, they do whatever they want, the really scary thing is that they have no fear about anything,” Ms Larentzou told The Australian.

“They live in the parks, you can see them all day here, but at night-time, after the shops close around eight or nine o’clock, you will see them and it’s like a party every night here.

“Yelling and screaming, fighting, sometimes it‘s not fighting, but very loud, you can hear they’re intoxicated and this can happen to 3am in the morning, every single night.

“This is a really lovely neighbourhood, they’re all families, all with young children too and it’s getting really, really scary for us.”

The frightened mother says she won’t take her children to the park during the day anymore.

“I feel scared, I really feel scared,” she said. “I’ve stopped going anywhere in Darwin because of this in the last year, but I didn’t think that this would happen outside my house because I really felt safe here and we have a great community around here.”

On Saturday afternoon, just over 24 hours after the incident in Ms Larentzou’s street, a man who police said was from Alice Springs returned to hurl abuse at Ms Larentzou, and allegedly assaulted a man who intervened. The Australian understands he has been charged by police.

NT police did not respond to a request for comment.

Single mother Afrodite Larentzou says she feels imprisoned in her own home. Picture: Liam Mendes

Ms Larentzou said she and her neighbours had seen an escalation in violent and anti-social behaviour in the past two months.

“I would say it‘s the last two months here, in Moil; there’s people sleeping here and everything has been escalating in the last two months,” she said.

She said shop owners were locking their doors at 5pm and refusing to serve Indigenous people because of the abuse. “They have been really abused because they sell alcohol,” she said.

Ms Larentzou rejected claims by the NT’s Acting Deputy Police Commissioner that crime had reduced in Darwin: “It’s only got worse. I’ve been here six years, I’ve never seen this before, this is really scary.

“I really don‘t know what to say, it was shocking.”

Many Darwin locals fear that the wave of car thefts, break-ins and alcohol-related violence that has blighted Alice Springs will spread to their city.

They say alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs have driven more Indigenous Australians north to Darwin where there are fewer regulations around the purchasing of liquor. At the end of January a suite of immediate measures restricting alcohol sales in Alice Springs was launched, including trialling takeaway alcohol-free days on Monday and Tuesday and limiting trading hours to 3pm to 7pm on other days.

Ms Larentzou is too afraid to leave her apartment. She now has essential groceries delivered. “I don’t know what’s going to happen if I go to the shops and they see me,” she said.