The USA just issued a travel warning for Australia and excuse me?

The terrible incident at Bondi Junction is not a reason to avoid our country.

Yesterday, the US issued a travel advisory warning its citizens to ‘remain vigilant’ when travelling to Australia in the wake of the Bondi Junction stabbing tragedy in Sydney.

The memo from the US Embassy in Canberra reads:

In the aftermath of the horrific incident at Bondi Junction this weekend, the U.S. Mission to Australia would like to remind U.S. citizens to remain vigilant; be aware of your surroundings; and practice sound personal security and situational awareness.  As this incident showed, dangerous events can occur in the most unexpected of areas.  Visitors to congested and popular tourist areas should pay particular attention to their surroundings and always follow the instructions of police and emergency response officials.

I don’t pretend to know exactly what hurdle needs to be cleared or button needs to be pressed for a country’s State Department to issue warnings of this nature but I do know this: If Australia issued a travel warning every time a large-scale violent crime took place in the United States, none of us would ever travel there again.

The horrifying Bondi Junction massacre that killed six people when a violent knifeman charged into crowds in the popular Westfield Shopping Centre on 14 April was an appalling event, one that has wrenched at the heart of every Australian. The country is still in a state of deep mourning. But a significant part of what made it so shocking was its rarity. Australia is not a violent country. It’s not a place where this sort of thing happens regularly at all. 

By contrast, the United States is a country where I often feel less safe than anywhere else on earth.

"If Australia issued a travel warning every time a large-scale violent crime took place in the United States, none of us would ever travel there again." Picture: iStock

In the last 24 hours, a quick sweep of American news reveals that Oklahoma police have just identified the bodies of two mothers who were allegedly murdered by a right-wing sect on their way to school pick-up. A 13-year-old girl was shot and killed by a 12-year-old boy in Iowa. There were fatal shoot-outs at parties in Arkansas and Texas and in a hotel in South Carolina. And two police officers were killed by gunfire in New York State.

When I say that was a quick sweep, I mean quick. I didn’t even start digging into the car jackings or the home invasions. There were plenty of both.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the USA. I travel there a couple of times a year. I feel at home in New York City more than almost anywhere else on earth. I once hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail in New England, a woodland dalliance of birdsong and babbling brooks that was straight out of a Henry David Thoreau novel. And New Orleans is the party you never want to leave. 

Partying in New Orleans is one of the US's great travel moments. Picture: iStock

But it’s also a place where it’s hard to shake the feeling that things could go wildly off the rails with very little warning. Walking through the streets of San Francisco late at night feels like you’re in a scene from the Night of the Living Dead, as drug-shuddering hands grasp at your legs from dismal corners of the sidewalk. In 2009 I went to a huge political rally in the Washington Mall and my heart nearly leapt through my chest as I imagined the stampede if one lone nutter shot a gun. In 2019 I road-tripped through the deeply impoverished southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and will never forget the road signs advertising ‘Glocks 4 Sale’. It’s the guns that scare me the most. As of March 31, 208 people have lost their lives in 125 mass shootings.

None of that will stop me travelling to the US of course, because the good overwhelmingly outweighs the bad. I can’t wait to watch a Cubs game in Chicago next month, and cartwheel down the glorious insanity of The Strip in Las Vegas.

Australians don't cancel their holiday plans to the USA every time there's an incident. Picture: iStock

And I truly hope that one devastating but isolated incident doesn’t change Americans’ understanding of Australia as a place that offers peace, friendship and welcome to everyone who reaches our shores.

Originally published as The USA just issued a travel warning for Australia and excuse me?