Opinion: Perspective amid the hysteria of Alice Springs crime crisis

Three months spent visiting Alice Springs from Darwin as the town’s troubles hit the headlines provides a street level perspective, writes Jason Walls.

Police on patrol in Alice Springs earlier this month. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

Upon arriving in Alice Springs as the Centralian capital’s ongoing “crime crisis” began to hit the headlines in early September, the first thing I noticed were the windows.

The street-facing windows of the house I was staying in, just a stone’s throw from the banks of the Todd River, were devoid of steel security screens.

The front gate had no lock on it and there were several pushbikes sitting apparently unmolested in the back yard, where the gate was also permanently unlocked.

After five years in Darwin where steel bars on every window and ubiquitous eight foot high security fencing is considered the norm, I wondered if this was really the same place I’d read about.

For the next three months I went out for dinner or to the pub most weeks, repeatedly crossing over the Todd after 8pm without ever feeling like I was about to be set upon by the roving bands of out-of-control youths who were supposed to be around every corner.

All that said, sitting in the front beer garden of Uncles Tavern in the CBD in November, just metres from where groups of teenagers had only days earlier run riot through the streets in stolen cars, the unrest was again on show for all to see.

Yet I still felt safe enough to walk from pub to pub later that night and again take the now well worn path back across the Todd to my temporary home around midnight and I was again struck by a sense of perspective.

It’s not unusual to see violence and mayhem under the bright lights of Mitchell St on any given Friday or Saturday night in Darwin, while Monday’s newspapers are often punctuated by the trail of destruction left behind after yet another series of break-ins.

But in a busy city of more than 100,000 people, I’ve personally never felt unsafe while out and about, and it’s partly because there’s just so many other people around at any given time.

Turn the corner in Alice Springs and you can quickly find yourself alone on an otherwise deserted street.

And although I was lucky enough to avoid any nastiness, for anyone who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, the experience would be terrifying — and the prospect of it, understandably, enough to leave many too scared to leave the house after dark.

Undoubtedly, there are issues that urgently need addressing in Alice Springs, from the welfare of too many children with no safer place to spend the night than out in the streets, to the citizens and business owners plagued by what can rightly be described as a “crisis”.

But as the eyes of the nation turn to a once sleepy but thriving Territory town badly in need of a helping hand, it also helps to retain a little perspective while the hysteria rages.

Jason Walls will be reporting for News Corp Australia from Alice Springs from Wednesday.

Originally published as Opinion: Perspective amid the hysteria of Alice Springs crime crisis