Hope for kids at Hidden Valley as Alice Springs grapples with crime crisis

Crime in Alice Springs spiked in the wake of the NT’s alcohol bans lapsing last year, with an influx of youths on the streets. But on the outskirts of town, there is still hope for the kids.

Kirsty-Lee, 8, and Eden Pareroultja, 7, spend their afternoons at the Hidden Valley community centre. Picture: Riley Walter

The playful shrieks and laughs can be heard from across the street in the town camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

Out the back of an unassuming brick building against the backdrop of brightly painted murals, children at Hidden Valley’s community centre run circles around each other, playing on the swing set and playground as dusk approaches.

From 4pm to 8pm every day the kids come to the community centre to take part in a youth program.

It’s a home away from home for the children and a chance to escape the troubles in Alice Springs that are luring so many young people onto the streets.

“It’s good for them to do activities,” Noeleen McMillan says.

Noeleen McMillan says kids in Hidden Valley need activities to keep them off the streets. Riley Walter

“They’re safe here.”

With the town centre just a few kilometres away across the dry bed of the Todd River, it is easy for the social issues to creep into Hidden Valley and many of the other town camps around Alice Springs.

Noeleen points out a young girl, no older than eight, crouched down on the ground intensely concentrating on the sheet of paper in front of her.

“She was hanging around in town,” she says.

“Her mother don’t know, she’s too busy in Darwin.”

But here, she’s just another kid enjoying herself.

Since November, when NT Police launched Operation Drina, which saw 45 officers posted to Alice Springs for a fortnight to combat anti-social behaviour and associated crime, 326 arrests have been made, including dozens of youths.

Assistant Police Commissioner Martin Dole says crime has spiked since July when the Stronger Futures legislations – laws which kept town camps and communities near Alice Springs dry – lapsed after 15 years.

Northern Territory Police Assistant Commissioner Martin Dole says crime in Alice Springs spiked in the six months after the NT’s alcohol bans lapsed. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“What we saw was a dramatic increase in alcohol-related offending,” he says.

“We saw numbers climb to the likes that we’d never seen.”

Before July, police were responding to between 10 and 12 domestic violence incidents in a 24-hour period, while in the six months after the laws lapsed, domestic violence incidents climbed to 25 a day and sometimes higher.

But he says in the past two weeks alcohol restrictions have been in place, the number of police call outs has almost been cut in half.

He also believes blanket alcohol bans in communities and town camps are not the answer alone.

“It’s long and complicated, difficult problems in Central Australia,” he says.

“There’s a whole range of issues … that stem from years and years and years in the making that probably all culminated in what we’re seeing now, including a lack of alcohol policy.

“Normalising alcohol, managing alcohol properly, making it a part of everyday life like it is for anybody else is something that certainly needs to be looked at.

Kirsty-Lee, 8, and Eden Pareroultja, 7, spend their afternoons at the Hidden Valley community centre. Picture: Riley Walter

“I’ve worked on communities where alcohol was managed in a community setting and we had far less alcohol related issues.

Back at Hidden Valley, siblings Kirsty-Lee, 8, and Eden Pareroultja, 7, are some of the many brothers and sisters who spend their afternoons at the centre.

It stops them following the older kids into trouble in town.

“They stop looking at them doing everything,” Noeleen says.

Hidden Valley president and Traditional Owner Benedict Stevens says too much blame is being placed on children in Alice Springs as the town has been engulfed in a crime wave in recent weeks.

“We are all once one,” he says.

“They’ll learn when they get older.”

Hidden Valley president Benedict Stevens says the community centre offers a safe space for kids away from the troubles in Alice Springs. Picture: Riley Walter

Sitting outside the community centre watching the next generation is a full-circle moment for Benedict, who learnt to read and write Arrernte here when the centre, a stone’s throw from his front door, was the camp’s school.

“If they’re bored, they can come here.

“They don’t have to go and follow their older brothers.”

Benedict says there are a range of issues that need to be addressed to solve the problems in town but it starts with the kids.

“Keep them here, it’s safer,” he says as Kirsty-Lee, Eden and the other children take up their next activity.

Originally published as Hope for kids at Hidden Valley as Alice Springs grapples with crime crisis