The troubled Outback town of Alice Springs has been ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
The Northern Territory town has a population of just 25,000 but received exactly the same crime and safety scores as Mexico’s murder capital of Tijuana in Numbeo‘s most recent rankings, making it the 18th most dangerous globally, just behind Cape Town and Detroit.
Alice Springs has been plagued by years of lawlessness and aboriginal youth crime ever since the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act was ended in July 2022, allowing alcohol to become available again in many indigenous town camps.
The pubs in Alice Springs all close for the night at 2am after a 1am lockout has been issued. The bar patrons then mix with the other locals in the area and trouble begins with others congregating in large groups.
Gangs of hundreds of aboriginal children, some as young as five, now roam the streets at night breaking into homes and stealing cars, leaving residents in fear.
The situation in Alice Springs has been deteriorating so rapidly, as although this is the second year the town has made the top 20 (2023 and 2024), two years ago in 2022 it wasn’t in the top 450 most crime-ridden cities. At that time the worst city in Australia for crime was the NSW Central Coast town of Gosford ranking 58th.
The Gold Coast is Australia’s second most dangerous city, while Melbourne is listed at 163rd, Perth as 175th, Brisbane 208th, Sydney as 219th and Adelaide as the 229th most dangerous in the world. Canberra is the safest city in Australia.
Auckland, New Zealand is also now more dangerous than any Australian city besides Alice Springs, ranking 122nd, while Christchurch is ranked 156th and Wellington slightly more dangerous than Adelaide at 223rd.
In March, well-known YouTuber and rapper Spanian visited Alice Springs, highlighting the lawlessness, how many businesses have closed down or need to board up their shopfronts after having their windows smashed, aboriginal alcoholism, and the frequency of large gang fights.
Earlier this month a large group of aboriginals fought with spears and nulla nullas in broad daylight after the town was put under curfew following the bashing of four off-duty police officers by 20 indigenous males.
Youth crime rates in the Northern Territory are up 50% since 2020.
