A group of local vigilantes is patrolling the troubled South Australian steel town of Whyalla, saying police are doing nothing about worsening aboriginal crime.
The situation has become so serious the council is now considering declaring the whole town of 22,000 a “dry zone”, due to crime and anti-social behaviour from indigenous people arriving from areas where harsher alcohol restrictions are in place.
“We had to do something. People now call this place Whyalice Springs,” one resident told The Advertiser, referring to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory where aboriginal crime is so bad it was last year ranked the 18th most dangerous city in the world.
The vigilante group are focussing on the area bordering Whyalla’s current alcohol-free zone, and patrolling the Westland Shopping Centre to “stop people getting harassed”.
Locals have been complaining about trouble in the town for months including public defecation, robberies, assaults, rock throwing and drunkenness, and last month a gift shop in the shopping centre closed its doors for the day due to an “influx of rogue youth causing havoc in the mall”.
Residents said the groups responsible had come from Alice Springs and Ceduna, which has also been ravaged by aboriginal crime.
The Westland incident sparked calls for the entire town to be declared a dry zone, and earlier this month the Whyalla City Council launched an online survey to hear the community’s thoughts.
A security guard who is not involved with the vigilante group said fights, shoplifting and verbal abuse were rampant, with indigenous people calling locals “racist White cunts” if they don’t give them money.
“People are getting cornered around here, spat on and intimidated … for money,” he said.
Another security guard, who is also not involved with the vigilante group, said: “One woman went into Kmart the other day, took a shit on the floor and wiped her arse with the clothes. There is a toilet about 15m away”.
A video has been circulating of a similar incident in the Westland car park.
Local MP Eddie Hughes confirmed that people were coming to Whyalla from other towns due to alcohol laws, but said only a “small minority of the indigenous population are causing the problems”.
“I think we need to look at having permanent Police Security Officers and enhanced powers for private security guards or even making it a declared precinct,” he said.
But a group of indigenous people spoken to by The Advertiser claimed they were verbally abused by locals and unfairly targeted by police.
“We don’t all cause trouble. They just don’t like the look of us,” one said.
Whyalla has also made headlines in recent weeks after the federal government announced a $2.4 billion support package for the town and its embattled steelworks.
The Whyalla Steelworks was forced into administration by the South Australian government in February after its owner failed to pay tens of millions in debts.
Indian businessman Sanjeev Gupta bought the plant in 2017 when it went into administration owing $4 billion in debts, despite administrators KordaMentha initially preferring a bid from a Korean consortium.
When KordaMentha visited the site again in February they found traffic lights not working, and told ABC News “clearly very little maintenance has been done since we were last here”.
Header image: Left, a man jailed last year over a Whyalla crime spree (7 News). Right, a home with a window smashed by an aboriginal man in an attempted break-in earlier this month (Facebook).
