by PAUL COLLITS – WE HAVE come face to face with Townsville’s ugly, juvenile, car thieving culture. It was probably inevitable we would, given the sheer reach of that culture.
This occurred at 3.30am on New Year’s Day. An intruder was in our (alas, unlocked) cabin, then scared off by my suddenly awake, screaming other-half.
- The politicians know about it – it has been in the papers over and over.
- One long-term resident now describes the town as a “sh#t-hole”.
- What is to be done about all this?
Jack, the old dog, slept through the whole thing. Sadly, another case of the dog not barking in the night. He (the thief, not Jack) fled, and next morning we realised that he had our car keys. Not the car, though. This was all in a well-lit caravan park with most adjacent cabins occupied.
That he still had the keys was unnerving, alarming even. Would they come back for the car?
CLAMP
The police thought they would – and they did. Forty-eight hours later, at around 2am a cheap, simple steering wheel clamp did the rest.
They were able to get into the car, just not drive it. Victims two, would-be thieves nil.
They were clearly caught on the caravan park’s CCTV cameras, both nights. They had parked their (other) stolen car right under the cameras, each time.
There was a clear facial shot of one of the gang, and a clear shot of the number plate. How did we find out the getaway vehicle was stolen?
Townsville’s community Facebook page kicked in. There were two earlier thefts of cars at another caravan park earlier on New Year’s Eve.
Social media does have its uses. Ironically, the young perpetrators will probably find it illegal to use social media under Albo’s new age restriction laws.
You might think that allowing themselves to be caught on camera shows how dumb they are. Not really. More brazen than dumb.
They know they will be let straight off by the magistrate even if caught, and so can be back at “work” straightaway.
Held without bail? You have got to be joking. Many of these kids have done this dozens of times – perhaps hundreds of times. Their methodology is risk-free.
Currently the thefts are rife. Some occur in broad daylight (which starts here at about five in the morning). Every person to whom we have told our story has had his or her car stolen, or some other property stolen.
The motive seems simply joy-riding and arson. There doesn’t seem to be any suggestion of a sophisticated, adult-led operation with re-plating and on-selling in mind.
No, they are just bent on mindless cheap thrills and destruction. And there appear to be several hundred thieves involved.
And the politicians must know about it. It has been in the papers, over and over. It does the city’s reputation no good, whatsoever.
One long-term caravan park visitor referred to a better past for the town which she now describes as a “shit-hole”.
A year ago, the ABC reported: “Specialist police arrive in Townsville after ‘traumatising’ week of car thefts and ram raids.
“Seventy-nine vehicles have been stolen in the past seven days, resulting in more than 150 offences being committed, mostly by teenagers. The stolen cars were used in ram raids at half a dozen businesses and five police cars were rammed in deliberate attacks. Officers escaped serious injury.”
RAM-RAIDING
Perhaps high summer is peak period for these guys. This time around, I am not aware of any ram-raiding.
The figures are impressive, and not in a good way: “Townsville is a coastal city in North Queensland with 1793 vehicles stolen in 2023. It has a population of more than 190,000 and is known for its tropical climate, beautiful beaches and military history.
Well, known also for obesity, cyclones, crocs (shoes as well as animals), stingers and crime as well.
Logan, south of Brisbane – no one’s idea of a “destination” – has twice the population of Townsville and only one hundred more car thefts (in 2023). That’s not good.
We have found the local police here to be exemplary in the face of an almost impossible task.
They have been helpful, interested and empathetic. They acted quickly and strategically.
I guess they are used to this. They know the drill. They didn’t take our case for granted. There was no ho-hum, as we might have expected.
We had positive interactions with the crime scene branch, which does the finger-printing. You have to go online to report a theft, and the process involved in this is further punishment.
We ended up, after two unsuccessful attempts at the online form, going to a local cop shop. The desk officer was generous with her time and agreed that the form was hard work. Making the complaint then triggers action in relation to the CCTV evidence.
Who are the perpetrators? Is it an Indigenous problem? Yes and no.
A copper told me that half the youths involved are indigenous and half are white. So that would be a “no”.
On the other hand, given the minority status of Aborigines across the city, their contribution to the thieving/joyriding/burning out culture is outsized.
There are 21,180 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Townsville. There are 195,774 non-Indigenous people. The percentages are nine per cent and around 83 per cent.
The mixture of races in our little episode shows inter-racial collaboration, if nothing else. No racism among thieves, it seems. Perhaps they practice DEI. This is all reassuring.
Three valuable lessons. Always lock your doors. Steering wheel clamps work. Victim screaming saved the car from being stolen at the first attempt. And the clamp saved the day on the second attempt.
BREAK & ENTER
The clamps are pretty robust, solid and heavy. I am sure you could find other uses for them in the event of a break and enter.
I am also now a fan of CCTV cameras – I wasn’t before.
Finally, report the theft. In an astonishing turn of luck, we got our keys back. The police found them in another stolen car!
We will still keep using the clamp at night. We know it works. And the keys will not be sitting on the dining table in full view, even if we forget to lock up.
What is to be done about all this?
Normally, views on youth crime fall into two schools of thought. One is “lock ’em up and throw away the keys”.
The other is “it isn’t their fault, what with the life cards they’ve been dealt”.
Becoming a victim does incline to the former. The overwhelming thought, though, is there are no easy answers.
There seems to be an embedded, intuitive amorality and ennui among these guys that is redolent of the age. A little anarchism with a large dollop of hopelessness. Car thieving is one escape.
It well might be combined with alcohol and the local drug of choice. Or the connectivity and “community” provided by gang culture.
No need to tell Americans of this. Just look at San Francisco to see the dystopian future, or the rural, fly-over towns of the Appalachians ravaged by opioids and the rest.
The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, has recently waded into the youth crime policy debate.
In March 2024 he refused to raise the age of criminality to 14: “NSW police have said they intend to keep locking up young offenders and ‘holding them to account’ as part of their youth crime crackdown.
“But the Aboriginal Legal Service has called the approach a ‘draconian measure’, and argues that it will make the problem worse.
“The police announced on Monday that it had charged 153 people – including 109 children – with more than 1400 offences since launching Operation Regional Mongoose last September, mainly to respond to young people allegedly committing ‘unprecedented’ levels of violence during break and enters.”
The Greens were horrified: “Minns defies civil society, expert consensus, cross-bench, opposition, own government, to force through laws to jail children.
OFFENCE
“Locking up young vulnerable people makes re-offence more likely, it stunts their cognitive development, surrounds them with other young offenders.”
Well, they would say that.
Recent Queensland personal experience suggests that non-incarceration doesn’t seem to be stopping the crime.
Back to the drawing board.
There are two tasks. One is giving problematic young people more meaningful lives. The other is protecting the victims of their crimes. Neither seems amenable to simple solutions. But currently my sympathies rest with the victims. AKA me.
Many years ago, when I was living in south western Victoria, I came across the Casterton kelpie muster.
There was a team of jumping sheep dogs from Armidale in NSW. They were trained and loved by a bunch of supervised young offenders. That seemed a good model of reform. There was some meaning in those young lives.
There is a long way to go.
Surprisingly, Townsville has good prospects in the near future, even though juvenile car thieving is probably its fastest growing industry and despite the growing concerns about lawlessness.
Propertyology points out: “Townsville is tipped to become Australia’s hottest property market in 2025, with home prices forecast to surge up to 30 per cent.
“Propertyology’s 2025 Property Market Outlook predicts 11 of the nation’s 25 largest cities will experience boom conditions, defined as annual growth above eight per cent.”
That’s good news for the city. People clearly wanted to come up here.
On a personal note, if we thought that 2025 was going to be less eventful than 2024, well, we were wrong.
And, noting the liturgical celebrations of this day, I have to say that Townsville has been a real epiphany.PC
