Nightly crime sprees terrorising residents
living in a block of flats south of Cairns are being terrorised nightly by teen criminals so brazen they smash cars, then write their names next to the damage.
Since moving to the block of public housing flats on Workshop Rd, Yarrabah, in 2011, Dianne Ambrym has been abused, had rocks thrown at her and witnessed regular drug use behind the property.
It’s the first time Ms Ambrym, 50, has ever lived by herself. Yarrabah’s housing crisis has meant she spent most of her life in overcrowded homes with relatives.
But now she wants to leave, just to get away from the nightly terrors.
“We’re living in the ghetto, even the police say it’s like a ghetto in this place,” Ms Ambrym said.
“Every night the kids ... smash our place, smoke dope, smoke cigarettes.
“When we growl at them and ask them to move on they say this is a public place. But it’s not a public place, this is our backyard.”
The residents believe the design of the flats, with a secluded back entrance but little security, is attracting the vandals.
Ms Ambrym is speaking up now on behalf of her neighbours because she says there was hope the new council, elected in March, would do more to help solve the problem. But instead of improving, she believes things have become worse.
“They still didn’t do anything about it,” she said.
“We need them to come and maybe knock these flats down and rebuild them.”
When the Cairns Post visited the flats on Wednesday, the back section was covered in graffiti, there were smashed windows and horses, which Ms Ambrym said the children rode, had left faeces everywhere.
During the interview, a young person, who Ms Ambrym identified as one of the vandals appeared, and began shouting at her from another flat.
“He’s scared of me,” she said.
The hardest part of the nightly attacks for Ms Ambrym is not the actual damage caused, but the fact she is related to some of those responsible.
“When we were young, if we walked on the road and got a growling from other people, we’d go home and tell our parents and they’d say, ‘well you’re not supposed to be out’, then we’d get a hiding,” she said.
“What’s wrong with these parents? These children don’t give a damn.
“These children have their own homes, big yards, they should stay in their own home, smoking dope and cigarettes instead of coming to our place.” UNDERLYING social problems like overcrowded housing have been blamed for the woes experienced by residents of a flat some call the worst in Yarrabah.
The indigenous council’s chief executive Janelle Menzies defended the organisation’s efforts to improve safety at the Workshop Rd complex.
“There is some overcrowding in those townhouses ... we have a huge overcrowding crisis in Yarrabah. We’ve got 360 houses for about 4000 people,” she said.
“That equates to about 13 people per house and we’re lobbying the government all the time about overcrowding.”
Last year the council erected a fence in the hope it would deter children from causing trouble, but Ms Menzies said residents complained about that and it had little impact on reducing vandalism.
She said the council was now working towards creating an after dark drop-in centre for young people.
At the same time a council security guard will be sent to the flats occasionally at night and there will be attempts by the council to encourage residents to form a community safety committee.
“This needs to be community driven, not CEO driven or council staff driven,” she said.
Yarrabah police Acting Senior Sergeant Andrew Pool said talks were under way to improve lighting and possibly remove a stairway to deter “the small group” of children from entering the area.
“We’re concerned with that damage to people’s personal property – we don’t want residents to feel insecure in their own homes or under threat,” he said.
“I know the residents are clearly frustrated with those kids hanging around there so... it’s us trying to engage them and find them something else to do, to steer them into more appropriate areas.”