IT’S been a hell of a week for crime in our district.
And quite alarming to hear that gunshots were fired between police and a Dumbalk North resident, a $26 million cannabis crop was seized at Koonwarra and a fire was deliberately lit at a house near the main street of Cowes.
And that was just last Thursday.
During the week, there were also some alarming reports out of Korumburra.
There have been a lot of high-profile incidents in recent months, as well, including the high-speed ride in stolen cars by two 15-year-olds and two 14-year-olds which ended in Wonthaggi; several illegal tobacco busts, a crashed shop and burnt-out car; and a spate of aggravated burglaries involving car thefts, one such stolen car allegedly involved in the burning of a school bus at Meeniyan.
There’s also the ongoing scourge of violence against women.
It’s not just anecdotal. The total number of criminal incidents in Bass Coast was up 14.2 per cent in the year to the end of June 2024 and in South Gippsland up 8.5 per cent.
The total number of “family Incidents” was up by 10.1 per cent in Bass Coast to 863 incidents of which 282 were breaches of family violence orders and in South Gippsland family incidents were up 12.3 per cent to 577 of which 417 impacted women and 158 were breaches of orders.
And while many of us might feel that crime is a problem for someone else, that we’re neither criminals ourselves nor direct victims of crime, incidents of crime locally do impact a much wider number of people than you’d think.
With regard to both the incident at Dumbalk North and the drug bust at Koonwarra, local residents were affected. At Dumbalk North, farmers out in the paddocks were told to go home and together with family members, spent a few anxious hours inside not knowing if a gunman was going to turn up at their door. Others were held up at roadblocks, not knowing when they would get home or what to expect when they did.
Out at Koonwarra, locals were interviewed by police about what they knew about the comings and goings of the Koonwarra-Inverloch Road property.
It’s insidious. People feel less safe in their homes, they go out less often, expect the worst when they do and change their own behaviour towards others.
When a government is wasteful or spends money on ideological pursuits at the expense of funding for the basics including police, roads, health and education, there are consequences and sadly we’re seeing some of them now.
