Bourke - The safety issue

I think that you could say the same about Sydney, seems almost every night on the News that there is a shooting somewhere.
I would be careful anywhere you went. Lock up valuables and your vehicle.
The photos could have been set up , ie got the children with parents permission and put them in those places at that time.
Most news stories are only 1 sided and I bet you would not go to the war torn areas of the middle east and feel safer there. Quite a silly statement to make that Bourke is the worst in the world.
I am not saying that Bourke has not got its fair share of problems but so do a lot of other towns and cities around this country.

Lyn, I have stayed in caravan parks there and felt quite safe. I think there is only a potential problem if you free camp araoud the town area. And isn't one of the basic safety rules of free camping to camp well away from towns?
Cheers,
Kevin

Its not the kids fault and there is no solution – it’s a fact of life.
Travel through any outback town and you will see shutters and bars all over the place to protect against theft and vandalism.
The solution is politically incorrect and mentioning it on a forum like this is likely to trigger the Thought Police into moderating the thread.

Gday,
Its certainly not on its own......Alice Springs was classed as the second murder capital of the world for years and its just been getting worse.
There is no simple solution, but as long as jail isnt a punnishment and welfare supplies grog and drugs it will continue to get worse.

Cheers

There are solutions to this problem and other problem towns as well. As touched on earlier, the solution is not what the do-gooders want to hear. There is also so much more to this news article but it obviously doesn't make the same headlines when it is a balanced article.

Responsibility and accountability are words some communities simply have no grasp of.
Tim

Hullo Lyn W3
We were in Bourke a few months ago and enjoyed ourselves very much - the new Back O'Bourke exhibition centre is excellent (needs at least half a day), the town is full of history and ALL the locals we spoke with were helpful. At no time did we feel unsafe as we toured and walked around during the day.
Sure, at night the shutters went up in the main street, as they do in many an outback town, but I was told that the localised problems were due to a small minority of (mainly) youths.
We stayed at the Kidmans CP at North Bourke for 3 days and did not hear anyone expressing concerns about their safety in town.
I also went to Brewarrina later on a separate trip and did not have any issues in that town either. When I discussed this with the people in the information centre, they said that some time ago the leaders of both main groups in the town (B&W) had earlier got together to solve some issues, that they now had generally good working relationships and had adopted a policy that troublemakes of any persuasion got one warning, with the knowledge that if they transgressed again, they would be run out of town. That does not mean everything is sweetness and light but by and large, it seems to have worked!
Cheers
Andrew

It is a shame cause Bourke is a great town. Its time to call a spade a spade and treat people the same no matter their skin colour. If someone does a crime (no matter their age) punish them and make them suffer enough to think about it. If they do it twice get em off the streets cause they obviously dont have the brains to function as a normal human being

Cheers Wilko