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A group of youths spat on pubgoers and attacked them with a tree branch in a night of chaos in Alice Springs – just days after the PM’s flying visit to the lawless Outback town.
Shocking video from the troubled remote Northern Territory town shows a pub on one of the main streets under siege by belligerent teenagers on Saturday night.
A guest at the pub who filmed the disturbing scenes described it as the ‘most terrifying night of my life’.
Alice Springs is gripped by a crime crisis over the past few months where gangs of mostly indigenous youths roam the streets looking for trouble.
And a crack down on alcohol sales announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a whirlwind visit to Alice a week ago appears to have done nothing to stop the mayhem.
The footage from Saturday night showed an Aboriginal girl hurling abuse through a fence at patrons as they sat drinking in a pub beer garden.
‘You ugly, I’m prettier than you with my black skin, you white b***h,’ she yelled before taunting other patrons and calling herself an ‘African queen’.
Another teenage female appeared next to her and spat through the fence on to a young man sitting at a table.
He immediately jumped up in disgust and stormed towards the fence yelling at them and preparing to throw his drink as they ran away, still taunting him.
‘You’re a white dog, you are, ruff ruff ruff,’ she called to him while a younger boy shouted ‘f**k you’.
Another video showed a male youth aggressively confronting patrons at the pub’s gate before retreating outside where a young man was trying to defuse the situation.
The moment the girl on the left in the white top spits through the fence on a young man drinking in the pub beer garden
Before the spitting, the girl and other teens hurled abuse at patrons, including calling a woman a ‘white b***h’ and other ‘white c**ts’
The pub patron put his arm out in front of him to protect himself and pushed the first teen away, prompting a flurry of punches in response.
He at first only tried to block the incoming blows and push the attacker away, but it escalated to a brawl after the indigenous teen challenged him to a fight and kept hitting him.
The man quickly grappled his opponent and threw him to the ground, but he was able to regain his feet after a friend intervened.
The fight continued until two other youths decided to gang up on him and he retreated from the fray.
Standing alongside the other two, the black youth tried to goad his opponent into continuing the fight but this time he didn’t take the bait.
The young white man at first only tried to block the incoming blows and push the attacker away, but it escalated to a brawl after the indigenous teen challenged him to a fight and kept hitting him
A third violent video showed a youth approach the pub wielding a large tree branch that he used to try to attack drinkers over the fence with.
One pubgoer tried to block the attacks the a broom, until the attacker hurled the branch into the beer garden and left.
Another video showed a man wearing an Akubra chasing after indigenous youths who allegedly stole items from his ute while he was in it.
He tried to grab one of them before another youth punched him in the head from behind.
A fifth video showed an older Aboriginal man screaming incoherent, angry abuse through the fence of the pub, without any apparent provocation.
A third violent video showed an Aboriginal youth approach the pub wielding a large tree branch that he used to try to attack drinkers over the fence with – prompting one to use a broom to try to block it
A fifth video showed an older Aboriginal man screaming incoherent, angry abuse through the fence of the pub, without any provocation
The last video showed a youth pulling a rubbish bin out of its mounting and carrying it across the road towards the pub like a weapon.
Suddenly a police car arrived at the scene and he and more than a dozen other youths sprinted away before officers could give chase.
Rachel Hale, who shot the videos from her balcony above the pub, said it was one of the most frightening nights of her life.
‘Kids taunting adults and spitting on ‘white c**ts’, stealing from cars out the front, very young children on the streets, disgusting violence, pack hunting and the level of hate displayed towards people in the firing line will haunt me,’ she said.
‘Police struggle to apprehend anyone – they run as soon as they see them. I feel sick to my stomach seeing this and also having to stay here.
‘Everything has closed, police have left, but the kids remain. Not much sleep – one of the most frightening nights of my life. It went on all night long.’
Ms Hale said the town council tried to cover the worst of the problem up when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew in to Alice Springs on Tuesday.
‘They rounded up and bussed out all the kids so there was nothing to see. Disgraceful. Confront the problem head on, don’t cover it up,’ she said.
The last video showed an Aboriginal youth pulling a rubbish bin out of its mounting and carrying it across the road towards the pub like a weapon
Ms Hale’s videos are some of the dozens locals posted of violence and break-ins across the town in the past few weeks.
Another poster described their terrifying experience when shutting up shop at the Cignall tobacco store when ‘6-7 kids entered the shop’ and started grabbing things.
When the man screamed at them and pushed the last kid out, they started banging on the glass windows.
Crime and lawlessness in the Outback town entered the national spotlight this last with reports up to 200 children roam the streets at night, breaking into homes and businesses and stealing and burnings cars.
Some locals claim the violence intensified when alcohol bans in indigenous villages miles outside the town were lifted, and residents drunkenly came to Alice Springs.
Alice Springs and Tennant Creek have about 25 of the Territory’s 43 town camps in their vicinity.
Cars are regularly stolen, broken into and torched in Alice Springs, meaning residents cannot leave their vehicles unattended in the street
Locals report seeing people so desperate for alcohol they mix hand sanitiser with water or orange juice and drink it in front of children.
A map of recent properties up for sale shows that locals are fed up and fearing for their safety as alcohol-fuelled violence increases and even the mayor says he ‘can’t blame them’.
Approximately 200 properties are up for sale in the outback town which has a population of 26,000 as some residents express fears the region will become a fly-in fly-out town for workers.
Toni Rowan from Alice Springs Realty said residents were moving out because they wanted a safe place to raise their children.
Crime was the worst she ever saw since she moved to the town in the 1990s and five people a week wanted out.
‘I live in fear. People have threatened to burn my house down, kill my dogs, to rape me. They’re out of control. People come in from the community and yell and scream,’ she said.
‘You go out and say, “can you please be quiet” and it escalates to “you’re a racist”.’
As youth crime sweeps Alice Springs sales data reveals 200 properties are up for sale as locals are packing up and leaving town
Supermarket giant, Woolworths, had to close security doors to exits at its Alice Springs store (pictured) while shoppers were still inside to try and curb violent incidents
Mayor Matt Patterson understood why there was a mass exodus as locals couldn’t stay ‘when they’re scared to sleep at night’.
‘Lots of people are just saying that the perception of fear is the reason they’re going — they’re sick of being broken into, can’t afford to continue replacing windows, can’t continue to have their businesses broken into,’ he said.
During a brief visit to the town last week, Mr Albanese announced new alcohol restrictions and promised $48.8 million over two years for programs to address the crime problem.
Measures implemented included a ban on takeaway alcohol sales on Monday and Tuesday as well as limits on bottle shop opening hours.
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