Hmmmm. Never heard that before!
I know that there are a lot of bored kids and a fairly large drug problem, but the Lydiard Street bashings that have increased lately have mainly been perpetrated by night-clubbers coming up from Melbourne, Melton etc. It's been a thing for many years (country v's city).
It was only a few years back that 3 car loads of blokes came up from Melbourne, run-a-muck, bashed patrons then shot 2 bouncers. Then got caught driving back to Melbourne at high speed blind drunk.
Molly Meldrum also came up to open a new night club here and they had to call the whole event off coz about 30 Melbourne guys came up to cause trouble 'Just so they could be on the News'.
Yep, Ballarat has it's problems like anywhere else, but I am at a loss to understand the statistics.
Up until 2 years ago I was a Youth worker in amongst the sub-culture of Ballarat for about 16 years and I know their boredom and drug problems. I would still rather walk the streets at night here than Melb/Sydney/New York etc.
But I never listen to Compaisons. Take Quiet little Snake Valley for example. So far this year we have had 3 crimes.
1. A mower was stolen from a shed.
2. a house was broken into (not by a local)
3. A car was stolen (then returned days later)
That's 3 crimes in a population of 250 people. That's even worse than Ballarats crime rate!!!
Comparisons don't always work!
Out-of-towners are our biggest problem.
