{"id":216555,"date":"2025-10-16T01:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T01:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216555\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T01:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T01:02:12","slug":"bundaberg-and-maryborough-grapple-with-anti-social-behaviour-in-town-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216555\/","title":{"rendered":"Bundaberg and Maryborough grapple with anti-social behaviour in town centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arriving at their local park for a morning walk, Lili Jacobsen was pulling her pram out of the car when a woman approached her, talking about the devil and demanding money.<\/p>\n

“She started getting really aggressive \u2026 I got really scared. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this lady is going to try and stab me,'” she said.<\/p>\n

“She said she was going to kill me.”<\/p>\n

The young mum said she instinctively locked the vehicle, which was parked at Bundaberg’s Alexandra Park, with her five-month-old son Maverick inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The woman demanded that she look for money in the car before turning her attention to the empty pram, asking about the baby’s whereabouts.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lili Jacobsen locked herself and her child in the car during the incident at Alexandra Park. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

Ms Jacobsen screamed and swore until the woman backed away, allowing her to unlock the car and get into the passenger seat and again lock the doors.<\/p>\n

Threatening behaviour<\/p>\n

Ms Jacobsen’s experience of anti-social behaviour has become more common in Bundaberg’s centre, which authorities believe is being fuelled by homelessness<\/a>, drug addiction and mental health issues.<\/p>\n

The number of public nuisance offences in the regional city has increased by almost 9 per cent in the 12 months since August 2024.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A tent set up at Alexandra Park in Bundaberg. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

About 90 minutes south of Bundaberg is the heritage town of Maryborough.<\/p>\n

Hairdresser Sonia McLeod said she was forced to lock her doors when customers were threatened by a woman on the street.<\/p>\n

And it was not the first time.<\/p>\n

“They have been threatening to hit people walking past or smashing shop windows, yelling, screaming, swearing, spitting at people,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hairdresser Sonia McLeod says anti-social behaviour has increased in Maryborough. (ABC News: James Taylor)<\/p>\n

Police data shows a 22 per cent increase in public nuisance offences in the town from 2023 to 2024, which includes disorderly conduct and threatening and offensive behaviour.<\/p>\n

And between January and August in Maryborough this year, 63 people have been convicted of 118 public nuisance offences.<\/p>\n

Community fed up<\/p>\n

Pharmacist Graham Bunter recently hired full-time security guards after multiple threats towards his staff and a rise in theft.<\/p>\n

“There are customers taking their business elsewhere and making it clear to us it’s because they don’t feel comfortable coming into the street,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Jacobsen has called on all levels of government and service providers to take more action \u2014 and ensure families are protected.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lili Jacobsen says she would have done anything to protect her son. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

“I shouldn’t have experienced that as a new mum. I’ve grown up here my whole life and that’s not been a problem,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms McLeod said the mental health support system was failing.<\/p>\n

“Things have to change to be able to get these people and take them to a facility where they can get the help they need,” she said.<\/p>\n

A lack of supportive housing<\/p>\n

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor said 6,000 social and affordable houses were being built across the state.<\/p>\n

But he admitted there was a lack of “supportive housing”, which provides built-in support services for vulnerable people.<\/p>\n

\"Homeless<\/p>\n

A woman sleeping in Bourbong Street, Bundaberg. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

“We only have one true supportive housing model, and that’s Common Ground in South Brisbane,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said his department was in discussions with service providers.<\/p>\n

“We need supportive housing in regional Queensland,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s the only model of housing that will help these individuals with complex needs.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor (left) inspects a social housing project in Bundaberg. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

Queensland Premier David Crissafulli said there was no simple solution.<\/p>\n

“Of course it’s a difficult problem, but I don’t take the view that we should say that it’s just an issue that we can’t do something about,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We do need more police and we’re delivering those.<\/p>\n

“We also want to make sure with mental health support, that we have those wraparound services.”<\/p>\n

Drug and alcohol abuse<\/p>\n

Last month, musician John Butler spoke at a concert in Bundaberg and later to his 600,000 social media followers about what he called the city’s “huge meth problem<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

“It really surprised me and saddened me,” Mr Butler said.<\/p>\n

The region’s first in-patient rehabilitation centre, Lives Lived Well, which opened in March, is already at capacity.<\/p>\n

The group runs almost 30 centres across the state, which provide support for people grappling with drugs, alcohol, mental health concerns and gambling.<\/p>\n

Clinical services manager Jason Stace said up to 40 per cent of patients were seeking treatment for methamphetamine addiction, second only to alcohol.<\/p>\n

“It’s very similar across all our residences,” Mr Stace said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Police patrolling Bourbong Street, Bundaberg. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

He said methamphetamine addiction was a problem across Queensland.<\/p>\n

“When you look at rural areas, it may be more visible because there’s less of a general population.”<\/p>\n

Police on the beat<\/p>\n

In response to the anti-social interactions, the Queensland Police Service has promised to increase patrols of Bundaberg and Maryborough CBDs.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be looking to continue this operation until we’ve reached a point where we’re back to people feeling safe again,” Bundaberg Police Inspector Grant Marcus said.<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/p>\n

Bundaberg Mayor Helen Blackburn says the council will move-on rough sleepers. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

Bundaberg Mayor Helen Blackburn said the council had launched a new project aimed at improving the city centre and was calling for feedback from the community about the impacts of anti-social behaviour.<\/p>\n

She said the council would also move on rough sleepers from public places and was considering other measures, including extra street cleaning and monitoring.<\/p>\n

“So that might look like a street cleaner going up and down a few times a week during daytime hours, because that’s when these people are around, or in the evenings,” she said.<\/p>\n

The council says it will keep advocating for further government support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arriving at their local park for a morning walk, Lili Jacobsen was pulling her pram out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[132350,64,63,132348,132351,132353,132352,44,132349,7691],"class_list":["post-216555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anti-social-behaviour","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-homelessness-in-bundaberg","tag-homelessness-in-maryborough","tag-lives-lived-better","tag-meth-addiction","tag-news","tag-people-confronted-on-the-street-in-bundaberg","tag-social-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}