Tag Archives: Lockyer Valley

Looking after your security in rural areas

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There was an incident in the Lockyer Valley last week when a landowner in a fairly remote area was driving to work and saw what was clearly a pig hunter’s ute parked just outside her boundary, opposite her rainforest gully. She took photos of the ute with her phone. There was no number plate on the front, but she made a note of the rear number plate.

While she was taking the photos, two men, with five pig dogs, emerged from the gully.  One of the men was armed with a knife. One man yelled vicious abuse at her. He did not hesitate in coming towards her and grabbed her, trying to get the phone. She held him off as long as possible, but he did eventually get the phone, tried to stamp on it and then threw it as far as he could down the gully. The men then drove off.

She has reported this incident to the police, on grounds of trespassing and assault.

The following very useful advice has been received by Citizens of the Lockyer Inc. – an active community group here in the Lockyer Valley – from the Stock & Rural Crime Investigation Squad (Forest Hill)
Sir/Madam,
 Recently there was an incident along Sawpit Gully Road, Rockmount during which a resident has been confronted by two males, believed to be pig hunters, exiting her property.  During the confrontation, the resident was assaulted and her mobile phone was stolen.  Fortunately, the resident did not receive any injuries and she was able to recover her phone after the two males left the scene.  This matter is being investigated by Detectives from the Forest Hill Stock and Rural Crime Investigation Squad (SARCIS).
 
This incident is a timely reminder for people who live in rural and remote areas, to be on the lookout for suspicious persons or vehicles, and take precautions to ensure their own personal safety, and the security of their property.  Residents should be aware that people moving through these rural areas may be engaged in unlawful hunting activities and/or associated rural crime.  Such people may be armed with knives and/or firearms, and may be accompanied by hunting dogs.
 
What can you do if you locate an illegal hunter/trespasser on your property?
 
The most important thing is to ensure your own personal safety.  Confronting illegal hunters/trespassers has the very serious potential to result in your personal injury.  We DO NOT recommend that you confront these people.  Consider calling the Police, and if it is an emergency, call “000” immediately.  If it is possible, record details of the time, date, place and description of the people/vehicle/dogs (This information is required for Police to investigate and prosecute offenders).  If you do not want the offenders prosecuted, please still report the incident to Police for their information.  
 
If you choose to take a photograph of the offenders or their vehicles, you should be aware that photographing offenders can quickly escalate into a confrontation.  Photographs of vehicles, registration numbers, and offenders are very good evidence, however ONLY do so, if you consider it to be safe.
 
What is Rural Crime?
 
Rural Crime includes offences such as property theft, fuel theft, stock theft, arson and wilful damage.  Properties in rural and remote areas are often targeted by offenders who consider them to be soft targets.  Please take the time to ensure your property is secured before leaving home.  Ensure you have recorded serial numbers and marked property that is not otherwise identifiable.  Remove and secure keys from vehicles and motorbikes.  Secure firearms in an approved gun safe, and take the keys with you.  Consider other security measures such as security screens, alarms and CCTV cameras.
 
Please do not be alarmed.  These types of crimes do not happen often.  If you find yourself in the very unfortunate situation of locating an illegal hunter/trespasser or you are the victim of Rural Crime, you should contact your local Police.  You can also report these, or any other offences to Police by calling Police Link on 131 444.  Information can be reported to Police anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
 
For further information or advice, please contact your nearest SARCIS office.  SARCIS locations and contact numbers can be found at http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/sarcis
 
Thank-you,
 
Troy WHITTLE
Detective Sergeant 11425
Stock & Rural Crime Investigation Squad (Forest Hill)
State Crime Command
( (07) 5465 4200 | 7 (07) 5465 4580 | È0428 741098
+ PO Box 84 Forest Hill QLD 4342 http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/sarcis

MX tracks and their poor relationships with neighbours and local government

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The quote below is from the introduction to a review of the relationships between motocross tracks and their neighbours and local government agencies.  The quote below is from the introduction to reviews of the histories of eight existing or proposed motocross tracks in America.

At the Oct 21 Conditional Use Hearing regarding the Thomas Conditional Use proposal for motocross/camping in rural Clackamas County, testimony was given in support of the proposal based on claims that motocross was “family friendly”. A man stated that Washougal MX had expensive homes in the vicinity of the MX tracks and that local residents and the commercial MX business had happy relationships.

Extensive research into the functioning and relationships multiple MX facilities, whether permitted or unpermitted, have with their neighbors and with their County planning departments proves conclusively that it is totally false to claim motocross events can happily co-exist with residential areas.

Every case I researched, including Washougal MX, proved that  residents within earshot of MX tracks are miserable and that they consider motocross a serious nuisance which steals their quality of life and degrades and pollutes land. Counties have extra work loads to enforce MX code infractions and have ongoing struggles related to traffic, crowd control, noise, and regulating environmental damage. Local police and emergency services are impacted as well.

Family-oriented

Any claims that the proposed Adare motocross track will be family oriented don’t take into account the impacts on families among the 900+ people living in the vicinity of the track.

Emergency Services

It’s worth noting the mention of impacts on police and emergency services as well.  That has also been the experience with the Black Duck Valley and the Wyaralong tracks in Southeast Queensland.

Noise as an Amenity Impact

There’s a nice quote from a county examiner (sort of like our LVRC Assessment Manager) in relation to noise [LVRC please note]:

pg. 24 item h. iii: “Even when the noise does not drown out conversation or disturb people sleeping or exceed 57 dbA, it increases the noise levels frequently enough and in amounts and for a duration that is enough to detract from the character of the area as rural residential. The examiner finds that such an impact is significantly detrimental to people nearest the site.”

Noise issues are NOT just about loudness as measured in decibels!  They are about loss of rural/natural amenity, and about stress and anxiety caused by ongoing, long-term exposure to noise which is not part of the local environment.

Loudness Requirements Can Stop Motocross

But, in terms of loudness of MX noise, the article quotes a complaint that: … imposed sound limitations that are so restrictive they effectively deny the permit application.”

As if the fact that MX operations can’t comply with mandated noise limits is somehow the fault of the legislators, or is a direct attack on MX as a business, instead of being a standard of what is reasonable noise in a particular environment.

Emu Creek track in the Tenterfield Council area is one example.  After a lot of time, court cases and expense the Tenterfield Council imposed noise and operating time limits on the motocross activities at Emu Creek, which they claim they could not meet from a business point of view.  They are still in business and seem to have moved to mountain bike and Bicycle MX activities to replace the motocross element of their custom.

It’s also worth noting that in the case of the Emu Creek motocross, Tenterfield Council monitored maximum noise levels [L(A)max], rather than averaged noise levels over a (usually long) period [L(A)eq], because they said it was more objective when long-term, long period noise was considered.  The Adare proponent’s Noise Study uses averaged noise levels, which always appear more favourable to the proponent’s case.

Costs to Council for Ongoing Compliance Action

The case studies refer to costs to all parties for the application (including appeals) procedures and for ongoing compliance.  In our own area, the Emu Creek case mentioned above is said to have cost the Tenterfield Council in excess of $66,000 for compliance monitoring and court costs before it stopped the noise nuisance.