Criminal activity in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

is combated by the

New South Wales Police Force The New South Wales Police Force (NSW Police Force; previously the New South Wales Police Service and New South Wales Police) is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Divided into Police Area Commands (P ...

and the New South Wales court system, while statistics about crime are managed by the

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), also known as NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, is an agency of the Department of Communities and Justice responsible for research into crime and criminal justice and evaluation ...

. Modern Australian states and cities, including New South Wales, have some of the lowest crime rates recorded globally with Australia ranked the 13th safest nation and Sydney ranked the 5th safest city globally. As of September 2018 the

City of Penrith The City of Penrith is a local government area in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The seat of the city is located in Penrith, located about west of Sydney's central business district. It occupies part of the traditional lands of the ...

(475.7) and

City of Blacktown Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blackt ...

(495.1). Rural areas have comparatively high crime rates per 100,000 with rural shires such as

Walgett Shire Walgett Shire is a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The northern boundary of the Shire is located adjacent to the border between New South Wales and Queensland. The town of Walgett is located on the Namoi ...

(1350.3) and

Moree Plains Shire Moree Plains Shire is a local government area in the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. The northern boundary of the Shire is located adjacent to the border between New South Wales and Queensland. The Shire is located adjac ...

(1236.2) having some of the highest violent crime rates in the state. The overall NSW crime rate has been in steady decline for many years. New South Wales was founded as a British penal colony. The founding members of the colony included a significant number of criminals, known as

convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former conv ...

, there were 778 convicts (192 women and 586 men) on the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command o ...

. The majority of convicts were transported for

petty crime A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment (required for an indictable offence). Canada In Canada, summary offenc ...

s. More serious crimes, such as rape and murder, became transportable offences in the 1830s, but since they were also punishable by death, comparatively few convicts were transported for such crimes. Common Crimes in the colony were

drunkenness Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main p ...

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in cr ...

, and disorderly

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

. Bushranging and absconding were also common, while the murder rate was low. The rate of conviction for less serious offenses gradually declined. Execution was used as punishment, though the rate of execution was low.

NSW crime statistics

New South Wales crime statistics

The

(BOCSAR) is the main source of NSW crime statistics. In 2017 BOCSAR reported an overall drop in recorded incidence with the murder rate (down 12.1%), robbery (down 8.0%), armed robbery (down 13.4%), burglary (Down 5.5%), motor vehicle theft (Down 3.2%) and malicious damage to property (Down 3.6%). There was an increase in the rate of Sexual assault (up 3.5%) and sexual offences (up 3.7%).

Massacres of Aboriginal Australians

Though often not recorded as crimes at the time, numerous crimes were perpetrated against

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait ...

in New South Wales throughout the colonial period. Among the most heinous of these crimes were

massacres A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

. The following list tallies the better documented massacres of Aboriginal Australians in New South Wales. The information provided below is based on ongoing research 'Violence on the Australian Colonial Frontier, 1788–1960' undertaken by the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

. *1816 Appin massacre –

Governor Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; gd, Lachann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, an ...

sent soldiers against the

Gundungurra The Gundungurra people, also spelt Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gandangara and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Shire ...

and

Dharawal The Dharawal people, also spelt Tharawal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Dharawal language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, ...

people on their lands along the Cataract River, a tributary of the Nepean River (south of Sydney). the soldiers used their horses to force men, women and children to fall from the cliffs of the gorge, to their deaths below. They counted 14 bodies "in different directions including that of an old man, women and children. The bodies of two warriors, Durelle and Cannabayagal were hauled up to the highest point of the range of hills on Lachlan Vale and strung up in trees. *1836 Mount Dispersion massacre by a party led by Thomas Mitchell – A massacre of Aboriginal people along the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...

at a place Mitchell afterwards called Mount Dispersion. Mitchell and his surveying party were followed by a group of around 150 Aboriginal Australians, until the surveyors laid an ambush, firing on the group as they fled across the river. At least seven people were killed, and likely more. A government inquiry was organised into the massacre after Mitchell published his account of the incident, but little came of it. *1838

Waterloo Creek massacre The Waterloo Creek massacre (also Slaughterhouse Creek massacre) refers to a series of violent clashes between mounted police, civilian vigilantes and Indigenous Gamilaraay peoples, which occurred southwest of Moree, New South Wales, Australi ...

– Also known as the Australia Day massacre. A

New South Wales Mounted Police The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force. Founded by Governor Thomas Brisbane, on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from a British military regiment stationed in NSW at ...

detachment, despatched by acting

Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales The Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales is a government position in the State of New South Wales, Australia, acting as a deputy to the Governor of New South Wales. The office was first created in October 1786, before the arrival of the Fir ...

Colonel

Kenneth Snodgrass Kenneth Snodgrass (1784 – 14 October 1853) was a Scottish-born soldier and colonial administrator. He acted as lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land and governor of New South Wales for brief periods. Early life Snodgrass was born in ...

, attacked an encampment of

Kamilaroi The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Aust ...

people at a place called Waterloo Creek in remote bushland. Various witnesses accounts reported between 50 and 300 killed. Later in November the same year, Charles Eyles, William Allen and James Dunn (employees of Gwydir River squatter Robert Crawford) shot dead nine

Gamilaraay The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Au ...

people just east of present-day Moree. *1838

Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre was the killing of at least twenty-eight unarmed Indigenous Australians by twelve colonists on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek near the Gwydir River, in northern New South Wales. After two trials, seven of the twelve c ...

at Myall Creek, involved the brutal killing of at least twenty-eight unarmed

people by eleven colonists on 10 June 1838. After two trials, seven of the eleven colonists were found guilty of murder and hanged. *1841 The Rufus River massacre – The massacre was led by the

Protector of Aborigines The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role became established in other parts of Australia pursuant to a recommendation contained in the ''Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Abori ...

, Matthew Moorhouse over a dispute between European overlanders and the Maruara people, the overlanders had been engaging in sexual relations with Maraura women without giving the Maraura the food and clothing that was promised in return. An estimated 30 to 40 Maruara were murdered, though Aboriginal oral tradition suggests this is a conservative figure. *1842

Richmond River massacres The Richmond River massacres were a series of murders of groups of Indigenous Australians and European Australians in the region around the Richmond River in north-eastern New South Wales in the mid-nineteenth century. Massacres Pelican Creek ...

– A series of murders of groups of Bunjalung people around the

Richmond River The Richmond River is a river situated in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The river rises at the northern end of the Richmond Range, near its junction with the McPherson Range, on the Queensl ...

. The 1842 massacre of 100

Bundjalung people The Bundjalung people, also spelt Bunjalung, Badjalang and Bandjalang, are Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of the northern coastal area of New South Wales, Australia, located approximately northeast of Sydney, an area th ...

Evans Head Evans Head is a town in Richmond Valley Council of the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, Evans Head had a population of 2,843 people. It is 726 kilometres north of Sydney, and 11 kilometres east off the ...

by Europeans, was variously said to have been in retaliation for the killing of "a few sheep", or the killing of "five European men". In 1853–4, at an area close to Ballina the

Native Police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...

Murdered between 30 and 40

, including men, women and children while they slept. In the 1860s an estimated 150 Bunjalung were poisoned.Langford, Ruby Ginibi. (1994). ''My Bundjalung People'', University of Queensland Press, Queensland.
/ref>

Sydney

A volume was kept as an official surveillance record by William Augustus Miles who was Superintendent, then Commissioner, of Sydney Police in New South Wales from July 1840 to July 1848. Miles held the belief that much crime was caused by the contamination of innocent people, and that most of the crime in Sydney was the result of former convicts mixing with free immigrants. He believed that the criminal class required constant surveillance by the police.

Pushes

An early form of criminal gang in Sydney was the 'push'. In the 1870's, these were based on religious divisions, with The Rocks Push, the Gibbs Street Mob, and the Glebe Island Boys supported by

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. The

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

gang was known as The Greens. Other pushes included the Straw hat Push, the

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

Push, the Forty Thieves Push from

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surround ...

, the Waterloo Push, and the

Millers Point Millers Point is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the north-western edge of the Sydney central business district, adjacent to The Rocks and is part of the local government area of the City ...

Push. Pushes in the early 20th century included The Surry Hills Mob (also known as the Ann Street Mob), the Loo Mob in

Woolloomooloo Woolloomooloo ( ) is a harbourside, inner-city eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Woolloomooloo is 1.5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is in a lo ...

, the Glebe Mob, the Newtown Mob, the Redfern Mob, and the Railway Gang, who controlled parts of central Sydney. The pushes generally died out by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, being used by politicians to attack rival meetings towards the end.

Razor gangs

The_Razor_Gang_areas_of_Sydney_(6075086408)

Razor gang Razor gangs were criminal gangs who dominated the Sydney crime scene in the 1920s. After the passage of the ''Pistol Licensing Act 1927'', the Parliament of New South Wales imposed severe penalties for carrying concealed firearms and handguns. ...

s were notorious criminal gangs operating in and around

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

throughout 1920s and 30s. The term "razor gang" refers to the preferred choice of a weapon during the period. Razors became a common weapon in armed robberies and assaults after the passage of the ''Pistol Licensing Act 1927'', which imposed severe penalties for carrying concealed firearms and handguns. Sydney gangland began to carry razors instead of pistols In the 1920s there was a significant increase in organised crime activity caused in part by the prohibition of sale of cocaine by chemists under the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 1927, the prohibition of street prostitution under the Vagrancy Act 1905, the prohibition of off-course betting under the Betting and Gaming Act 1906. Around the same time, the government introduced 6pm lockout laws, known as the

Six o'clock swill The six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public ...

, under the Licensing Act 1916. Other drugs sold illegally included morphine and opium, the latter imported from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...

. In the mid-1920s there were four major figures in Sydney organized crime, of whom two were women. These were

Kate Leigh Kathleen Mary Josephine Leigh (née Beahan; 10 March 1881 – 4 February 1964) (other names included Kathleen Barry, and Kathleen Ryan) was an Australian underworld figure who rose to prominence as a madam, illegal trader of alcohol and cocaine ...

and

Tilly Devine Matilda Mary Devine (née Twiss, 8 September 190024 November 1970), known as Tilly Devine, was an English Australian organised crime boss. She was involved in a wide range of activities, including sly-grog, razor gangs, and prostitution, and ...

. Part of the reason was that the ''Public Offences Act 1908'' had made it illegal for men to live off the earnings of prostitutes, but not for women. The two were on poor terms with each other. The third major figure was Phil 'The Jew' Jeffs, who was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

. The final one was

Norman Bruhn Norman Bruhn (2 June 1894 – 23 June 1927) was a notorious and violent Australian dockworker, armed robber and standover man with links to the criminal underworld in both Melbourne and Sydney. In September 1926 Bruhn relocated with his family ...

. The ''Crimes (Amendment) Act 1929'' made the possession of a razor immediately preceding an arrest punishable by six months.

Anti-Gay Violence

1994 attack on Royalty

1994,

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person ...

then Prince of Wales, visited Australia. He was giving a speech in Darling Harbour during the Australia day celebrations.

David Kang David Kang (born 1970) is an Australian barrister. In January 1994 he fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Charles, Prince of Wales in protest at the treatment of several hundred Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention camps in Au ...

ran up to the Prince and fired two blanks before falling onto the ground; he was arrested by many cops. The Prince was unhurt and was ushered off the podium.

2014 Lockout Laws

After the widely publicised deaths of two 18 year olds, Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie, the NSW government was pressured to take action in regard to alcohol-related violence in the

Sydney CBD The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or city centre is often refer ...

and Kings Cross in particular. In 2014, then

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Barry O'Farrell Barry Robert O'Farrell (born 24 May 1959) is a former Australian politician who has been Australia's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan since May 2020. O'Farrell was the 43rd Premier of New South Wales and Mini ...

introduction of a series of "one punch" and "lock out" laws. The laws were included under constructive (felony) murder offences with the base offence of assault. The laws introduced a mandatory eight-year minimum sentence for alcohol or drug-related assaults that result in death, 1:30am lockouts at licensed venues and a mandatory 10pm closing time for bottle shops. Sydney musicians, DJs and nightclub owners raised significant concerns following laws introduction, claiming that live music venues have low rates of violent incidence and would become financially nonviable. Other opposition to the lock out laws cite that the laws have not curbed violence nor do they show a decrease in alcohol consumption.

References

External links

NSW PoliceNSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and ResearchGuide to Sydney Crime
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crime In Australia Crime in Sydney