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10:18AM Friday 22 August, 2008 Sunshine Coast weather Rain min 12° - max 23°

Youth out of control

4 July 2008

| By Grant Reynolds

Smoke them out.

It’s a trick that harks back to the days of Ned Kelly and his cronies but it also may be the solution to a subculture of delinquent youth who’ve made bushland near Grasstree Court at Sunrise Beach their den of iniquity.

Local residents have known about the anti-social activities taking place just metres from their home for some time, and one resident who didn’t want to be named said they’d came past his house night after night and decided to investigate.

“There were 30-odd of them in there yelling and screaming, doing all sorts of stuff,” he said.

“There were 20-odd of the in the middle of smoking their bongs and I stumbled in on their camp and they tore straight through me.”

Local resident Fred Smith said the community was fed up with the harassment that often carried on into the early hours of the morning.

“I was delivering papers a few weeks back, 3 o’clock in the morning this was, and there were a dozen kids under 14 years of age wandering up and down the street,” he said. “If it doesn’t straighten out, I guarantee you there’ll be a vigilante group (of neighbours).”

Shopkeepers nearby reported numerous break-ins and vandalism and Member for Noosa Glen Elmes said the area was a haunt for drug dealers.

Mr Elmes said the bushland had become home to a number of camp sites where youths gathered, with evidence of drinking and drug use found throughout the area.

“The council’s going to organise a clean-up right through the area. What I’m going to call for is a controlled burn-off to remove some of the vegetation and remove any incentive for young people to come in here,” he said.

Noosa police officer-in-charge Steve McReight said they had carried out an operation on the weekend and would continue to patrol the area with help from the dog squad.

Recent Comments

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Posted by sunnyone44 from Mooloolaba
on 4 July, 2008 at 6:56 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
What a pity lights cannot be used in the area. These sort of people rely on the darkness to hide them. Solar lights put up in some way that the kids cannot get to them and destroy them would or could along with a burn off solve a great part of the problem I would think.
Posted by madmax from sunrise beach
on 4 July, 2008 at 11:01 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I for one have had more than enough of these louts destroying private and public property. I plan to stay up for the next couple weekends and god help any kid i catch on my property. I hope the parents are proud of their young criminal sons and daughters. I'm sure the parents will start to take notice when these kids are photographed and publicly shamed throughtout Noosa. They are nothing more than brats.

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