General News
9 October, 2023
Slight decline in crime rate in Central Goldfields Shire
The Central Goldfields Shire’s crime rate has dropped for the year ending June, while property and deception offences like theft remain the most common types of offending for the area. According to the latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency...
The Central Goldfields Shire’s crime rate has dropped for the year ending June, while property and deception offences like theft remain the most common types of offending for the area.
According to the latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) for the year ending June 2023, there were 1143 offences recorded in the Central Goldfields, down slightly on the 1160 recorded for the previous year.
It means the overall offence rate declined 1.5 percent to a rate of 8398 (per 100,000 population) compared to 8592 for the year ending June 2022.
While a vast majority of offences (830) were recorded in Maryborough, the data shows this is a decrease from the 865 recorded in the previous year, while Dunolly and Talbot also saw declines in offending from 76 to 62 and 37 to 35 respectively.
Offending in Bealiba rose slightly from 14 to 16, while the number of offences detected in Carisbrook more than doubled from 57 last year to 115.
The data shows that the most prevalent offence types are breaches of family violence orders (183 offences recorded), criminal damage (112), sexual offences (106), theft (60) and drug possession (60).
While most of these offence types are largely consistent with previous years, the data does highlight that sexual offences rose by more than 53 percent in the last 12 months, with drug possession almost doubling.
Interestingly, while drug possession offences rose according to the data, offences relating to cultivating or manufacturing drugs was at its lowest since 2015 with only three offences.
Houses are the most common location for offences to occur with 485 recorded, down from 501 last year, while streets, lanes and footpaths (153) and driveways (43) were the next most common.
In the neighbouring Pyrenees Shire, offences for the year ending June 2023 dropped by 10.2 percent on the previous year, with 379 offences recorded — down from 422.
While offence data is similar to the Central Goldfields, according to the CSA there were 28 offences relating to motor vehicle theft for the year ending June 2023, as well as 23 incidents of items stolen from vehicles.
Offences in the Mount Alexander dropped by three percent and again, presents similarly to the Central Goldfields in terms of offending types however graffiti offences almost doubled from the previous year, jumping from 36 to 68.
Concerningly, offending in the Hepburn Shire rose by almost 25 percent this year as offences like theft, stealing from motor vehicles, criminal damage and non-aggravated burglary all rose.
Creswick, Daylesford, Trentham and Hepburn Springs all saw increases in offending, while Clunes saw a decrease from 83 incidents in the previous year to 58.