'You could go to the shops and leave your doors unlocked': Canberra was a different place 40 years ago

This month in 1984, Clare McGrath received a letter in the mailbox of her Ainslie home, calling for a public meeting of residents to discuss “one of the most effective crime prevention programs used anywhere in the world”.

They weren’t wrong.

Forty years later, Neighbourhood Watch ACT is still regarded as a “key strategic partner” with ACT Policing and is mentioned in the same breath as Crime Stoppers as a tool to catch criminals in Canberra.

Chances are, you’ve seen their green and white signs stuck to streetlight poles around the suburbs.

The scheme was born in the US in 1972 when homeowners agreed to band together and liaise with police to find ways to control local crime.

It first arrived in Australia with a pilot program in Victoria in 1983 and started in Kambah in the ACT on 24 September 1984. It was rolled out across the territory’s suburbs from January the following year, with near-full coverage by late 1987.

With input from police, the ACT was broken up into 600 areas of 20 to 30 houses each, and the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) then provided 1260 street signs, free of charge.

Anyone can sign up to the Neighbourhood Watch as a member (provided they pass a police check) and agree to keep an eye on houses in their local area. You’ll also receive updates on crime stats and invitations to your area’s meetings.

Clare, vice-president of Neighbourhood Watch ACT, joined many of its longest-serving members to mark the organisation’s 40th anniversary on Wednesday (25 September) with a special dinner at the Hellenic Club in Woden.

Clare moved to Canberra in January 1962 with her husband John and remembers pulling up outside the Melbourne and Sydney buildings to collect the keys to their house from the real estate agent.

“It was surrounded by sheep paddocks and cattle trucks,” she says.

“I remember sitting in the car and bursting into tears. I was the first one of my siblings to leave home, and I thought, ‘Where the bloody hell has he brought me to?'”

Nowadays, she wouldn’t live anywhere else. Partly because of our lower crime rate.

Based on statistics from ACT Policing, the website ‘AU Crime Rate’ gives Canberra a 69/100 score on its crime index, meaning it’s safer than 69 per cent of other Australian cities.

It says the likelihood of becoming a victim of crime is one in 23, “based on the combined crime rate of offences against person and property”.

“When you see the crime stats coming in from other cities, we’re very fortunate here in the ACT,” Clare adds.

But back in the early 1980s, when NHW was established, she says it was a different place again.

“Back in those days, you could go up to the shops and not lock your doors or anything. The police patrolled your areas, especially when school came out to make sure kids got home safely.

“It breaks my heart a bit when I see what the younger generation is coming up against today compared to when my kids were little in terms of the prevalence of crime and violence … It’s a totally different place.”

She suspects parents are spending less time with their children “because both parents are working nowadays because they have to”.

But another factor is that fewer people interact with their neighbours beyond a wave from the mailbox.

“I went with the police a few weeks ago for a meeting at one of the high-rise apartment buildings in Belconnen, and the first question I asked the group was, ‘Hands up those who know the person who lives next door to them’, and one hand went up.

“We were stunned, and even the police officer there with me said, ‘I don’t believe that.'”

Despite this, she says the organisation continues to grow. Her own local group in Ainslie, which started with around 80 members at that first meeting in 1984, now numbers more than 100.

“We’ve still got the contact with the community, we’re still getting people wanting to join up, and we’re still getting a number of reports going through to Crime Stoppers about suspicious activity in neighbourhoods,” she says.

She recalls one case where an elderly neighbour was reluctant to ring Crime Stoppers about a car that was frequently pulling up in her street until Clare talked her into it.

“The next week, that became one of the biggest drug busts in the ACT,” she says.

Her message to Canberrans is to “look out for your neighbour, report anything suspicious, no matter how mundane you think it is”.

“But also, just get to know your neighbours.”

For more information, visit ACT Neighbourhood Watch.