Incorporating
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
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www.mansfieldcourier.com.au
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BACK DAYLIGHT SAVING ENDS
on Sunday 3, April, at 3am (EST) you need to put your clocks BACK by one hour.
THROUGH COLOURED LENS ON Friday, St Mary’s Primary School exploded like a rainbow for the bi-annual Colour Run Fundraiser. This event is highly anticipated by the St Mary’s staff and students alike and once again it lived up to the hype, with prep student Ollie Wood and all his friends getting coloured from head to toe. Full wrap and photos in next week’s Mansfield Courier.
Pages 21-28
Sport
B1S GO DOWN TO ST JAMES
Crime down, violence up Mansfield’s crime rate has dropped pp but incidents in the home have spiked p By SHAUN M B McMAHON MAHON MANSFIELD Shire has recorded a 1.9 per cent drop in the number of criminal incidents this year compared with last year in numbers released by the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) last week. The figures show a consistent past three years after notable drops from peaks in 2016 and 2017. Mansfield continues to sit well below the state
crime average overall, i ll with ith a criminal incident rate per 100,000 population of 3807.3, compared with the Victorian rate of 5232.5. Except for family violence incidents, which have increased 26 per cent, putting the town just above the statewide average in this category. This bucks the state-wide trend, which has seen a decline in family violence for the first time since the pandemic began.
Breaching B hi family f il violence i l orders topped the list of principal offence subgroups in the Mansfield Shire for the year ending December 2021, with criminal damage and firearms offences following at second and third. Parklands and reserves also saw a notable 75 per cent increase in incidents, with 44 recorded last year, the third highest location behind offences on the street and at home.
One possible O ibl explanation l ti for this is the penalty notices issued to at least 10 people who attended an anti-mandate protest at Maindample in October last year. While overall offences were down in the Mansfield township, Bonnie Doon, Maindample, Jamieson and Merrijig all saw notable increases - in some cases by 100 per cent - in total incident numbers from last year’s data.
IIn Merrijig M iji incidents i id t rose from nine last year to 16 this year, Maindample went up from nine to 23, Jamieson from 10 to 21 incidents, and Bonnie Doon went from 33 to 43. Riot and affray incidents across the state also increased by 292 offences, which Victoria Police said is partly due to protest activity throughout the pandemic. State-wide, there was an overall drop of 12.8 per cent
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iin criminal i i l off ffences, ttaking ki the total to the lowest number committed in a calendar year in Victoria since 2014. The overwhelming majority of offences decreased, but assaults were up between parties such as neighbours and other acquaintances that were not family-related, and third parties at licensed venues who took their celebrations too far at the end of a tough year. ■ Continued page 3