Angourie residents came together on Sunday as they traditionally have a family to discuss serious concerns about the escalation of crime in the village.

The meeting at the Blue Pools carpark was convened by resident of 30 years, Lindsay Hunter, who said the situation escalated last month when carloads containing 12 people came to the town and threatened residents.

“Three Thursday’s ago, was the final straw for me, when those carloads of people came,” he said.

“We’ve had three or four years of fishing rods going missing, surfboards going missing, cars being broken into, and since Christmas, up till three weeks ago it’s ramped up to people coming into houses, reaching over mums and dad’s while they’re asleep taking keys out of purses.

“There’s been people with machetes standing in people’s lounge rooms as people come out of their bedroom and they are confronted.

“It’s all ramped right up, it got really serious to the point where one lady was at home by herself, her kids were overseas, and that was the final straw for me because I couldn’t help her and nobody in the village found out until the next day.”

Mr Hunter said his main motivation to call the community meeting was to help the older people and the vulnerable in the village.

“Caring for our neighbours was the big thing for me,” he said.

“We all came together as a big family like we used to be in Angourie…we were all surfers and fishermen, and when there were problems or someone needed help, we’d all come together, more so as a family, a community family, rather than just a community and everyone would be concerned.

“My neighbour is 80 years old and she’s deaf, and I bought her an air horn, just for her personal safety to ward off an intruder and also to alert me so I can come to her aid if need be.

“Anyone who comes to village with ill intent is who we’re trying to persuade not to come back.”

As part of this persuasion tactic, two weeks ago Mr Hunter has erected signs around the village alerting people to security.

“When I rang the police on Friday, they said they haven’t had any reports of criminal incidents in the village in the last two weeks,” he said.

“Whether its luck, coincidence, or the signs are working, I don’t know.”

Mr Hunter said residents who attended the meeting wanted to hear new ideas about how they could help themselves.

“I rattled off some things about legalities and illegalities, which a lot of people didn’t know,” he said.

“We went through the legalities of whether you can have a baseball bat or a cricket bat next to your door, or beside your bed…but an older resident isn’t going to swing a bat.

“That’s why I bought her the horn, to give her enough time to scare the intruder off and give me or another neighbour the time to come to her aid.”

A major concern for Mr Hunter is the number of older residents in the village that live alone.

“There’s heaps of people in the village by themselves and they are all getting on in age,” he said.

Officers from the Coffs Clarence Police District were invited to the meeting but were unavailable.

Mr Hunter also invited Federal Member for Page, Kevin Hogan to the meeting but he was unavailable as parliament is sitting.

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 13 August 2025.