Older Territorians say they still feel unsafe as residents' homes targeted by armed thugs
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Trevor Miller was asleep when two young teenagers broke into his home in April and dragged him from his bed by the hair.
"I fought back as best I could, that’s when the bedroom wall got damaged," he says.
"The fight continued on into the passageway, I managed to break free of them, into the bathroom, I got the door closed and locked, and then he kicked the door in, took the door completely off."
Before the 72-year-old's neighbour had a chance to call the police, one of the teenagers pulled out a machete and brought it down hard across both his hands.
"I was told that I was in surgery for seven hours and that while I was in surgery they had to [resuscitate] me, the blood loss was that bad," he says.
"I can remember getting wheeled out to the ambulance and I can’t remember much beyond that for about the next three to four weeks and I ended up in hospital for three months."
In July alone, Northern Territory police responded to at least four incidents involving machetes, including aggravated robberies and home invasions, with a total of nine such offences publicly reported by police in the NT so far this year.
Victoria has banned machetes in response to a series of shocking, violent incidents before two children were killed in what authorities described as "one of the worst" knife crimes they've seen.
The state is now pushing for a national ban and older Territorians are calling on the NT government to ratchet up controls on the dangerous weapons.
Council on the Ageing NT chief executive Sue Shearer says she will be "next in line" to buy OC spray after supplies ran out following the start of a 12-month trial of the product last month.
After more than half a century in the territory, Ms Shearer says she was recently attacked by youths for the first time, including a 10-year-old boy who threw a rock, which struck her in the groin.
She says when she does get her hands on some pepper spray, she will not hesitate to use it if it happens again.
"I’d be quite prepared to go to jail and what an outcry that’d be, I’m entitled to defend myself, at 72 years old I can’t run like I used to," she says.
"[If] somebody breaks into my home, I'll use the OC spray, or whatever I can, to defend myself and my grandchildren."
But rather than have it come to that, Ms Shearer says "we should be like Victoria and just ban machetes" and anyone who wants a crossbow should be licensed, with the NT the last jurisdiction in Australia that doesn't require one.
"Why would you need a crossbow? I know some people probably go hunting with it and part of their hunting licence might be with the crossbow, fair enough but again, licensed," she says.
Ms Shearer says even with OC spray available, the government's crackdown on bail and other reforms have not made her members feel any safer, saying "you really do need to look way beyond just putting people in jail".
She says the young people who attacked her were on bail at the time, which showed the toughened laws were not working and that "successive governments have failed" to adequately address the issue.
"We’re waiting really but I think the root cause of the problem, really, in one way, isn’t being looked at," she says.
"You can put these kids in jail or do this or do that but when they come out what happens?"
The remote Aboriginal community of less than 200 people, 300 kilometres south-west of Darwin, has been plagued by gang violence for years, with a lawsuit filed by Ms Wilson claiming the town has been abandoned by police currently before the Federal Court.
The family matriarch — whose children are the traditional owners of the area — says the Wilson clan has been pleading with successive governments for action.
"My four grandchildren got hurt by crossbow, one survived, went to hospital and I lost one at the scene, [the bolt went] right through his heart," Ms Wilson says.
"My other grandson got hurt on his leg, he nearly lost his leg with [a] machete, and they cut him with [a] machete behind the back and he went to hospital, nearly three months he was there."
Ms Wilson agrees that the weapons should be banned, or at least only available to licensed shooters.
"Crossbows should be using it for shooting pigs not human beings, it is really dangerous, the government should listen to us," she says.
"They should ban the crossbow and machete, like the firearm, guns, and people should be having licence to buy the machetes and crossbow, it is really dangerous for all in the territory and wider Australia."
Ms Wilson says with the local police station often abandoned and a two to three hour wait for help from officers in Wadeye, banning the weapons would make a big difference.
"Nobody [is] listening to us and more people gotta get hurt, more gotta die," she says.
But he says the more weapons that are out there, the less safe all Territorians are.
"It leads to a situation where it’s easy to then make the argument to just move to punitive measures, punishment, longer terms of detention, restrictions on bail," he says.
"But it also does another thing and that is that when the carrying of weapons becomes more and more common, more and more people do it."
And Mr Annear says adding OC spray into the mix is also likely to backfire.
"It could lead to a situation where people are emboldened to take vigilante action and it could result in the serious injury of a child," he says.
"But secondly, it creates a false sense of security because again, much like the young person that’s carrying the knife for self-protection, it actually doesn’t make the child safer.
"In fact what it's more likely to do is to escalate a dangerous situation rather than the reverse."
"I know that when I was a kid academics were not my thing, but eventually I walked into a machine shop at the high school I was at," he says.
"I went from being seen as the dumb kid to one of the best kids in the school because that was my area and that allowed me to get an apprenticeship and that's what took me through life."
While Mr Miller says tighter controls on weapons might help, he backs the Country Liberal Party's (CLP) strategy, saying "governments have swung the pendulum too far when it comes to juveniles".
"It's only now starting to swing back and I think that’s a good thing," he says.
"I think any kid that's caught with a machete should get free board and lodging [in prison] for a while, it is a dangerous weapon."
A CLP government spokesperson says harm is "caused by people, not the tools in their hands" and “law-abiding Territorians use crossbows for sport and machetes for gardening".
"These are legitimate tools and our focus must be on how they’re used, not on restricting responsible owners," they say.
"The CLP government will continue to hold offenders accountable, keep the community safe, and do so without unfairly restricting law-abiding Territorians.”
Written by Jason Walls, ABC News.
"I fought back as best I could, that’s when the bedroom wall got damaged," he says.
"The fight continued on into the passageway, I managed to break free of them, into the bathroom, I got the door closed and locked, and then he kicked the door in, took the door completely off."
Before the 72-year-old's neighbour had a chance to call the police, one of the teenagers pulled out a machete and brought it down hard across both his hands.
"I was told that I was in surgery for seven hours and that while I was in surgery they had to [resuscitate] me, the blood loss was that bad," he says.
Trevor Miller was dragged from his bed by two young teenagers in April. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
"I can remember getting wheeled out to the ambulance and I can’t remember much beyond that for about the next three to four weeks and I ended up in hospital for three months."
In July alone, Northern Territory police responded to at least four incidents involving machetes, including aggravated robberies and home invasions, with a total of nine such offences publicly reported by police in the NT so far this year.
Victoria has banned machetes in response to a series of shocking, violent incidents before two children were killed in what authorities described as "one of the worst" knife crimes they've seen.
The state is now pushing for a national ban and older Territorians are calling on the NT government to ratchet up controls on the dangerous weapons.
Council on the Ageing NT chief executive Sue Shearer says she will be "next in line" to buy OC spray after supplies ran out following the start of a 12-month trial of the product last month.
Sue Shearer says she is "quite prepared to go to jail" if she is ever charged with assaulting a youth who attacks her. (ABC News: Mike Donnelly)
After more than half a century in the territory, Ms Shearer says she was recently attacked by youths for the first time, including a 10-year-old boy who threw a rock, which struck her in the groin.
She says when she does get her hands on some pepper spray, she will not hesitate to use it if it happens again.
"I’d be quite prepared to go to jail and what an outcry that’d be, I’m entitled to defend myself, at 72 years old I can’t run like I used to," she says.
"[If] somebody breaks into my home, I'll use the OC spray, or whatever I can, to defend myself and my grandchildren."
But rather than have it come to that, Ms Shearer says "we should be like Victoria and just ban machetes" and anyone who wants a crossbow should be licensed, with the NT the last jurisdiction in Australia that doesn't require one.
Various weapons seized by NT Police on Groote Eylandt in September 2023. (Supplied: NT Police)
"Why would you need a crossbow? I know some people probably go hunting with it and part of their hunting licence might be with the crossbow, fair enough but again, licensed," she says.
Ms Shearer says even with OC spray available, the government's crackdown on bail and other reforms have not made her members feel any safer, saying "you really do need to look way beyond just putting people in jail".
She says the young people who attacked her were on bail at the time, which showed the toughened laws were not working and that "successive governments have failed" to adequately address the issue.
"We’re waiting really but I think the root cause of the problem, really, in one way, isn’t being looked at," she says.
"You can put these kids in jail or do this or do that but when they come out what happens?"
Remote gang chaos
Regina Wilson has been calling for tighter restrictions on weapons — including machetes and crossbows — for years after her family's constant targeting by the Jovi Boys gang in her home community of Peppimenarti.The remote Aboriginal community of less than 200 people, 300 kilometres south-west of Darwin, has been plagued by gang violence for years, with a lawsuit filed by Ms Wilson claiming the town has been abandoned by police currently before the Federal Court.
The family matriarch — whose children are the traditional owners of the area — says the Wilson clan has been pleading with successive governments for action.
"My four grandchildren got hurt by crossbow, one survived, went to hospital and I lost one at the scene, [the bolt went] right through his heart," Ms Wilson says.
Regina Wilson says she has already lost one grandchild to violence after he was struck with a crossbow bolt "right through his heart". (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
"My other grandson got hurt on his leg, he nearly lost his leg with [a] machete, and they cut him with [a] machete behind the back and he went to hospital, nearly three months he was there."
Ms Wilson agrees that the weapons should be banned, or at least only available to licensed shooters.
"Crossbows should be using it for shooting pigs not human beings, it is really dangerous, the government should listen to us," she says.
A crossbow seized by police in October 2023. (Supplied: NT Police)
"They should ban the crossbow and machete, like the firearm, guns, and people should be having licence to buy the machetes and crossbow, it is really dangerous for all in the territory and wider Australia."
Ms Wilson says with the local police station often abandoned and a two to three hour wait for help from officers in Wadeye, banning the weapons would make a big difference.
"Nobody [is] listening to us and more people gotta get hurt, more gotta die," she says.
OC spray could 'embolden' vigilantes
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency youth crime managing solicitor Brendan Annear says without addressing root causes such as housing, family violence and disability, banning weapons is unlikely to have much success on its own.But he says the more weapons that are out there, the less safe all Territorians are.
"It leads to a situation where it’s easy to then make the argument to just move to punitive measures, punishment, longer terms of detention, restrictions on bail," he says.
Brendan Annear says carrying weapons "creates a false sense of security" and is actually more likely to escalate a dangerous situation. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
"But it also does another thing and that is that when the carrying of weapons becomes more and more common, more and more people do it."
And Mr Annear says adding OC spray into the mix is also likely to backfire.
"It could lead to a situation where people are emboldened to take vigilante action and it could result in the serious injury of a child," he says.
"But secondly, it creates a false sense of security because again, much like the young person that’s carrying the knife for self-protection, it actually doesn’t make the child safer.
"In fact what it's more likely to do is to escalate a dangerous situation rather than the reverse."
Giving back
As a result of the home invasion, Mr Miller is no longer able to work with his hands and has donated his extensive tool collection to the local high school in the hope "it'll give some kids a bit of a chance".
Trevor Miller says he donated his tools to a local school after the attack robbed him of much of the use of his hands. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
"I know that when I was a kid academics were not my thing, but eventually I walked into a machine shop at the high school I was at," he says.
"I went from being seen as the dumb kid to one of the best kids in the school because that was my area and that allowed me to get an apprenticeship and that's what took me through life."
While Mr Miller says tighter controls on weapons might help, he backs the Country Liberal Party's (CLP) strategy, saying "governments have swung the pendulum too far when it comes to juveniles".
"It's only now starting to swing back and I think that’s a good thing," he says.
"I think any kid that's caught with a machete should get free board and lodging [in prison] for a while, it is a dangerous weapon."
Trevor Miller says he supports tougher penalties for youths caught with machetes after almost losing his hands to the weapon earlier this year. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
A CLP government spokesperson says harm is "caused by people, not the tools in their hands" and “law-abiding Territorians use crossbows for sport and machetes for gardening".
"These are legitimate tools and our focus must be on how they’re used, not on restricting responsible owners," they say.
"The CLP government will continue to hold offenders accountable, keep the community safe, and do so without unfairly restricting law-abiding Territorians.”
Written by Jason Walls, ABC News.
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