LOCAL police attend 900 domestic violence calls a year within the Great Lakes area – an average of more than two a day. The last four homicides in the Great Lakes were domestic violence related.
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Facing statistics like that, it was not surprising that more than 120 people gathered at Club Forster for a public meeting on the issue on Thursday April 9. The gathering was focused on trying to get a shelter for the Great Lakes.
There was not a chair to be had at the meeting, which drew people from across community groups and volunteer organisations as well as interested individuals.
The meeting aimed to have the community’s input into a plan for a shelter in the local area.
A major issue facing the victims of domestic violence, the meeting heard, was the lack of accommodation for adults and children trying to leave abusive situations.
The closest shelter is in Taree, which creates problems if children still have to attend school and people have to get to work, Acting Manning Great Lakes Local Area Command superintendent, detective inspector Peter McKenna, told the meeting. People are also reluctant to leave their home community and their support networks behind.
“For a lot of people, Taree is a different world to them."
- Acting Manning Great Lakes Local Area Command superintendent, detective inspector Peter McKenna
The emergency accommodation currently on offer is also problematic, with some based at hotels that offer limited cooking or laundry facilities for families, the Forster Neighbourhood Centre’s Trish Wallace said.
Detective Inspector McKenna said that domestic violence was rated as the number one problem within the command.
“It is talked about every morning, at every briefing. We are constantly reviewing all actions on it,” he said.
The police have thrown their support behind a move to have a domestic violence shelter built in the Great Lakes.
The meeting heard from Women’s Community Shelters (WCS) CEO Annabelle Daniel about the possibilities of creating a shelter locally.
The crowd was told it would require a huge amount of local support, as well as fundraising efforts, to see it succeed.
MC for the event and vocal advocate for a shelter Great Lakes Councillor Jim Morwitch called on the people present to become ambassadors for the project within the community.
“We need support and we’ll need you to spread the word when there is a solid plan in place,” he said.
“This is a problem that is seldom seen by us. It is happening largely late at night and out of sight. We have a situation where women and children, in distress, in the middle of the night, are being told they have to go to Taree.
“It is not practical. It is not satisfactory.”
