Women say Mount Coot-tha attacks have taken a ‘city escape’ from them
By Tony Moore
Friends Julie Chance and Margaret Walton are among many women who have felt rattled by reports of men attacking female bushwalkers on Mount Coot-tha’s trails, saying it had taken a “city escape” away from them.
Queensland Police and Brisbane City Council have now discreetly placed more than 80 secret and visible CCTV cameras within the network of trails on Mount Coot-tha, after several attacks on women in May and June.
Mount Coot-tha bushwalkers Margaret Walton (left) and Julie Chance are pleased secret and open security cameras have been placed in the area after attacks on women.Credit: Tony Moore
The cameras are monitored 24 hours a day from the BCC Safe City camera centre in the CBD.
Friends Chance and Walton were among 20 to 30 women walking along the popular JC Slaughter Falls section of Mount Coot-tha Bushlands on Tuesday morning.
“I used to walk with Julie often and during the week I used to come up here from the city, just to get away,” Walton said.
“I found it really therapeutic, and I absolutely loved it.
“Unfortunately, when I heard about the incident, it has taken that away from me.”
Chance said the cameras gave the pair a “sense of security”.
However, Walton said while cameras would help police, she still had concerns.
“I mean, you may well still be attacked, but at least they will have footage of the people and therefore someone will recognise him and an arrest can be made,” she said.
Queensland Police Acting Inspector Shane Hancock said several leads had come in via Crime Stoppers that police were evaluating.
Inspector Hancock on Tuesday confirmed a 25-year-old woman was not proceeding with an assault allegation in May. He declined to say why the allegation was withdrawn.
He said a wilful-exposure incident at Brookfield in June may be an unrelated incident because of the wide cross-section of people using the walking trails.
Mount Coot-tha bushlands attacks – Queensland Police July update
- May 13 – Attempted sexual assault of a 25-year-old woman at the Cockatoo Trail. Allegation withdrawn.
- June 7 – Woman reported that she was pushed to the ground/held down on the Maculata track.
- June 11 – Women in Brookfield report a man was behaving in an indecent way on the Boyd Terrace walking track.
- June 27 – Third-hand report of a man acting suspiciously on the Litchfield Track, near the Mahogany Trail.
Source: Acting Inspector Shane Hancock, July 9.
Hancock said the June 7 attack on the Bardon side of Mt Coot-tha was an ongoing investigation.
“We would welcome anyone who might have seen this incident first hand to come forward and give us a description to help the investigation, going forward,” he said.
The most recent indent was on June 27 on the 4.1-kilometre Litchfield Path near the Mahogany Trail.
“There were no threats and no assaults. We have received that information third-hand and developed an investigation and put the police helicopter (Polair) up and saturated the area with police crews, but we couldn’t locate anybody,” Hancock said.
“That’s the sort of response we are looking for (from the camera deployment).”
A mix of 80 visible and covert CCTV cameras have been placed in Mt Coot-tha’s Bushlands to deter or arrest a stalker allegedly stalking women.Credit: Tony Moore
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said putting the cameras in place was an example of rapidly deploying new mobile cameras at the request of police.
“If there is a hotspot location that has been reported, like Mount Coot-tha, we can talk to the police, get some feedback and quickly deploy cameras to that precinct,” he said.
He said 26 CCTV cameras had also been placed at Forest Lake, Mount Gravatt Outlook, Tinchi Tamba Wetlands at Bald Hills and in the people’s park in Boundary Street at West End.
Brisbane City Council has 3750 cameras in the CCTV camera network.