Isn’t Auburn … dangerous?
Nope.
I can’t really see how the “dangerous” reputation is justified.
The Daily Telegraph proclaims itself a “friend of Sydney’s west” (and has a long running campaign for a “Fair go for the west”) continues to demonise Auburn and other Western Sydney suburbs in its editorial and biased articles.
It drives me crazy as it’s totally unfair.
Demographically speaking Wookie and I would seem to be the odd ones out coming from substantially “Anglo” backgrounds, but really these days around 10% of Australia’s population actually lives in Sydney’s West. So perhaps we’re not so odd.
Breaking down the demographics and stats (and we’re yet to get all of the data from the 2016 census) Auburn is Sydney’s most culturally diverse LGA, which makes it an exciting and interesting place to live.
My main observation is that Auburn is a real family suburb. The parks near us are always full of parents and young kids, there are three public primary schools and another 3 – 4 independent primary schools within Auburn. So it’s kids central.
Like any ethnically diverse, melting pot suburb, with high density apartments by transport links, the scene and parking at the main shops is, in a word, hectic.
So we don’t often shop at Auburn Central, mostly for access and parking convenience it’s actually easier to head to Berala’s newish Woolworths or the standalone Woollies at Granville – both a 5 minute drive from our place.
I’ve never once felt under threat as a short, white woman strolling around the bustling streets of Auburn. Like anywhere people are just getting on with it and doing their own thing.
Sadly the main crime issue seems to be family domestic violence as we discovered when we rang to complain about some yahoos with fireworks – the cops told us “Yes, we’ve had other complaints, but we’re dealing with some domestic violence call outs tonight so it’s lower down the priority list.”
Auburn however still ranks lower for family violence issues than these Western Sydney ‘hot spot’ suburbs: Bankstown, Campbelltown, Mt Druitt, Parramatta, Blacktown and Penrith.
The other hyped reputational issue for Auburn is of course, organised crime. Those sorts of incidents seem fairly targeted and infrequent, rather than random and regular. The way the Tele puts it you’d think people were being shot and murdered on the street weekly. A prime example was this piece from earlier in the year where I think the reporters just made up the quotes from residents… “One shocked witness said” and “One witness, who did not want to be identified…”. Pretty convenient to “quote” highly emotive language from the mouths of your unattributed “sources”. But aligns perfectly to the sort of standards we’ve come to expect from the Murdoch press.
Anyway, I’d say the biggest risk of physical danger in Auburn is the crazy driving – you do need to be careful crossing the road as it’s a bit of a free for all. (Keep an eye out for some funny dash cam videos coming soon to our blog).
Hell, Justin Bieber popped into the Nando’s at Auburn Central last week for a feed, and you cannot get more white-bread than the born again Hillsong loving Biebs.
So unless you’ve got an abusive partner or are connected to a crime gang your chances of coming to any physical danger, being attacked or robbed are pretty much nil, and just like the rest of Sydney, Auburn is relatively safe place to live for a large metropolis.
So, if it’s good enough for Bieber to flaneur his way around in giant cammo overalls, well it’s probably fine for you to visit too.
* ‘Flaneur’: a man who saunters around observing society.
Livin’ the dream in Sydney’s (inner) western ‘burbs with a Wookie and a bossy cat.
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