IT IS 3am on a Saturday night in the nightclub district after the Ballarat Cup.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some partygoers have resorted to bare feet after a long day in heels, while others are devouring chips and gravy at the taxi rank.
There’s shouting and laughing and stumbling and standing.
People make choices on whether to go home or head another nightspot.
Unbeknown to most, a myriad of processes and procedures is occurring that ensures the safety of each night walker in the city’s central business district.
The Courier took part in the CitySafe Night Experience walking tour of the nightclub district between 2am and 4am on Sunday, in what was anticipated to be one of the busiest nights of the year, Cup night.
Included in the entourage were representatives from Victoria Police, Ballarat City Council, and security, health and transport organisations.
The walking tour started at Ballarat Police Station, where we were briefed and shown the elaborate CBD CCTV set-up.
Ballarat City Council community safety and wellbeing officer Amanda Collins said there were 88 CCTV cameras in the central business district, including 32 in the late-night entertainment precinct.
Ballarat Police Inspector Bruce Thomas said the night’s crowd had been “well-behaved”, aside from one “minor scuffle” at the corner of Lydiard and Mair streets at 1.30am.
He said there were six men and three women locked up in the cells on Saturday night, a couple of them for being drunk and disorderly and the remaining on remand for other offences.
Inspector Thomas said police operations were held once a month in the nightclub district.
The tour continued to Lydiard Street and then Camp Street, making stops outside nightclubs, north and south taxi ranks and the Gravy Spot.
Plover Security owner-manager Glenn Plover said the nightclub scene in Ballarat had been transformed in the past decade.
“The 21 Arms (nightclub) used to be all-in brawls all night, every weekend,” Mr Plover said.
“Now, most guys do all their fighting over Facebook, which is good for us.
“You have a couple of minor incidents throughout the weekend at the venues. But the average patron has nothing to worry about.”
Mr Plover said the main patron aggravation stemmed from queue jumping at the taxi ranks or people being turned away from nightclubs.
He said the 2.30am voluntary curfew was vital to winding down Friday and Saturday nights, as it stopped people from going from pub to pub.
Ballarat Taxis Co-operative director Stephen Armstrong said the SafeCity taxi ranks had dramatically improved the safety of the district.
“It used to be anything goes; it was mayhem. People would be jumping out in front of you and banging on the bonnet (of your car),” he said.
Ms Collins said the council had looked at installing a new CitySafe taxi rank on Camp Street, but Mr Armstrong said that since the Haida bar closed earlier this year, the proposed rank would be superfluous.
He said the north rank, opposite the train station, was under-utilised with just 60 pick-ups each weekend as patrons were reluctant to walk to the rank.