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Katie Woolf spoke with Senior Sergeant Andrew Hocking from Water Police following the Sandbar dance party on the weekend · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that that Sambar party obviously happened on
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the weekend, and it seems as though it was a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: bit of a worry in terms of trying to get
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: people back to dry land, some of those boats looking
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: incredibly overcrowded, the police ending up having to tip out
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: an enormous amount of alcohol. Now joining us on the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: line is Senior Sergeant Andrew Hawking from the Northern Territory
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Water Police. Good morning to you, Andrew.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Talk us through the reports that police sort of started
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to receive over the weekend.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, sure, I'm not sure when the concerns or
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: members of the public started ringing in, but I know
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: that when we were first notified about the possibility of
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: it becoming dangerous was later in the afternoon, about three o'clock.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I spoke to our on call watch commander or the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: duty watch commander at that point in time, and they
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: said basically that we had General Judy's cruise and also
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: off duty members of emergency services that were watching it
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: escalate from the shore line, and as the tide changed
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: and was coming in, they were growing increasingly concerned that
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the matter would rapidly develop into a situation that was
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: out of control.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Right, So did it sort of from what they were observing,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: they were quite worried that people weren't going to be
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: able to get on their boats as that water rose.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was just the weight of numbers, Katie.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I think as my understanding of the situation is, I suppose,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: due to the power of social media that during the
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: day there are a number of boats that were ferrying
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: people backwards and forwards from the shoreline, all going one way,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: basically going back out to the sandbar to enjoy the party.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately, with a finite number of boats, but a
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: continuing escalation of the population on the sandbar, then at
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: some stage that was going to reach a critical situation
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: as the tide rips in that sandbar goes under very quickly,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and may just be a situation where people underestimated the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: speed that that was going to happen, and it became
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: very obvious as the sandbar started to get swallowed up
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: that was going to turn into a situation of urgency,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and it did.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: And so what happened once the police sort of arrived
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: on the scene, did you have your boats out in
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the water, and what we're saying unfold.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: We put a boat on initially after we received that call,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: so not long after three o'clock we watched the situation develop.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Our guys decided it was going to be a situation
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: of necessity to launch the boat, so they put our
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: big boat out straight from Columbay Lock because we were
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: very close. A little while later, sort of only within
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: an hour of that, I received a phone call. The
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: members that I had on board were clearly I could
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: hear it in their voices. They were distressed about how
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: quickly it was escalating. They were reporting boats that were
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: overloaded with ridiculous numbers of people on board, no visible
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: safety gear, boats capsizing, they were pulling people out of
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the water. They had reports of assaults and fights taking place,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and even though they couldn't really specifically focus on anything
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: at that stage other than safety, you know, they requested
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: that I call out additional resources. So I got another
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: crew organized and we had two boats on from then
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: until just before dark, when we finally sort of managed
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to get everything under control.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Wow, So how many police officers are you talking about
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: having to try to, you know, to manage this.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: There was only four members, one in two different boats,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: but because of the size of the NY at our
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: largest boat, which is you know, sort of eleven and
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: a half meters, we were able to transfer quite a
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: number of people. We helped pull people out of the water,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: helped to tow vessels, you know, basically just facilitated the
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: transfer of the numbers that would have made it a
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: situation of urgency, and kept over watch basically of everything
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: else that was going on.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Andrew, how many people did you end up having to
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: transfer back to back to the shore o Katie.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not one hundred percent sure. In the numbers the
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: members are off duty now, I know they're reported back
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: to the watch commander. There were other boats, small boats,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: you know, continually running that sort of ferry service backwards
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: and forwards, all sort of hopelessly overloaded or ridiculously overloaded.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: At that point, Like I say, it was a situation
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: that we were almost sort of unable to police as such.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: But we're intervening from a safety aspect and not much else.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I guess the large majority probably
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: did the right thing. But then by the sounds of it,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: there was certainly a number of people who I don't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: know whether they just not planned it properly or miscalculated
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: or what had happened. But it does sound as though
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the police had you not been there to help out
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and collect some of those people, they would have ended
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: up in the water.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And with the speed of that tide,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the incoming tide, and I think we had a seven
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: plus meter high tide last night, the water rips through
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: their past the sandbar and down through Emory Point. And
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: if we got to the situation where people had been
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: standing in waste deep water as the sandbar went under,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: they very rapidly become a line of people going pushing
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: in towards the wharf kind of thing. It's a little
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: bit scary. I don't know whether people appreciate the safety
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: aspects of strong currents, and I don't know nowadays. I
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: don't think I'd like to spend too long paddling around
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: in dar and harbor and deep water.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: No. Well, and add to that, you know that presumablue
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: people are intoxicated.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, and I imagine that led to a lot
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: of the issue. You know, as the party continued on
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: during the day, a number of people did become heavily intoxicated,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: to the point where they're not you know, thinking about
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: those safety concerns of putting on life jackets or whatever,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: you know, we had. I've seen some of the social
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: media photos with small boats, five meter boats with you know,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: fifteen seventeen people on board, potentially twenty people on board.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I've seen the v footage of them just by sheer
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: weight of people just plowing into the water and turning over.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought the same thing.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: You see some of that vision, I know, particularly on
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the police Facebook page, you know, in the comments section,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: people are sharing this this vision of boats, you know,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: seriously with way too many people on there going into
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the water, and it does seem like it could have
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: potentially turned quite badly, very quickly, if you know, if
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: they weren't able to get out.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent correct, I mean, you know, by
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the look of it, luckily we got away with it
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: this time. The potential for disaster is surrendered. Doesn't be
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: thinking about really, you know, the situation where suddenly people
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: look around and realize that there's a friend of theirs missing,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: and how do you deal with that in the aftermath?
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: That would have been tragic.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, can you talk us through I know that
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: obviously the police ended up tipping out around three hundred
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: liters of alcohol ended up being seized and destroyed. Was
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: that big as it was being sort of consumed somewhere
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: where you weren't able to or weren't supposed to.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm assuming that was as they hit the shoreline
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: with open containers of liquoro. I don't believe the Water
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Police had anything to do with that part of it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: That was a general duties response as people came ashore yep,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and they were met by police basically I suppose trying
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: to mitigate any further and escalating issues as that number
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: of people already intoxicated, came into the shoreline.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Now, I know the watch commander had said yesterday that
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the NT Water Police Section are continuing to investigate a
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: number of identified marine offenses. Where is that at, Andrew?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Are you looking to potentially charge some people who've done
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the wrong thing?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Well, surely if we can, if we can identify specific
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: individuals on specific vessels and basically track the owners down
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: from the media footage, we will do so, and we'll
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: make all appropriate inquiries and follow up with prosecution if necessary.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: And are you sort of at that phase today? Looking
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: through some of that vision.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: And that we haven't started that yet. We'll be starting
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: in the next couple of days. I know we've got
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: some fairly dramatic body worn footage from the members that
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: were working that afternoon, and even with the social media footage,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: will be gathering that where we can reviewing it, comparing
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: that to details we have CCTV footage from boat ramps
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: and watching those identified vessels pulling out. From that, we
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: can get you know, registration details of vehicles and things
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: and start to that follow up procedure.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Andrew, I know that some people listening this morning have
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: sort of been emailing through and messaging through and saying,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: you know, they're just having a bit of fun. And
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: what would you say, you know, to those that made
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: me feel like this has all sort of been blown
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: up a little bit.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I agree, people are entitled to have fun.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: The issue is where it starts to put people's lives
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  Speaker 2: at risk. And this was a genuine situation where people's
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: lives where at risk. This was a this was a
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: water based base in the grass basically, and the and
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: the venue was going underwater. You know, it's not the
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: marine environment is a hostile It's not a situation where
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: when the venue closes down for the night, you can
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: just walk home. And because of the rate at which
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: it escalated, there was a real danger. I could hear
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that in the voices of the members that were ringing
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: me and appraising me of what was happening. That's not
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: lost on me. It was a dangerous situation. And you're
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: entitled to enjoy yourself, but not when you're putting people
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: at risk.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And Andrew, you know, what is your message for territorians
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: today who attended that party and maybe didn't plan as
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: well as what they should have.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think the ongoing message is always, if
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: you're going to go somewhere, plan how you're going to
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: get home. Make sure that there's enough you know that
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: there are logistics in place, that there's resources in place
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: to get you home safely. If you're questioning whether that's
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: going to happen or not, then perhaps put something in
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: place to make sure you can. Yeah.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, thank you very much for your time this morning.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you having a chat with us, and
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: well done to the Territory police obviously making sure that
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: all of those people that were on the Sambar were
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: able to get back to safety as well, and it
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: does sound as though the police, the water Police had
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: to work pretty hard and pretty quickly to actually be
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: able to ferry people back to Culhum Bay.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks very much, Katie. Look, the guys that were
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: called on duty, the members I called up, they did
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: a fantastic job, but it was sort of there was
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: about a two hour period there where they were frantically
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: working to make sure that people did get back to
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: shore safely. Yeah.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Well, Andrew Hawking, the senior sergeant of the water Police,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you