09/08/2026
MILDURA MAYOR BREAKS SILENCE AS ANGER BOILS OVER
Mildura Mayor Ali Cupper has acknowledged the community is angry, frustrated and increasingly worried about safety following the shocking events in Langtree Mall last week.
She has also conceded that efforts already underway behind the scenes have neither been visible nor effective enough.
Ali issued a statement tonight following several days of intense discussion across Mildura about crime, antisocial behaviour and safety in the CBD.
“It goes without saying that the events of late last week in Mildura’s CBD are deeply disturbing,” she said.
“And I know from what I’m seeing and hearing that our community is understandably feeling a whole range of emotions – anger, frustration, uncertainty, and not feeling safe.”
“You are not alone.”
The statement follows an extraordinary incident in the heart of Mildura late Thursday night, when a NSW man drove a Ford Ranger through the pedestrian-only mall and collided with two 12-year-old boys riding a motorised bike.
Both young fellas suffered serious injuries. One was flown hundreds of kilometres to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne in a serious condition.
Police have charged the driver – a man in his mid to late 50s – with dangerous driving causing serious injury, four counts of reckless conduct endangering life, intentionally causing injury and driving dangerously.
He appeared before Mildura Magistrates’ Court on Friday, made no application for bail and is expected to return to court next week.
Police allege the ute followed the boys through Langtree Mall shortly after 11pm before the collision, with the aftermath looking less like Mildura’s normally quiet pedestrian mall and more like somebody had driven a ute through it.
A motorised bike was badly damaged, a light fixture was smashed, part of the mall’s misting system was ripped from the ground and tyre marks were left across the pavement.
But while the spectacular damage has attracted plenty of attention, the incident has also cracked open a much bigger argument about what has allegedly been happening around Mildura for months – and, according to some residents, considerably longer.
Ali said Council and other community leaders had spent Friday and the weekend speaking with key stakeholders to establish a clearer picture of what had occurred and to begin discussing the wider issue of community safety.
Those discussions have included police, Mildura City Heart, youth justice specialists, traders and members of the community.
“I know you also have a lot of questions about what has happened and what needs to happen in the future,” Ali said. “Over the next few weeks, this will become clearer.”
She urged residents not to jump to conclusions while authorities establish the facts, and called for people to remain respectful while emotions remain high.
That request landed in a community where plenty of people appear to have sailed well beyond mildly annoyed and are now somewhere around righto, enough is enough.
Reaction to the Mayor’s statement was sharply divided. Some residents welcomed her intervention and praised the attempt to bring police, businesses, youth justice specialists and others together.
Others wanted to know why such urgent discussions appeared to be happening only after an incident serious enough to leave two children in hospital.
Several questioned whether warning signs surrounding antisocial behaviour, alleged car thefts, intimidation, youth offending and problems around the CBD had been allowed to simmer for too long.
Others argued the problem stretches far beyond anything a mayor or council can fix with a strongly worded meeting invitation and a fresh batch of minutes.
They pointed to policing, the courts, youth justice, mental health services, drug rehabilitation and Labor Government funding as parts of a much larger puzzle – one that cannot simply be dumped on the desk at council.
There were also calls for consideration of tougher measures, including greater police resources, better reporting of offending and even questions about whether temporary restrictions could be imposed on young children wandering the streets late at night.
Others wanted the discussions widened beyond Langtree Mall to other shopping areas, suburban streets and the court system.
The criticism prompted a notably candid response from Ali, who acknowledged that work had already been taking place, but conceded it had not been sufficiently visible to the public and had clearly not been effective enough.
Because whatever the eventual court findings surrounding Thursday night’s collision, the public debate now raging in Mildura is no longer confined to one ute, two bikes or one terrifying night in Langtree Mall.
It has become a much larger argument about whether residents feel safe, whether concerns have been acted upon, who has the power to resolve the problems – and who gets the blame when every level of government points at somebody else.
Ali said the priority was now establishing accurate information and bringing the relevant organisations together to determine what happens next.
“Please know that I, Council, and other community leaders and organisations are certainly aware and listening,” she said.
For a city that increasingly appears to be demanding action rather than another committee discovering the revolutionary concept of “community concerns”, listening may only be the beginning.
The much harder question is what happens next.
