Karama is a northern suburb of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. It is located on the traditional Country and waterways of the Larrakia people.

History

The suburb of Karama is named after an Aboriginal tribe. Karama is an established residential area in Darwin's northern suburbs built in the period from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The suburb is predominantly made up of residents of low socioeconomic status, with many homes being government housing. In 1964, Douglas Lockwood recommended that a number of tribal names be used for the suburbs of Darwin.

Present day

Some major features of the area include the Karama Primary School, Manunda Terrace Primary School, Holy Family Primary School, O'Loughlin Secondary College and Karama Shopping Plaza. Karama Library is also located within the Karama Shopping Plaza, and is a service of Darwin City Council Libraries. Brazil Crescent in Karama was named after Robert Brazil, a crewman (fireman) on the ill-fated SS Gothenburg, which sank off the north Queensland coast on 24 February 1875, with the loss of approximately 102 lives. Brazil was one of only 22 survivors and was awarded a medal for bravery and heroism for his efforts to save drowning passengers.

Crime

Karama is a crime-ridden suburb. It is well known as one of Darwin's hotspots for property crime, crimes against the person and public order offences.

Recent examples

2021

2022

2023

Petition for extra policing

In June 2022 Karama residents began a change.org petition seeking a permanent police presence at Karama Shopping Plaza citing: "I live in Karama. I have kids in middle school and high school. I work and so they need to catch bus to and from school. I'm terrified every day that something may happen to them whilst walking home from bus stops. They have to get off 2kms from home and walk rest of the way because I won't let them any where near Karama shopping complex. Something needs to be done about the crime in our suburb NOW"- Sarah Grego, 9 June 2022 "Because it is impossible to go shopping without been asked for money or cigarettes. I witnessed youths running in and out of supermarket stealing and pushing shoppers. Really is a bad experience."- Iurdes Pires, 6 June 2022 "I've lived in Karama for nearly 40 years. It's sad to watch it turn from such a great place to live and grow up, to a literal war zone! The shops are a mess. There's drunks and fights everywhere. The kids can't play in the parks because of the drunken ‘visitors’"- Raquel Timney, 8 June 2022 In October that year however these calls were rejected by the Fyles Government with the Police Minister describing the proposal as ‘uneconomical and ineffective’.

Public Housing

Public housing is a prominent feature of the suburb. 16.8% of residents are public housing tenants compared to the Australian average of 3.8%. Adam Giles, a former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory acknowledged that in Karama, "rundown public housing complexes had been shown to have higher incidences of antisocial behaviour, vandalism and crime."