Long before neighbourhood Facebook groups, phone cameras or household CCTV, residents of a young canal estate on the Redcliffe Peninsula had a security problem.
Three Newport Waterways homes were reportedly burgled from the canal side during 1984 and early 1985. The response would put the community near the beginning of Queensland’s Neighbourhood Watch story.
By early 1986, residents had organised Newport Watch — months before Queensland Police began its official Neighbourhood Watch pilot on the Gold Coast.
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When the canals became a security problem
Newport Waterways was still taking shape. Its artificial canals had first filled with water in 1979, while new homes continued to appear through the early 1980s. Newport was not yet an official suburb, with today’s area then divided between Scarborough and Kippa-Ring.
Records preserved by the Newport Waterways Property Owners Association say thieves approached homes by boat and used the waterways to leave with stolen property.
Residents began organising in response. Tom and Jan Murray were among those involved, with an early meeting held in the downstairs rumpus room of their Australia Court home. Neighbours subsequently met around the estate and kept watch for suspicious activity, particularly along the canals.
The Newport Waterways Property Owners Association was formed in 1985, and Newport Watch followed in early 1986.
Ahead of the official police program
The association has long described Newport Watch as Queensland’s first Neighbourhood Watch group and later recorded it as Redcliffe 20 within the Queensland network.
Official police records establish an important distinction. Queensland Police began its Neighbourhood Watch pilot at Sorrento-Isle of Capri on the Gold Coast on 1 July 1986. A dedicated Neighbourhood Watch Unit followed in February 1988, with the program formally introduced statewide that June.
Newport Watch therefore predates the official police pilot, although an independent contemporary police record declaring it Queensland’s first official Neighbourhood Watch group has not been located.
The timing is notable. Queensland recorded 35,510 breaking-and-entering offences in 1986–87, up from 31,771 the previous year. Direct comparison with Newport today is not possible because offence classifications and reporting areas have changed, but unlawful entry has fallen substantially from later historical peaks, with recent figures also showing residential break-ins declining across the broader Moreton Bay area.
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Newport Watch grew into a highly localised network. By 2019, the older Newport estate and Isles of Newport were divided into 37 zones, with volunteer captains distributing newsletters, welcoming residents and encouraging people to report suspicious activity. Police crime-prevention representatives also attended meetings.
The emphasis was on watching and reporting — not residents acting as police.
A new generation takes up the idea
The original Newport Watch eventually abandoned its zone-and-captain structure for a simpler watch-and-report model.
Then, in 2020, residents in the newer Stockland-developed section established the separate Newport Waterside Neighbourhood Watch following concerns about property theft. Founder Jay Peters later said opportunistic theft helped prompt the group, which was developed with assistance from the police Crime Prevention Unit.
Nearly four decades after Newport residents first organised in response to burglaries, the tools had changed — Facebook and CCTV had replaced household meetings and printed newsletters — but the principle had not: neighbours looking out for neighbours and reporting concerns to police.
Published 5-September-2026
