Australia: Town of 426 Gets Three Speed Cameras
A town of just 426 residents in Australia gets three speed camera locations.

BirregurraA tiny Australian town has earned the honor of having the highest speed camera to human ratio in Victoria, according to a new list of mobile camera locations released by the state government this week. Many residents of Birregurra, population 426, do not even drive, yet the town has three camera sites.

Paul Wheadon, a truck driver and resident, explained to the Herald Sun newspaper that the cameras are designed to trap outsiders. "I got done myself a while ago, but you'll find that 99 per cent are tourists."

The government's first-ever release of speed camera locations shows there are 2593 mobile sites across Victoria. In 2003 when the Liberal opposition party called for the release of locations, the ruling Labor party refused saying such a disclosure would be "reckless."

"The Government would not divulge the location of mobile speed cameras because they would lose their deterrent effect," Labor's Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said in 2003.

Liberal Shadow Minister for Transport Terry Mulder called this week's release of locations "breathtaking hypocrisy."

"The Labor Party has called our policy populist, but it is the Labor Party that is willing to make up the rules according to its media plan," Mulder said. "The Bracks Government has been dragged kicking and screaming to adopt the Liberal Party's policy to release mobile speed camera sites."

Source: All eyes are on tiny township (Herald Sun (Australia), 4/25/2006)