Kimberley alcohol restrictions creating lucrative black market, need 'relaxing' liquor retailers say

Written on the 2 March 2016

Liquor retailers in WA's north have applied to have alcohol restrictions relaxed, saying they have created a lucrative black market and are bad for business.

The only take-away alcohol residents of both towns can currently buy is light-strength beer.

The restrictions were introduced in Fitzroy Crossing 2007 and in Halls Creek two years later as a result of campaigns by local Aboriginal women who were appalled by the high rates of binge drinking.

But the rules remain contentious, with some arguing the restrictions are bad for the tourism industry, have caused hundreds of people to move away and have spawned a black market alcohol trade that is seeing locals pay up to $150 for a carton of beer.

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Image: Bottles of seized black-market liquor fill the back of a police van, Erin Parke ABC

Source: ABC