DATE: 2021-07-03 19:15
LOCATION: Australia – Northern Territory – Arnhem Land – South Goulburn Island
EVENT: Shots Fired at Yacht at Anchor
HAND: 1
DETAILS:
John Perry from SV Centurion reported to Noonsite that they were anchored at Goulburn Island, a very isolated area of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, when shots were fired at their yacht from shore.
SV Centurion was anchored approx. 300m from the shore, at an anchorage near the barge landing place on the south west side of the island – which is the advised and charted anchorage.
At 7.15pm on July 3rd, 2021, a car stopped on the shore with a spotlight and seven shots were fired from a firearm towards the boat.
John said, “We are not easily intimidated, however we don’t recommend this anchorage.”
SV Centurion had been at anchor for approx. five hours. The crew had not been ashore, but had been alerted by someone from shore during the day to not come ashore due to COVID restrictions, which was acknowledged.
SV Centurion is Australian flagged and there were no other boats or yachts in the area.
The matter was reported to Police.
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My wife and I anchored in this exact location twice just recently before we were aware of the above post. We anchored there for 1 night in late May 2021 and just a couple of days ago on the 25th of Sept 2021. We did notice people moving around and living on and behind the beach but had no contact with them at any time whilst we were there.
On our last visit we did observe a family which appeared to be living on the beach opposite the anchorage and even-though we did wave numerous times we received no response. Then after being anchored there for a couple of hours a white dual-cab ute was seen parked on the adjacent headland facing our direction. If we had read about the experiences of SV Centurion prior to this we would have probably moved on there and then (wouldn’t have stopped there at all) but we managed to stay the night blissfully unaware and thankfully without incident. Shame is that it is quite a good anchorage.
SV Exhale.