An outback town struggling with crime and homelessness is seeing an influx of transient visitors, which some believe is a direct impact of new alcohol restrictions in Alice Springs.
Katherine in the Northern Territory, about 1,200km north of Alice Springs, already has one of Australia's highest rates of homelessness.
Social service providers say extra people are now arriving in the town, putting a further burden on already stretched systems.
Dagoman-Wardaman elder May Rosas said she believed the Central Australian alcohol restrictions were "absolutely" having an impact.
"The impact it's having is, where are people being accommodated?" Ms Rosas said.
"We have very little accommodation in Katherine, we also have very many social issues that are going on in Katherine, so that's added to our concerns in our community as well.
"So these knee-jerk decisions are basically just passing on problems to other communities."
Katherine politician Jo Hersey, a member of the Country Liberal Party opposition, said she also believed Alice Springs's recent alcohol restrictions had led to an exodus of drinkers, with them heading north.
"Generally, when you've been in the community a long time, you know some of the locals that get around," Ms Hersey said. "There are a lot more people [now] that are unfamiliar.
"We have actually had crime increasing over the last couple of years, but since the measures were put in place in Alice Springs [a fortnight ago] it has certainly escalated."
Katherine Mayor Elisabeth Clark also said there were more people in the town since the measures were put in place in Alice Springs. She has called for greater alcohol restrictions in her town.
Katherine is not the only area to have seen an influx of people since the alcohol restrictions have been brought in, with the north-west Queensland town of Mount Isa also reporting the arrival of more Alice Springs drinkers.
Busy town putting a strain on services
However, Siobhan Mackay, from the Katherine Women's Information and Legal Service, said it was too early to tell if the rise in visitors was just due to the restrictions in Alice Springs.
"It does certainly feel busy in Katherine at the moment, but people are moving through Katherine all the time for a range of reasons," Ms Mackay said.
"Some people may be here from Alice Springs, but we've also had really significant cyclone and weather warnings, for the entire east side of the Big Rivers region, so people may be seeking safety."
Ms Mackay said regardless of where the visitors were coming from, the large number of people was putting a strain on the town's services, including homelessness support systems.
"Anecdotally, services in town are really busy … It doesn't matter where people have come from, we currently have a lot of people in Katherine at the moment who really need support," she said.
Katherine has also experienced large rises in alcohol-related assaults and break-ins over the past year, according to NT Police data.
More restrictions to arrive this week
A town camp in Katherine will be among dozens of Aboriginal living areas in the Northern Territory to become dry zones again this week, as the NT government prepares to reinstate alcohol bans.
A spokesperson for the chief minister's department said: "Walpiri town camp in Katherine was an APA (alcohol protected area) under Stronger Futures Act and has not opted-in to an Interim APA".
Along with 18 town camps in Alice Springs, camps in the small towns of Elliott, Pine Creek and Mataranka will also become dry zones again by the end of the week, as will dozens of tiny outstations.
Eight larger remote communities will also be affected by the changes, including Belyuen on the Cox Peninsula near Darwin's rural area, which will mean they will have to complete an alcohol management plan and vote to opt out of the restrictions.
Ms Rosas said the drinkers from these communities would inevitably go elsewhere.
"You can't stop people drinking alcohol," she said. "They will travel hundreds of thousands of miles just to get alcohol if people are addicted.
"And that's their right to do that, if it's not available in our communities.
"It was like in the floods, the Katherine floods, people travelled to nearby communities just to get alcohol, even through flooded water. So they're the things we need to take into consideration."
NT Police have also reported incidents of liquor being sold illegally in Alice Springs since the new bottle shop restrictions have come into effect.
Police said they executed a search warrant at a home in the suburb of Gillen, where on Monday they "located a quantity of alcohol and cash believed to be related" to illicit alcohol sales.
Two women, aged 29 and 46, have been summoned to appear in court over the matter.
