OUR SAY: TOOWOOMBA residents have being paying closer attention than most to recent events in Melbourne.

Like Melbourne, Toowoomba is home to a population of Sudanese immigrants. Unlike Melbourne, we are not experiencing an increase in offences by young people of African appearance, most of whom have been linked to the Sudanese migrant community.

Why?

To report on this is to acknowledge a problem. It's an election year in Victoria, so the issue has become highly politicised. There's a lot of debate about describing offenders as "gangs" versus "networked criminal offenders". Or whether we should even be mentioning race because this is a simply youth issue.

To answer the question, reporters Matthew Newton and Tara Miko interviewed dozens of people across Toowoomba this week: Sudanese leaders who had the authority to speak for their community; parents and children; police; refugee advocates; church leaders; the mayor.

Some spoke to us reluctantly, worried that drawing attention would wind back integration and that Victorian tensions could flare here.

The answer isn't simple.

Rather, a confluence of factors is at play.

Being in the country has helped. Regardless of transferable skills or qualifications, newly arrived migrants have been able to find work on farms or in abattoirs.

Toowoomba's size has also played a role. A population nudging four million allows for anonymity and suburbs in Melbourne have become enclaves.

Our religiosity has been a driving force. Migrant after migrant told us that Toowoomba's congregations warmly welcomed them.

And then there are the people and their (sometimes) simple acts that have engendered cohesion: parents, police, translators.

It hasn't been seamless.

But unbeknownst to us, Toowoomba has been quietly going about being an immigration success story for years.

Toowoomba - socially conservative, predominantly white, largely Christian, regional Toowoomba.

>>Victoria's tense month:

December 2, 2017: A million-dollar property in Altona is left with a $150,000 damage bill after a wild house party in the rented beachfront home. Up to 70 youths of African appearance are reported to have trashed the property.

December 13, 2017: Gang of youths police describe as "of African appearance" assault each other and bystanders at St Kilda Beach. Soon after, 60 youths trash a nearby McDonald's restaurant.

December 18, 2017: Riot police break up a violent street brawl after a party inside a rented AirBnB home spiralled out of control in Werribee. The group responsible is suspected to be Menace to Society - variously described as a gang or a loosely collected group of Sudanese and other teenagers linked to several public order offences.
 

December 26, 2017: Police officer assaulted at Highpoint Shopping Centre while arresting a boy, 16. The officer was swarmed by a "large gang of youths of African appearance".

December 28, 2017: Victoria Police's Superintendent Therese Fitzgerald said "youth crime in general", rather than gangs associated with an ethnic group, was to blame.

January 1, 2018: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull criticises Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for his handling of the "African gangs" crisis.
Nelly Yoa, a South Sudanese-born athlete, opines in The Age there is a "major issue among young South Sudanese people in Melbourne".
 

January 3, 2018: Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claims Victorians are "scared to go out to restaurants" because of gang violence, and hit out at "jokes of sentences" handed down to offenders. Victorian police admit there is a problem with African street gangs. Richard Deng, from the South Sudanese Community Association of Victoria, calls out Prime Minister Turnbull for making Melbourne street violence a political issue, and invites him to see the work of community groups in the city.