VIOLENCE has left its mark on Toowoomba's journey to social cohesion.

It has bruised but not scarred what is often described as the buckle in Queensland's Bible Belt.

Sergeant Scott McGrath has spent the past 15 years with the Toowoomba Crime Prevention Unit, and was one of the key officers who developed strategies to help police work with the city's Sudanese population.

While he acknowledged some early challenges for police, Sgt McGrath said Sudanese people were not over-represented in the city's crime statistics.

The city's blemished past is a matter of public record and etched on it are isolated crimes involving Sudanese people.

Three Sudanese men left a Sudanese woman for dead inside a Newtown home after she was brutally attacked in 2008.

Six months earlier at the same home, a Sudanese man was left to die at the front door, the victim of a countryman's attack so violent he suffered brain bleeds.

A Sudanese man was sued and deported after pleading guilty to the 2006 rape and deprivation of liberty attack of a woman on Ruthven Street.

In 2009, a Sudanese man was stabbed twice by his neighbour who believed the victim wanted to eat his dog. The attacker, jailed for six years, was Caucasian.

And a police officer was hurt breaking up a 20-person strong brawl after a Christmas party at Groom Park hall in 2015 spilled onto the streets. Those involved were Sudanese.

But Sgt McGrath believes the common thread is not Sudanese people, but criminals who he says are not constrained or defined by race, religion or refugee status.

That violent gangs have not terrorised city streets is attributable to Toowoomba being socially inclusive.

Because when a city is not inclusive of migrants, "you run the risk of them becoming anti-social or feeling excluded," Sgt McGrath says.

"I think we've probably, through different leaders and agencies, worked hard at inclusion."

When Sgt McGrath joined the CPU, young Sudanese children interpreted for police in family matters.

It disrupted the family dynamic and with officers unable to verify what was being relayed, the need for independent interpreters was identified.

Toowoomba International Multicultural Society and TRAMS were two of the few agencies offering support.

A myriad of organisations now exist, from faith-based groups to government- funded agencies.

"Even within our unit, we do a lot more work around multiculturalism whereas we probably didn't do that much back then.

"The secret is learning from our mistakes."

>>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.