Protection as a form of care

Frontline experience, community purpose

Andy spent decades close to the realities of security work, first at venues including Metropolis in Fremantle and Discovery Darwin, then through Neptune Holding Group. He understood crowded venues, difficult nights, alcohol-related harm and the difference one capable person could make before a situation escalated.

NT News recorded one vivid Mitchell Street example. Andy moved a young man clear of a broken bottle and took the glass deeply into his own arm, requiring major surgery. Dani saw the scars he carried as a record of the young people he had stood in front of and defended.

Over time his attention moved beyond managing an incident to asking how fewer people might be harmed in the first place. That question shaped the Public Order Response Unit—PORU—created with Josh King. Josh’s first idea involved dogs, commandos, helicopters and sharks with lasers. Andy helped turn that ambition into something affordable, effective and able to work alongside Northern Territory government agencies.

PORU took Andy, Josh, Daryl and their colleagues onto streets across Darwin, Karama, Malak and the wider Territory. After one shift exposed a very young child to a situation Andy could not accept, he went home to Dani determined to do more. Nearly two years of work led to his becoming the first security-based licensing inspector, able to remove alcohol from harmful situations on the street. The newspaper article also records Dani’s account that Andy was the first civilian issued with OC spray before broader public release.

PORU, AHRT and people who could carry the work

Andy understood that a program was only as durable as the people trusted to lead it. Danielle spoke of PORU and AHRT together, naming Josh King as formative to PORU and Andrew Sauer as the person who helped make the work what it became. Andy’s confidence in Andrew was personal as well as professional: Andrew remembered daily calls, honest challenge and a mentor who made other people’s ambitions feel possible.

Josh described years of contracts, government meetings, problem-solving and laughter at Neptune. Andy kept the big vision connected to the person on shift, the colleague learning the job and the community member who needed help that night.

Teaching people to protect themselves

After years on the frontline, Andy wanted other people to have the knowledge to keep themselves safer. He teamed up with his friend and business partner Sharon Kimberley at Personal Protection Strategies. Sharon’s expertise in de-escalation completed what Dani called a missing puzzle piece: turning decades of instinct and experience into training people could use before force became necessary.

NT News adds another strand: Andy was working with CCTV operators to recognise pre-violence indicators through body language. The goal was consistent—see the danger earlier, respond intelligently and prevent people from needing to fight their way out.

Sharon also saw the way Andy taught through belief. He noticed potential, opened doors, created opportunities and challenged people to become better. In an office, that could look like hard questioning one moment and a ridiculous song and dance the next.

Fighters competing at home

Andy’s brotherhood with Astro grew into the NT Fight Series. They wanted Northern Territory fighters—and competitors travelling from across Australia—to have the chance to compete on home soil. Andy moved just as readily from organising the opportunity to standing ringside for Dante, whose own work with young people made him enormously proud.

Growing other people

Andy’s most durable work may be the confidence he placed in others. Josh King remembered the boss who kept checking on the nervous new crowd controller in the Discovery toilets. Andrew Sauer remembered the calm presence, mentor, brother and worthy challenger. Sharon Kimberley remembered the man who saw possibilities and kept his word.

HospitalityNT remembered him as a driving force behind stronger security standards, training and safety across the Territory. Dani told NT News that Andy offered the same respect to a police commissioner and the owner of a corner shop. Position changed neither his honesty nor his interest in the person in front of him.

The programs continue, but so do the habits he taught: check on the new person, share what you know, ask the harder question, turn the idea into something useful and leave people more capable than you found them.

Projects and organisations in Andy’s story

Metropolis nightclub

The Fremantle venue where Andy’s instinct for security work took shape.

Discovery Darwin

The team, friendships and Sunday-table family that defined Andy’s early Darwin years.

Neptune Holding Group

A major professional chapter involving public-order work, government relationships, training and technology.

Public Order Response Unit (PORU)

The street-level public-safety program Andy and Josh King made practical.

AHRT

A connected initiative named in Danielle Gough’s service eulogy.

NT Fight Series

The competition pathway Andy and Astro created for fighters to compete on home soil.

Personal Protection Strategies

Andy and Sharon Kimberley’s work translating experience into de-escalation and protection training.

humID

Body-worn safety technology work developed around frontline identification needs, training and responsible practice.

HospitalityNT

The industry organisation that publicly recognised Andy’s contribution to Territory security standards, training and safety.

Andy Price Foundation

The living continuation of Andy’s belief in safer communities, stronger people and practical help.

A living continuation

The Andy Price Foundation carries that spirit forward—safer communities, stronger people and practical help where it can make a difference. This memorial tells the story of the man; the Foundation continues the work inspired by him.

Visit the Andy Price Foundation