Assaults around The Star casino, which falls just outside the lockout zone, increased but the change was not statistically significant, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report found. One-punch victim: Daniel Christie, 18, who died on New Year's Eve 2013. Credit:Facebook Deputy Premier and Minister for Justice and Police, Troy Grant, said initial fears about crime being displaced had not eventuated. In most areas just outside the lockout zone, such as Surry Hills and Pyrmont and night spots further away, such as Bondi, Newtown and Double Bay, there was not an increase in assaults.

However, the promising results did not give cause to broadening the restrictions Sydney-wide or state-wide because assault rates had not risen elsewhere and a "one-size-fits-all model" would not work, Mr Grant said. The death of teenager Daniel Christie on New Year's Eve, 2013, prompted widespread debate on alcohol-fuelled violence and eventually led the state government to introduce a suite of measures including 1.30am lockouts, 3am last drinks, a ban on takeaway alcohol after 10pm and a freeze on new liquor licenses in the city precinct. BOCSAR director Don Weatherburn said on Thursday that the changes were associated with an immediate and substantial 32 per cent reduction in assaults in Kings Cross, follows by a less immediate but substantial 40 per cent reduction in assaults across the Sydney CBD. However, Dr Weatherburn said it was not yet clear whether the drop in assaults was due to a fall in alcohol consumption or simply because far fewer people were going out in Kings Cross and the CBD.

Several bars and clubs have closed since the lockouts were introduced in March 2014, with most blaming it on a downturn due to the new restrictions. Dr Weatherburn said it was one of the most dramatic decreases in crime that he had seen. "The drop in assaults in Kings Cross was simply precipitous. The drop in Sydney was a little bit slower but just as big," he said. "It is certainly one of the most dramatic effects I've seen in my time, of policy intervention to reduce crime." He said the results suggested that Sydney is much safer than before the lockouts.

"It doesn't look, despite all the forecasts, as if the problem simply shifted elsewhere."