The Australian love of beer is well documented. Up until now, however, most assumed that children still mattered more.

Police were astonished when they pulled over a driver in the Outback and found that his “slab” of beer was protected by a seatbelt while a five-year-old boy was crawling unrestrained over the back seat.

“I haven’t ever seen something like this before,” Constable Wayne Burnett said. “Sure we get beer out of vehicles that is being taken into restricted areas but this is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child.”

Mr Burnett said the driver “just looked at me blankly” when he was handed a fine for failing to ensure that a child was wearing a seatbelt.

The police, who routinely stop vehicles in the Northern Territory to look for drink being smuggled into “dry” Aboriginal communities where alcohol is banned, said that there were four adults and the child in the Holden Commodore, which was stopped on the Ross Highway, Alice Springs.

The “slab” of beer, 30 tins wrapped in plastic, was strapped up and cushioned between the adults in the back. The child was “sitting in the centre, unrestrained”.

Mr Burnett said the driver “didn’t get it”. “I asked him about the fact the child was unrestrained and the beer was, and he said he didn’t know anything about it.”

The driver was fined a total of A$750 (£360) for driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle and for failing to ensure a child was wearing a seatbelt.

Superintendent Sean Parnell, of Alice Springs police, said the incident was a “timely reminder” to ensure “all passengers are secured”.

A police spokeswoman said that although it was not uncommon for drivers or passengers to be caught riding without seatbelts in remote areas, the “stupidity” evident in this case was beyond comprehension.

“I can’t quite grasp the mentality. It would take too much effort,” she said.

Of even greater concern, she said, was the record of drink-driving in the Northern Territory, famous for the 2-litre Darwin Stubby, or bottle of beer. A record number of motorists were charged with drink-driving at Easter, when one in 21 randomly selected drivers was over the blood alcohol limit of 0.05 per cent. In other states the figure can be anywhere from one in 150 to one in 400.

The suggested safe weekly alcohol intake is also higher than in Britain and the United States. Whereas British drinkers are “allowed” 21 units per week, the safe limit for Australian drinkers is 35 units.

Historically, the country has had a tolerant approach to drinking. Bob Hawke, its Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991, once appeared in The Guinness Book of Records for drinking the fastest yard of ale. Australia’s annual consumption is 9.8 litres of alcohol per head, but consumption in the Northern Territory is 70 per cent higher.

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