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ABC News
42 minutes ago
- ABC News
Queensland communities win fight for return of single-officer police stations
In the heart of Queensland's Pioneer Valley, the century-old Mirani Police Station sits on the small town's main street. The yellowing weatherboard building with a small verandah at the front sits squarely facing the main road, watching the traffic go past since 1896. For 27 years, former senior constable Fred Baguley was the officer-in-charge at the station, organising school excursions and attending fatal traffic crashes. "I was always told the community needs a good copper, good school principals, and a good publican," he said. "I had time to go to the high school, be part of the primary school, I was the adopted cop for the kindergarten," Mr Baguley said. He said the police service now took a different attitude to stations with just one or two officers. While Mirani may have been spared a long-term officer vacancy, the nearby communities of Farleigh and Seaforth outside Mackay in north Queensland worry police officers like Mr Baguley may be a thing of the past. Both communities have spent more than a year without a permanently stationed officer. Farleigh's last permanent officer left in November 2023. Tony Muscatt runs a workshop in the town of 800 people. "To have a local copper who's only just down the road is very handy for us," he said. Officers remain close by, stationed at Mackay's Northern Beaches Police Station, a 15-minute drive from Farleigh. "We don't have too much trouble [in Farleigh], but having the local police force basically a minute down the road, that's just a bit of comfort," Mr Muscatt said. The Queensland Police Service has confirmed permanent positions will be advertised at the Farleigh and Seaforth stations in the coming weeks, after community lobbying. QPS Acting Deputy Commissioner for regional operations Mark Kelly said there were at least a dozen vacancies in around 140 of the state's smallest stations. He said single-officer postings were initially set up "on the basis of a horse ride between police stations". Queensland Police Service's 100-Day Review, released last month, reaffirmed the official commitment to divisional and community policing. Deputy Commissioner Kelly said the trial of borderless policing, with officers coming from the nearby Mackay Northern Beaches station to areas such as Farleigh and Seaforth, was a "local initiative" by police management. He added that 24-hour police stations would still support officers in small stations. Police Minister Dan Purdie said his overall aim was not to redeploy officers, but to increase the overall number of serving officers. QPS data shows the net head count for officers statewide increased by 350 in the nine months to July 31. He acknowledged the isolation and limitations for career advancement for roles at the smaller stations were less attractive than they were 30 or 40 years ago. "We need to make sure that we continue to offer incentives for police to stay there and reward them with the equipment that they need," he said. QPS and Queensland's Police Union have secured a controversial in-principle pay deal, which includes incentives for small station officers such as night shift allowance and additional overtime pay. "Older generations were very happy to go out to these regional areas and stay there for extended periods of time," Mr Purdie said. Mirani stalwart Fred Baguley said he was concerned for the future of country police officers. He said plans were raised several times while he was at Mirani to consolidate the smaller stations across the Pioneer Valley. "I was mentored by some very wise old coppers. "[They] told me to go there to be a part of the community, to live there before you work there."
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Homelessness doesn't look like people sleeping on park benches in the Pilbara
When Tess Hulshoff was trying to leave a domestic violence situation, she was afraid homelessness would send her back under the roof of her abusive former partner. "I was terrified. I didn't know what to do," Ms Hulshoff said. "I didn't want to be a burden on my friends. I had two young kids and I was a mess." The Pilbara mother and photographer was kicked out of her home, supplied by her former partner's employer, after telling her partner she was leaving the relationship. "I had done some counselling and the [counsellor] had identified that I was in a situation of DV and coercive control," she said. If you need help immediately call emergency services on triple-0 Ms Hulshoff's situation is one experts say is increasingly common in the Pilbara, which recorded homelessness rates five times the state average during the last census. And research released as part of National Homelessness Week revealed a concerning lack of understanding of homelessness. Most people understand homelessness as "primary homelessness" — sometimes called "sleeping rough" or "rooflessness". But researchers say "red dust homelessness", the term for the situation Ms Hulshoff experienced, is accounting for a growing number of cases. In the mining and gas-dominated Pilbara, where company-supplied housing is often the norm for families, separation and divorce can cause instability. "If you're not employed by that company, or even if you are, then there are very few housing options for you if you want to separate," said Curtin University professor of social work Donna Chung. "There is really limited accommodation, particularly if people are living in houses in small communities. "So if you separate or you are evicted from your accommodation, then there's actually very little option for you." In Ms Hulshoff's case, it was a combination of a close friend and luck that prevented her and her children from sleeping in her car or returning to the prospect of more violence at home. "I was driving out of my driveway asking [a friend] if we — myself and two kids — could come to her house and stay," Ms Hulshoff said. She stayed with her friend for a week before a real estate company expedited a rental home for her — something she said was a stroke of luck. "It was by chance that one of the real estate agents was a past client of mine and she advocated for me," she said. Professor Chung said this "secondary" homelessness was common in regional WA. "There's a group of people who are almost always at risk of homelessness," she said. "They might have moved into a friend's place, or a family member's place, in crisis and then stayed there because they haven't been able to move out." The Salvation Army's Danielle Black, who coordinates the charity's Doorways program in Karratha, said the region's homelessness was hidden. "The amount of times that I've heard the comment, 'But we don't have homelessness in the Pilbara.' We do," she said. "The last family that we worked with had 18 [people] in a three-bedroom house. Ms Black said there were added layers of complexity for women and Aboriginal people. She said affording stable accommodation in an area with acute housing challenges was a key issue. "In relationship breakdowns, particularly when there's family and domestic violence, you know you need to act quite quickly." Despite the challenges, Ms Black said the region had some "fantastic" services, including the expansion of the women's refuge in Karratha late last year. The WA government recently reaffirmed a $5.8 billion commitment to address housing and homelessness across the state. A state government spokesperson said it had an election commitment to develop a new Safe at Home service in Karratha and had recently funded a similar service in Port Hedland. The government also funds four homelessness services in the Pilbara region and provides recurrent funding for four family and domestic violence refuges in Port Hedland, Newman, Karratha and Roebourne.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Rooming houses frustrate some Victorians who want more say on developments
Henry Crawford loves the sense of community in his residential Wodonga street, which hosts a collection of modern units alongside older, red brick and weatherboard homes. But there is a new type of development on the block. A rooming house — where four or more people can live in up to nine rented rooms — was built on the street earlier this year. And Mr Crawford said residents were worried another unit in the street would be converted into a rooming house. "There is a need for some of this accommodation, but we just think it shouldn't be concentrated in one area," he said. Mr Crawford is among hundreds of regional residents petitioning for ratepayers and councils to have a greater say around the development, limitations and density of rooming houses. The rooming house development in Wodonga was built after Wodonga Council last year refused a planning permit for a five-dwelling, five-lot subdivision on the site due to concerns about street amenity, private open space objectives, and car parking requirements. In Victoria, rooming houses can be built in a range of development zones without a permit if it does not exceed nine bedrooms and 12 residents. The total floor area of all buildings on the land must not exceed 300 square metres, excluding outbuildings, and bedrooms can only be accessed from within the building. There are also requirements for garden areas and shared facilities. Rooming house operators must apply for and be granted a licence before they can start operating. Rooming houses differ from a share house or rental property because individual residents usually have separate agreements with the rooming house operator to rent a room. Different rules around rent increases, repairs, minimum standards, inspections, and notices to vacate also apply. There are more than 1,700 rooming houses registered with Consumer Affairs Victoria. Peter Mortimer lives in a residential court in the Gippsland town of Churchill, where there are three rooming houses within 50 metres of each other. "I am absolutely gutted that you can't have any say whatsoever," he said. Mr Mortimer said he had concerns about the large number of potential residents and increased traffic, as the road was narrow, and about its impact on the quiet nature of the street. He has complained to the local council and Consumer Affairs Victoria. Victorian-based developer Stone Horizon focuses exclusively on designing, building and managing rooming houses in the state, and plans to build around 15 this year alone. Managing director Henry Vila said the company worked mainly with "mum and dad investors", and had strong tenancy demand from young professionals and older divorced or widowed women. He said the company chose Victoria because the state offered unique legislation and lacked individual local government interference, which made delivering up to nine rentable rooms easier and allowed for better quality dwellings. "One of the great things about the way we do these properties in Victoria in particular is that we have a very consistent, very stringent set of rules … at the state level," Mr Vila said. "No matter where in Victoria we want to do these properties, the rules are the same, and those rules have evolved." Mr Vila said he was aware of community concerns. He argued there was a need to remove rooming house stigma, which he believed had partly been driven by previous unscrupulous developers providing poor-quality accommodation and unreasonably high tenant numbers. "I think we are going to continue evolving rooming houses to provide a higher and higher quality product as people get more and more used to living in small spaces," Mr Vila said. The Victorian government said appropriate and affordable rooming houses played an important role in improving social inclusion, mobility, and access to jobs for vulnerable residents. Victorian councils have raised concerns about the planning framework for rooming houses, particularly in relation to their concentration in certain areas and the limitations of their planning powers. The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) supports reforms that would introduce a requirement for planning approval for rooming houses located within 200 metres of an existing facility, along with public consultation. "This would enable a more transparent and coordinated approach to integrating rooming houses into communities, while maintaining appropriate safeguards," MAV president Jennifer Anderson said. Rooming houses must be registered with local councils, and councils can inspect the premises to ensure health and wellbeing compliance.
