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ABC News
7 days ago
- ABC News
Carolina Wilga search triggers uncomfortable questions for families of missing Indigenous men
The discovery of missing German backpacker Carolina Wilga, who survived 11 nights alone in the West Australian outback, was met with joy and relief across the country. Ms Wilga was found walking down an unsealed access road late last week by a local farmer, after an intensive police search and several days of widespread media coverage. From her hospital bed, Ms Wilga thanked authorities and the community who rallied together to find her, adding that she had only survived "thanks to this incredible outpouring of support". But this remarkable story of survival has also triggered an uncomfortable question among families of others who have gone missing in remote WA: do we care more about some missing people than others? In recent years, half a dozen young Aboriginal men have vanished in the north of the state in mysterious circumstances, in cases that have triggered a fraction of the public interest. And their families, still searching for answers, feel that a lack of attention on the cases of these missing men has made it harder to find them. Within the past three years, at least five young Aboriginal men have disappeared in regional WA, in a variety of circumstances. In October 2022, Clinton Lockyer and Wesley Lockyer disappeared just a week apart in the Pilbara region, after socialising with friends and relatives in the hours prior. Less than a month later, Wylie Oscar's vehicle was found on a remote bush track near Fitzroy Crossing, stocked with food and water. Zane Stevens was last seen near his bogged car on the coast near Broome in April 2024. And Brenton Shar vanished after a night-time walk in the coastal city of Geraldton in May 2024. The WA government has offered a $500,000 reward to help solve these long-term missing persons cases. But there have so far been no confirmed sightings of any of the men, nor remains found. Their families have been left in a type of torturous limbo that psychologists refer to as "ambiguous loss". And they feel strongly there has been less police and public attention because these missing men are Aboriginal. "It sounds cruel to say, but when an Aboriginal male goes missing, most of the public don't care," says private investigator Robyn Cottman, who is representing the families of the missing men. Clinton Lockyer's aunty, Annalee Lockyer, says the perceived indifference adds to their grief. "Of course we're all glad the backpacker is alive, but it did hurt to see all the coverage," she says. "You think, does anyone care about our boys the same way? It's not nice to feel like their lives don't even matter — it really hurts." The reasons that some missing persons cases trigger urgent searches while others fly under the radar are complex, but Ms Cottman believes racism is a factor. "I think there's racial profiling going on — it's easy to dismiss Indigenous males as 'gone walkabout' or 'gone bush', so there's no urgency trying to locate them," she says. "Then you've got a female German backpacker who's alone in the bush, all of a sudden it's critical that she's found as quickly as possible. "There just seem to be two different standards here." WA Police has rejected the suggestion that racism or neglect have affected the searches for the five missing Aboriginal men. "Missing persons, regardless of where they are reported missing, are treated as a priority for the WA Police Force," it told the ABC in a statement. "All investigations into missing persons are conducted using the same underpinning processes and procedures. Each report of a missing person is assessed and resourced appropriately based on a wide range of factors including the specific circumstances of each case and information known to officers at the time. "Not knowing what happened to a loved one is confronting and challenging for the families and friends of missing persons, and WA Police remains committed to finding answers for those families and communities." Ms Wilga's case prompted widespread media attention, with hundreds of online news articles published on her disappearance over the course of a couple of weeks. It is difficult to compare coverage of these missing persons cases, especially considering Ms Wilga's miraculous survival and the international interest given she was a German tourist visiting Australia. But while the families of Aboriginal men missing in WA have made public appeals for information about their loved ones, there have been significantly fewer headlines about these men in the years since they were last seen. Private investigator Robyn Cottman says she can understand why Ms Wilga's case attracted escalating attention. "It creates a more sensational story when it's an international person who is a female alone in the bush," she reflects. Ms Cottman also notes the public seems to engage less when there is a suspicion of drug use or criminality in the missing person's life, even if that suspicion is untrue or unrelated to their disappearance. Media coverage of Indigenous missing persons can also be complicated by cultural factors — in some cases, families request that the name and image of their loved one not be published. Ms Wilga is not the first foreign tourist to trigger a large-scale outback search and a media storm. WA Premier Roger Cook compared her disappearance to that of American man Robert Bogucki in 1999, who was found alive after six weeks in the Great Sandy Desert. The search for Mr Bogucki attracted worldwide media attention and cost Australian authorities up to $10,000 a day — and that was before his family spent $80,000 flying a specialist American unit to head into the vast desert to try to retrieve his body. But not every family has those resources, and not every missing person has a straightforward storyline. Retired Aboriginal police officer Lindsay Greatorex, who helped search for Mr Bogucki in 1999, says the local men who have gone missing deserve the same level of care and attention. "Are they getting lost, or has there been foul play? It remains a mystery with a lot of these disappearances because remains haven't been found," he told the ABC's Expanse: Nowhere Man podcast. One thing these cases do have in common is the legacy of hurt and confusion for those left behind. Each year around 35,000 people are reported missing in Australia, but only a fraction of those cases trigger a physical search. According to search and rescue expert Jim Whitehead, an average of around 10 searches begin every day around the country, with around 97 per cent of people found alive. In each case, a form called a Search Urgency Assessment is completed to determine the response required. It captures risk factors such as the person's age, mental state, access to equipment, and the weather and terrain they are facing. "Often you do have families that are upset and angry because they feel like not enough is being done to find their loved one," Dr Whitehead says. He says one of the biggest challenges for search-and-rescue operations is when the person's last known location is unclear, because it means they could be thousands of kilometres away, requiring an unrealistic search radius. "And if it's unclear if they've entered a vehicle … well, that means they might have travelled to a different part of the country," Dr Whitehead adds. Another factor that can make searches more challenging is when there's a delay in the person being reported missing, "perhaps because they have an itinerant lifestyle", Dr Whitehead says. Again, it is difficult to make direct comparisons between cases because of the lack of clarity around the timeline of initial reporting and behind-the-scenes steps taken by police. In the case of Carolina Wilga, it's not clear exactly when her friends first raised concerns with police. The first police press release came seven days after her last contact with friends in Fremantle, suggesting she was reported missing within a few days of dropping out of contact. In the cases of the Aboriginal men from northern Australia, it took between five and 10 days for the initial missing persons reports to be made. However, some family members claim they did make approaches to police earlier, but that these were not taken seriously by local officers. Dr Whitehead, who does not have specific knowledge of the West Australian cases, says delays in reporting a missing person are generally not due to a lack of care or concern. Often this can be linked to a deeply rooted distrust of police, or a reflection of the more transient lifestyle many locals live, or limited access to telecommunications in many remote areas. Dr Whitehead says another complicating factor is that Aboriginal people are more likely to go missing in remote parts of the country, where there are minimal police resources to undertake large-scale searches. "Sometimes people feel we should be doing more as police, and in some cases that's absolutely true," he says. "But … search and rescue takes up a small amount of police time compared with everything else they have to do, so it doesn't have a huge amount of resources." Recent research does point to an over-representation of Indigenous people among missing persons in Australia. Exclusive data provided to the ABC in 2019 showed Aboriginal people accounted for 17.5 per cent of unsolved missing persons cases in Western Australia, despite making up just 3 per cent of the state's population. Six years on, national figures on the rates of Indigenous missing persons cases remain patchy, with a recent Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children recommending an urgent review to address this data gap by the end of 2025. That inquiry received dozens of submissions, including one from Darumbal and South Sea Islander academic Amy McQuire, Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, which summarised "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to go missing, and less likely to be found". The final Senate inquiry report, published in August 2024, noted that systemic racism and discrimination, as well as disparities in media reporting, had historically hampered investigations into the whereabouts of First Nations people. As Indigenous missing persons advocate Martin Hodgson has pointed out, a legacy of distrust remains, despite improvements in practices and attitudes. "The reality is, there are people who've gone missing from remote parts of Australia and they've never even been reported to police, because of the deep distrust that remains," he told the ABC earlier this year. Dr Whitehead, who oversaw search-and-rescue operations for Queensland police for almost 20 years, acknowledges the issue. But he believes the situation has improved. "There's still a long way to go, but the increase in training on cultural sensitivity and the use of liaison officers has gone a long way," he says. "So I'm confident that most of the time, the search-and-rescue response is the same, no matter who you are." For Annalee Lockyer, and the families of the other Aboriginal men who are missing in Western Australia, there is still hope that the public can help find a resolution. "We've been trying to conduct our own searches for Clinton, but we don't have the resources," she says. "All of the support and interest to find the backpacker … I feel like our boys deserve that too."
ABC News
25-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
The story behind the disappearance of Wylie Oscar
Have you ever felt a heat that sits in your chest? It's harder to take a deep breath, and every movement is a monumental effort. Every emotion sits at a simmer. One afternoon, in an outback town three years ago, it boiled over. WARNING: The following story contains information that may cause distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers, who are advised to exercise caution. Wylie Oscar was frustrated. At two o'clock in the afternoon, he was at a family member's house in Junjuwa. He was close with his family, a tight-knit and well-known clan who live in the central Fitzroy Valley, but Wylie had become slowly tired of escalating tension throughout the day. It was the hot season in the central Kimberley in Western Australia, known as Barrangga in the Bunuba language. Tempers were high and nerves were frayed, and the 22-year-old stockman decided he had had enough for the day. Exasperated, hot and drunk, he walked out onto the dirt streets of the town-based community and climbed into an old, dusty red Toyota Landcruiser. It grumbled under him, and he hit the accelerator. That was the last time anyone saw him. Junjuwa is a community in the central Kimberley town of Fitzroy Crossing. It is about 2,500 kilometres away from the state's capital, Perth, and 1,500 kilometres from Darwin. It comprises a main street, a bridge, a grocery store, two petrol stations, and a local park, known for its spirited card games. It serves as a central service hub for dozens of surrounding remote communities and dozens of the region's lucrative cattle stations. Wylie's family is part of the Bunuba language group, and generations have lived in this part of the country. Fitzroy Crossing is about 400km east of Broome. ( ABC: Andrew Seabourne ) The Oscars are an integral part of Fitzroy Crossing's inner workings. Some sit on boards, run local businesses, and play a huge role in the town's major export — cattle. Fitzroy Crossing is located in WA's Kimberley region. ( ABC: Andrew Seabourne ) For as long as cattle stations have run in the Fitzroy desert, the Oscars and Bunuba people have managed, owned, and worked on them. The stations are owned by a mix of offshore conglomerates, or Australia's elite and well-known cattle barons, including Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart. But it is the Fitzroy Crossing people who have station country in their blood, and this was where Wylie Oscar hoped to work one day. Family friend Natalie Davey watched as Wylie grew from a shy, quiet young man to a formidable horse-rider and stockman. "I had a bull skull mounted in my shed, and when they were just little kids, the Oscar boys found it," she said. "One day, I went in the shed to find it out because I wanted to [paint] it, and I couldn't find it anywhere. "I came outside yelling — because I knew exactly who had taken it." Natalie marched outside to find Wylie and his brothers had strung up a 44-gallon drum between two trees and had placed the skull at one end to mimic a real bucking bull. Watercolour illustration of two indigenous children, one riding a 44-gallon drum tied between two trees. "They wanted to be in the rodeo," she laughed. "It was actually a really cool idea — it made it authentic and got them really in the spirit of bull-riding." In adulthood, Wylie continued to devote time to this passion. He also loved spending time with his brothers and cousins, working as a caretaker at a local school. Wylie Oscar was a loving and doting uncle. ( Facebook ) Wylie loved the outdoors and was a skilled bushman. ( Facebook ) Without a trace The days after Wylie left the Junjuwa house passed by in a blur. It wasn't uncommon for him to go out bush, but the weather was stiflingly hot, and the humidity was unforgiving. His family was growing concerned about his whereabouts. His aunt, June Oscar, took to social media on November 11, 2022 — a week after his disappearance — to ask if anyone had seen him. "Has anyone seen or heard from Wylie Oscar?" she posted. "He took off in the red 100 series 1EMU078 last Friday. "Can people let family & friends know ASAP, please." Wylie Oscar hasn't been seen since November 4, 2022. ( Supplied: Facebook ) Wylie Oscar was an experienced bushman and loved fishing and hunting. ( Facebook ) Wylie Oscar is remembered by his family as kind and sensitive. ( Supplied: Facebook ) June is a commanding figure and most recently worked as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner. She had far-reaching contacts through her time working with the Human Rights Commission and on the board of the Bunuba Dawangarri Aboriginal Corporation. Her post began to spread throughout the Fitzroy Crossing community. However, no one had seen or heard anything. Wylie was nowhere to be found. The days ticked by. Three days after June's plea on social media, he was formally reported as missing to WA Police on November 14, 2022. About 12 kilometres outside of Fitzroy Crossing is Brooking Springs Station. Located on a dirt road to the east of the town, it covers an expanse of about 2,000 square kilometres and sits partially on native title currently held by Wylie's language group. The silence out in this part of the country is oppressive, and despite its proximity to town, it is rarely traversed by local people because it is private property and monitored by closed-circuit television. It was November 15, 2022, when a station worker doing their duties noticed something among the shrubbery. A dusty, red Toyota Landcruiser broken down, with two of its tyres buried deep in a ditch. It was filled with food and water, but abandoned. The worker phoned the local police. They might want to come down here. The discovery of Wylie's car on Brooking Springs Station was not particularly surprising to locals. A never-before-seen image of Wylie's car when it was found by police. ( Supplied: WA Police ) His family and police believed he likely had tried to cut through the private property station to reach his family's bush block before breaking down. However, local police were concerned the 22-year-old was still nowhere to be found. The land where Wylie's car was discovered has a long history in the Fitzroy Valley, particularly within the Oscar family. Indeed, June Oscar and her two siblings were born there. June's family, including Wylie, would continue to work and live on the property over the years. In 2017, the Oscars helped formalise a native title claim over parts of the station, including a culturally significant creek at the bottom of the Brooking Springs catchment. In the Kimberley, it is common for cattle stations to overlap with Country and occupy land that holds deep cultural meaning for local people. For some, it's a welcome agreement where communities live side-by-side. For the Oscars and Brooking Springs, the relationship could sometimes be fraught. Years of history It was a characteristically steamy day in October 2000 at the Broome courthouse when a man in cream-coloured pants and a blue button-up shirt made his way up the old rusted steps. Peter Robert Camm, the manager of Brooking Springs Station, had been charged with eight counts of cattle theft — a crime that could attract up to seven years in jail. Cattle theft can attract up to seven years in jail. He was accused of stealing 500 cattle from the adjoining Leopold Downs Station and placing the Brooking Springs brand on them after he came into possession of them during a routine muster. It was estimated that the allegedly stolen cattle were worth about $150,000 at the time. Leopold Downs was owned by the Bunuba Dawangarri Aboriginal Corporation, and the courthouse resembled a ringer's homestead for the days the trial ran. Cattlemen in akubras milled outside as they waited for their turn to give evidence. Broome Courthouse in 2024. ( ABC Kimberley ) One witness who gave evidence was Kevin Oscar, Wylie's uncle and director of the Bunuba Dawangarri Aboriginal Corporation. He told the court he had found the carcass of a bullock belonging to his station in one of his neighbours' paddocks with its ear cut off. On investigation, police said they had found Leopold Downs cattle rebranded with the Brooking Springs moniker. He was eventually found guilty and given a four-year suspended sentence in what police called "the biggest theft of cattle in almost a decade". The damage was done. What followed was years of gripes and rumours. Some even made their way to the government and police. In 2016, there was frustration in the community yet again when a local boy alleged he had been tied up after he was found trespassing with his friends on Brooking Springs property, The Bunuba boy had broken onto the private property to steal motorbikes. Watercolour illustration of boys tied to a fence at night with motorbikes left on the ground. He was caught, alleging he was cable-tied to a fence and warned off the property. The incident was reported to police, but no charges were laid. In 2018, Wylie's language group again accused Brooking Springs staff of restricting their access to the land. They claimed staff had dammed part of Brooking Creek, which had stopped it from reaching a Bunuba local community. The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation resolved the complaint with a letter of education to the station, but in such a small community, the tensions held on. But when Wylie Oscar's car was found abandoned on the property, the two sides were forced to quickly come to an understanding. Officers issued a call for help. "Concerns are held for Wylie's welfare and police urge anyone who sights Wylie or has information relating to his whereabouts, to contact police immediately on 131 444." Rangers and trackers, police from Derby, Broome, Looma and Fitzroy Crossing, emergency services, a drone, a helicopter, and even the Australian Marine Safety Authority jet descended on the Great Sandy Desert. Watercolour illustration of a range of emergency service people standing in a circle, including a police car and a helicopter. It was an extensive search that covered the cliffs of Dan͟ggu Geikie Gorge, the low shrub of the station, and the houses of the Fitzroy Crossing town site. Searching police, family, and friends were asking questions in quick succession. Why had Wylie left a car full of food and water and wandered off? Why did he leave the car at all? Why didn't he walk to town? The glow of Fitzroy Crossing's lights can be seen where his car was found. And where was he? 'Confusion' early in search Police privately expressed frustration about how the long history between Wylie's language group and the station muddied the waters of the search. The land ownership — still split between traditional ties and colonial contract — meant there was confusion in the early days of the search. One traditional owner told ABC Radio some Bunuba searchers believed they had been "locked out" from helping emergency services at Brooking Springs gates. "I think there's a lot of confusion around being able to communicate with … [Brooking Springs Station staff]," Joe Ross said. Mr Ross said that while some family had been let onto the station in the early days of the search to help, some had missed the window of the open gate and had to wait to hear from the pastoralists to get access. A huge station spanning hundreds of kilometres, family had to wait for staff to drive back and let them on to the private property. The abandoned vehicle was found on a remote station property with two flat tyres. ( Hannah Murphy ) The car was found abandoned on station property. ( ABC Kimberley: Hannah Murphy ) "[Staff] might be busy doing their normal day of business, and people might not be aware of that," Mr Ross said. "And sometimes you might have to wait over half an hour at a time [for the gate to open], is what I'm hearing. "That's where the frustration is in some places," Meanwhile, WA Police said they were making steady progress with all the resources they had. "WA Police have been assisted by local relatives of Mr Oscar familiar with the area, rangers, SES, and the management and staff of the Brooking Springs Pastoral Station, and we are grateful for all the assistance received in a remote and complex environment," a spokesperson said. Brooking Springs Station did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A search with no leads As the station, family, and emergency services continued searching into an eighth day, there was still no sign of Wylie. The official search was called off on November 23. "Please be advised the land search for Wylie Oscar has been suspended, pending any new information received," a spokesperson said. "Police from the Kimberley district will continue to make inquiries in relation to his whereabouts and welfare." Detectives were called in from Broome, where they were tasked with sorting through all the community innuendo, frayed relationships, and rumour that the young man's disappearance had stirred up. But, they said, that was life in small towns. The theories ranged from Wylie wandering off into the desert to an altercation with an unknown person. However, the most widely believed theory in Fitzroy Crossing is one steeped deep in blackfella culture. It is thought Wylie has been taken by spirits. The ABC cannot expand on this for cultural reasons, but it is one theory locals believe to be true. Police have held a reinvestigation into his disappearance, conducted by the Major Crime Division, but have found no information as to his whereabouts. It has now been three years since Wylie first went missing from that home in Junjuwa in November 2022. Wylie's family continues to ask questions. "It doesn't make sense that he was 12 kilometres from town," sister Amarillo Oscar said. Watercolour illustration of night sky, trees, and town lights on the horizon. "If you're driving into town at night, even if you're 20 to 30 kilometres out of town, you can see the lights of Fitzroy. "He would be able to see that. "That and he knows this is an area — he always used to go hunting with my uncle. "He knows there is a creek nearby — a spring. "He had plenty of food and water. "It just doesn't make sense that someone who grew up hunting and fishing in that area [disappeared] 12 kilometres out of town and didn't come back." Family described Wylie as deeply spiritual and afraid of the dark, making it unlikely he would leave his car after it broke down. June Oscar has her own concerns and spoke about them at a rally held for missing Indigenous people in Broome last year. "We say no black man can get lost by his own country, and we know somebody knows something," she said. Wylie Oscar worked on stations. ( Facebook ) Wylie Oscar's family miss him deeply. ( Supplied ) Wylie was a keen hunter and fisher. ( Facebook ) "He knew he could climb a limestone range and see the lights of Fitzroy Crossing, and he could walk there. "It was five kilometres directly from the Great Northern Highway. "He knew the car was packed with food, water, swag, and everything so he wouldn't starve. "He had everything he needed to stay alive for a very long time out there if he wanted to stay there." Hope remains strong Wylie's case was recently included in a Western Australian march for missing Indigenous men. WA Police maintain there is no evidence of criminality in his disappearance and no body has been located. June Oscar, whose nephew Wylie Oscar went missing in Fitzroy Crossing in 2022, addressed the crowd in Broome. ( ABC Kimberley: Esse Deves ) At the rally, June captured her family's grief in the broader discussion about missing Indigenous people. "It's a mystery for us, and our hearts here are all connected, because we don't have answers," she said. "We don't know what happened… so we cry every day. "Their bodies have left us, but their spirits will never leave us, and their spirits remain with us. "Feel our pain, feel this uncertainty about not knowing." Wylie's disappearance has not been referred to the WA coroner. For the Oscars, Wylie must be honoured for who he is. "It's been three years now since hearing that he had driven off with the car, and he hasn't been found," Amarillo said. "He was very well respected, he was loved by his family, and the main thing is, we need answers. "He's not someone we're going to forget. "He'll always be there." Amarillo Oscar says it's important police keep looking for her nephew. ( Hannah Murphy ) Helen Oscar and Montana Williams are hoping to see find out what became of their relative. ( Hannah Murphy ) His sister Montana echoes Amarillo's sentiment. "I just miss his smiling face and feeling his presence," she said. Amarillo said it's hoped that in time, they get their answers. "It was very hard for me to accept that he wasn't around, but I'm still holding on to hope that he will just walk out from the bush and through the door and say hello." June Oscar did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Credits
ABC News
15-05-2025
- ABC News
Kimberley man, 74, charged with alleged indecent assault on Broome sunbather
A 74-year-old Kimberley man has been charged with indecently assaulting a woman sunbaking at a popular tourism location in Western Australia's north. Police are alleging that, at 2:40pm on Wednesday, a 23-year-old woman was at Town Beach Reserve, Broome, when she was approached by a man she did not know. A police spokesperson said the man indecently assaulted the woman before she was able to run to a nearby group of people who contacted police. Broome detectives arrested 74-year-old Manuel Bower at 6pm on Wednesday. Mr Bower, of Fitzroy Crossing, has been charged with one count of unlawful and indecent assault and is due to face Broome Magistrates Court on Thursday. Kimberley Police Superintendent John Hutchison said violence against women was "never OK" and would not be tolerated. "Assistance from members of the public enabled us to apprehend this offender very quickly," he said. It is the second alleged sex assault in Broome this week. Kununurra man Vincent Junior, 43, appeared in court yesterday after allegedly attempting to sexually assault a woman unknown to him in Broome on Monday evening.
ABC News
15-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Outreach support helps Kimberley residents get their first birth certificates
Bunuba elder Patsy Ngalu Bedford is a respected community leader in Western Australia's far north, but for the past 75 years of her life, at least according to government records, she did not exist. She is one of many Indigenous people across the Kimberley whose birth was not registered. "Our people right across the Kimberley who were born in the bush, who were born in their homelands, [who] weren't given a birth date, we struggled," she said. "I'm an elder and this year was my year of getting my birth certificate. Long-awaited registrations like Ms Bedford's are part of an outreach program by the WA Department of Justice's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The department's Marnie Giles has been travelling to remote and regional communities to provide outreach services and met Ms Bedford during a visit to Fitzroy Crossing last year, assisted by the Marra Worra Worra Aboriginal Corporation. "After a little bit more of a conversation we found out [Ms Bedford] was not registered and I was able to assist her to get that process started," Ms Giles said. She said the process worked through trust and collaboration. "One of the first things we do is make sure people understand it's their story that they choose to share with us," she said. Ms Giles said the team then conducted searches within databases and collaborated with the Aboriginal History research service with permission from the applicant. Recovery efforts following record floods in the Fitzroy Valley in 2023 revealed that hundreds of Aboriginal residents were not registered at birth. A 2016 study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found nearly one in five Aboriginal children under the age of 16 in WA had unregistered births. Meanwhile a 2024 UNICEF report found that 12,600 children on average each year in Australia were missing out on an early childhood education because they did not have a birth certificate. Ms Giles said it was common to encounter unregistered people during every visit to remote and regional communities. "It's not just people like Patsy who is 75, we also help all ages, babies, newborns, teenagers, a whole lot," she said. "Particularly in the Kimberley; there are lots of unregistered people. That's part of the reason we get out there as often as we can." Ms Giles said delivering Ms Bedford's birth certificate was a special moment. "We feel so privileged to hear people's stories and get a result like that for someone like Patsy, so it was quite a highlight — it's pretty wonderful," she said. For Ms Bedford, it was more than just a personal experience. "It is on behalf of all the rest of our people that were born in the bush — that was our hospital, we were given names," she said. "My first name was Ngalu and I stuck to that. "Anthropologists changed my name but that was my given name at birth and my skin was Nyanyjili so we should be going back to those days."
ABC News
13-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Safety, food and hope replace youth crime at Fitzroy Crossing's Night Place
As the sun dips behind the red Kimberley horizon in Western Australia's north, children spill onto the streets of Fitzroy Crossing — but now they walk with a purpose as they go to a new and safe space. Since opening in September 2024, the Night Place, run by Marra Worra Worra Aboriginal Corporation (MWW), has become a central hub for youth in the remote town, 2,400 kilometres north of Perth. The Aboriginal-led program was created in response to concerns over disengaged children wandering the streets and rising youth crime. Similar youth night spaces have also opened in Broome. Research shows juvenile offenders make up just 3.7 per cent of the Kimberley youth population, with poverty and disadvantage driving criminal including night spaces are seen as part of the solution. MWW youth connection programs manager Rochelle Dolby said the need became clear through years of night patrols. "Kids were just on the streets — outside the local supermarket, outside the information centre and at a park at the rec centre in town," she said. "There was nothing the kids could go to or a place they could get food, just to be in a safe space and off the streets." After consulting with families, Ms Dolby said many children had complex reasons for being out. "Mum and Dad are probably not at home, or Nan or Pop, and they'd rather be in a place where they feel safe." Nearly 400 young people have attended the space in its first seven months, with over 8,000 visits and 12,500 hot meals served. The Night Place started as a pilot program but has since secured longer-term state government funding. On an average night, the centre will host 40 children, with numbers exceeding 90 on some evenings, while more than 20 local Indigenous staff have been employed through the service. The Night Place offers dinner, first aid, structured activities and transport home. Some nights include cooking classes and workshops on kids and the law or substance use. Employees say Uno cards are the highlight of the night, along with the open basketball court. Aaliyah Cox, 17, said the space gave her and her cousin Ebony a place to hang out with their friends at night. "Instead of walking around town, we come play Uno or have a feed or come play basketball, and other things," Aaliyah said. Cyeahni Wallaby, 11, said she was also happy to "get to play basketball and eat a feed and play Uno". The space was born out of a desperate need to tackle rising juvenile crime in the town and deep frustration from locals and visitors. Between January and March last year, the town recorded 34 car thefts, which police attributed to youths. However, the Fitzroy Crossing Police officer-in-charge, Senior Sergeant Mark Howes, said there had been a "significant drop" in juvenile crime. This year, thefts dropped to five over the same period — an 85 per cent fall. "It's to do with being out at night unsupervised, opportunistic, and looking for a good time," he said. "The Night Place gives the kids somewhere to go, somewhere to have a feed, be around positive people. "It gives the opportunity to start with intervention for some of the issues the kids face and intervene at an early stage." He said coordination with other youth services had strengthened outcomes. MWW education, engagement and attainment initiative coordinator Luke Sim said the Night Place had helped reconnect young people with school. "There are kids at the Night Place that have not been at school for a number of months," he said. Between January and March, he re-enrolled nearly 30 students. Local mum Edith Cox said the space gave her peace of mind, knowing her children had somewhere safe to go at night. Since helping in the kitchen, she has seen the value of local staffing. "They feel more comfortable with that … [the kids] see us around town and in here," Ms Cox said. MWW manager of community programs Nicola Angell said the model worked because it was locally driven. "We've been able to provide an employment pathway that has been so fulfilling," she said. "We could not be prouder of the work that we're doing." A WA Department of Justice spokesperson said there were plans in place to design and deliver another night space in Kununurra. "Aboriginal-led programs play a key role in delivering crucial services to support vulnerable young people in regional WA and keep them and the community safe at night," they said.
