Remote Queensland community left high and dry as police station remains unstaffed

A remote Far North Queensland community is growing increasingly concerned about the lack of police support as a local station remains unstaffed. The Laura police station, located 310 kilometres north-west of Cairns, has been left empty while authorities try to fill a vacancy after the solo officer took unplanned leave.

The station, which covers a vast remote area incorporating the tourist gateway Peninsula Development Road (PDR), normally has a two-officer posting. However, locals said it had been understaffed for some time, with just one officer often handling the workload. Queensland Police Service (QPS) confirmed that patrols and call-outs in the meantime were being covered by officers from Cooktown and Hope Vale, more than 140km away.

Concerns for women's safety

The Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service has expressed deep concern about the gap in remote police staffing, particularly for domestic violence victim-survivors. Acting chief executive Thelma Schwartz said she was not surprised by the vacancy, describing remote understaffing as a long-standing problem.

"It doesn't matter if you're a victim-survivor of domestic, family and sexual violence living in metropolitan Queensland, regional Queensland, rural and remote Queensland," she said. "The response from police should be the same: it should be urgent, it should be available."

Ms Schwartz said she had frequently raised slow response times, including to the commission of inquiry into police domestic violence responses. She said calls from towns without a local officer were diverted elsewhere, which could mean delays of several hours.

Risk of opportunistic violence

Ms Schwartz also expressed concern that the lack of police presence put women's safety at risk, particularly as the wet season arrives and flooding threatens to cut roads across the tropical north. She said the risk of opportunistic violence from perpetrators due to the lack of police presence was well known.

Local concerns

Palmerville Station resident Archie Levers said his community often had incidents where they struggled to get police support. "We have a lot of illegal campers and illegal prospectors and people lighting fires, arsonists," he said. "We had one incident last year that we had to call Mareeba police because we knew that it was serious."

Laura Quinkan Dance Festival organiser Debbie Symonds said she was concerned the community was not informed of the unstaffed police station, particularly given the amount of tourists passing through the area.

"It is the last bit of bitumen till they finish between the PDR before you hit dirt, and that's where a lot of issues can start and end in that town," she said.

Union criticism

Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior said QPS could have sent a relief officer to Laura straight away while it recruited. "That position could have been filled, it simply wasn't because it was going to cost too much money," Mr Prior said. "It's simply not good enough. The community of Laura deserved better. They deserve a police officer."

Mr Prior said Laura was not an isolated case, with 745 positions vacant across the service.

Police response

A QPS spokesperson said recruitment for a relieving officer was underway, with the aim of having them start as soon as possible. QPS said it could not detail how long Laura was unstaffed due to operational security.

"Far North police remain focused on the safety of local communities, their officers, and ensuring the highest levels of service delivery are always maintained," the QPS spokesperson said.

In a statement, Police Minister Dan Purdie said 272 new officers had been posted to the Far North since the LNP came to power.