Mayor Ross Andrews and other civic leaders walking the hard yards at Yarrabah
Overcrowding in substandard housing, intergenerational trauma, and not enough jobs, training or educational opportunities are just a part of the problem at a small FNQ community.
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The problems are “Third World” but Yarrabah’s leaders are working on them almost around the clock.
Overcrowding in substandard housing, intergenerational trauma, and not enough jobs, training or educational opportunities are just a part of the picture.
Those structural issues lead to other problems, of which the so-called “kid crime wave” is one, where youngsters have been running wild, stealing cars and worse.
In August in a show of force, Mayor Ross Andrews, community organisations and service providers called on the state government for funding to better help the community manage its shameful youth crime rates, the work of just five per cent of the community’s kids.
Programs focusing on young people
Suzanne Andrews is chief executive of the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service, and she said community organisations and church groups in town have a strong focus on young people.
Since that August challenge they have been stepping up their programs designed to divert and engage with youth, building positive experiences as well as creating strong role modelling.
“There are a number of local mob who are also engaging with the youth like Nathen Murgha with the Club Fight Back program,” she said.
Gurriny runs and delivers their own youth programs from the Youth Hub, and successfully ran a Youth Rally in early December at the local football grounds attended by more than 200 young people.
The hub has also put on a number of other successful events.
And in the post-Christmas period Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council, in partnership with Harbrow Mentoring, is running vacation care programs aimed at children under 12, where activities include traditional games, mentoring, fishing and hunting.
Harbrow Mentoring run projects around leadership, sport and intensive mentoring.
“When you have a community with approximately 400 houses catering for more than 4000 residents, you will have domestic violence, poor hygiene and unrealistic pressures on families and children, and unfortunately the women and children can be the most vulnerable in this situation,” Ms Andrews said.
“These issues are not 12 months old, they are in some cases generational.
“In our community we battle Third World issues, but we are on the doorstep of a world-ranked city.”
“Third World” issues
The State Government is not unaware of the issues at Yarrabah, and has allocated money to housing.
Whether that money is enough is an open question.
A spokesman from the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy said the Queensland Government was building up to 49 new houses, 45 home extensions and developing 33 new blocks of land across 17 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander local government councils throughout Queensland.
With its allocation, the Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council has made ready five land lots and is working on infrastructure for a new housing subdivision.
The government supplies further funding through the Forward Remote Capital program, worth $105 million statewide.
“The $6.5 million funding for Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council through the Forward Remote Capital Program will develop 16 land lots and build 10 three, four and five-bedroom homes,” the spokesman said.
“Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council is also delivering a further 10 new houses and a two-bedroom extension to an existing house through other state funding of $6.48m.
“The works under this program are currently scheduled to be completed from February 2023 through to October 2023.”
The state also annually funds maintenance and upgrades for the 378 existing social housing properties in Yarrabah, this year to the tune of $5.4m.
A new soundshell is also under construction, which when finished will be a gathering and meeting place and used as a concert venue.
A commitment to young people
Ms Andrews is a firm believer that better educational outcomes lead to increased training and employment prospects - but in a modern world those outcomes are heavily tied to telecommunication and internet access, as well as ending overcrowding.
In June this year the Queensland government announced a “high-speed game changer” for Queensland state schools and their communities, investing $190 million to make internet speeds 200 times faster by 2024.
According to a spokesman for education Minister Grace Grace, that project is on track, but Ms Andrews said more than half the homes in Yarrabah do not even have access to the internet, and there is “massive unemployment caused by a lack of opportunity and poor educational outcomes”.
Even calling in or out of the community by phone can be a chore.
“It is hard to change education, training and employment options for Yarrabah until we have a reliable, affordable and all-weather telecommunication network servicing all of Yarrabah,” she said.
“School attendance related to social issues remains a constant. What we have is a generational problem that cannot be solved easily.”
Mayor Ross Andrews said adults in the community need to take more responsibility for the youngsters.
“It’s a universal challenge, dysfunctional disengaged youth, we’ve got to keep working hard supporting those families and parents but also those victims,” he said.
“We’ve got to keep working hard supporting those families and parents but also those victims.
“We are doing our best,” he said.
“All kids are good.”
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