Historic shame laid bare: $1.7m sought, alleged negligence of Indigenous child

An Indigenous woman taken into state care at birth has failed in a bid to sue the government for $1.7 million for alleged horrors she endured while under its care.

An Indigenous woman taken away from her mother at birth has been denied compensation after a court permanently halted her case, which alleged constant abuse while under state care.

The Wakka Wakka woman took her case against the State of Queensland to the Supreme Court and sought $1,764,620.83 for negligence.

The woman told the court she suffered psychologically as a result of the abuse she endured as a child and teenager while under the state’s care – “or lack thereof,” in the words of Chief Justice Helen Bowskill.

As an Indigenous child born in the 1950s, she was subject to strict legislation requiring her to be “kept’’ at a reserve.

Those wishing to leave, even for work, needed an official permit.

The legislation was called the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act (1897 QLD), which according to the National Museum of Australia was abolished in 1969.

“The legacy of the legislation and that of other states endures among the thousands of Stolen Generations in Australia. Many remain deeply traumatised by their experience as children,” Museum documents state.

The woman told the court she was not properly monitored or supervised when the state placed her with foster parents in a settlement at the Cherbourg Girls’ Dormitory, or while she visited her Ipswich family.

The girls' dormitory building at Cherbourg in 1933. It burnt to the ground in 1998. Picture: State Library of Queensland

The woman alleged the first time she was sexually assaulted was at the hands of her foster father when she was only three.

She said the man preyed on her for months on end in a room she shared with other foster girls, one of whom wrote to the court detailing her own abuse.

The state later removed the child from the home due to malnutrition and sent her to the Cherbourg girls’ dormitory.

The woman told the court the next time she was sexually assaulted was when the state allowed her to visit family in Ipswich.

She said she was six when a teenage relative suddenly grabbed her and threw her on to a bed.

When she was 13, while visiting the same household, she alleged a man in his 60s sexually assaulted her.

She also told the court that while living at the Cherbourg girls’ dormitory she was physically abused by supervisors.

But she was chastised and called a liar when she spoke to supervisors about her foster dad, who they told her was a “good Christian man’’.

Picture: Chrissy Harris

Despite the allegations, the State of Queensland successfully applied for the case to be permanently stayed.

A representative of the state told the court there was no way to investigate the woman’s claims as many of those accused of physically or sexually assaulting her were dead, with the exception of one man.

Chief Justice Helen Bowskill agreed the state was “deprived’’ of the ability to obtain instructions from the alleged offenders.

“The state has no means for investigating the foundational facts underpinning the alleged wrongful acts, which are critical to establishing liability on the part of the state,” Chief Justice Bowskill said.

“This conclusion is reached having regard to the consequences of the passage of time and does not involve any criticism of the (woman).

“The consequence that this decision results in the plaintiff not being able to pursue her claim weighs heavily.”