Investigations continue into Dysart shootings, stabbing, Mackay shooting

Two people in a small mining town presented to a hospital with gunshot wounds. One day later, a man was stabbed in the chest.

The small town of Dysart holds roughly 3000 people and recorded less than 200 criminal offences last year. This week, two people have been shot and one stabbed. Picture: Rae Wilson

When two gunshot wound victims turn up at the hospital of a 3000-person mining town, the rumour mill starts up.

But when a man in the same small town is stabbed in the chest just over 24 hours later, it goes into overdrive.

Dysart is a small mining town a three-hour drive south from Mackay, in the Isaac Plains, where rumours are swirling to fill in a lack of public information.

“There are many stories going around. We don’t know what’s true,” said Jack Marsson, who lives and works in the town.

What is known is that at 9:30pm on Monday, April 15, a man and woman presented to Dysart Hospital with gunshot wounds.

The man was flown to Mackay Hospital for urgent treatment, and the woman taken up via ambulance.

Isaac region mines include the Peak Downs Mine, Saraji Mine, Goonyella Riverside Mine, Broadmeadow Mine. Neighbouring communities include Dysart, Clermont and Mackay. Generic. Photo: Zizi Averill

Then, on Tuesday, April 16, a man was stabbed in the chest at an address on Beardmore Cres, Dysart, at roughly 7.17pm.

To put two shootings and a stabbing in 48 hours into context, there were only 186 total recorded offences in the town across all of 2023, according to Queensland Police crime data.

“We didn’t think it would happen in Dysart,” one worker there told the Daily Mercury, speaking under the condition of anonymity.

In what could simply be an odd coincidence, a person was also shot in Mackay in the early hours of Friday, April 19.

Believed to have been shot in the shoulder on Park St, the shooters quickly fled when police found the man on Moore St.

The victim is understood to be in a serious, but stable condition.

Overall, crime in Dysart has been on a downward trend since 2018, a peak of 205 offences across all categories, according to police data.

Queensland Police have said they are investigating both incidents — with no public comment as to whether they believe the Dysart incidents are related.
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