Mareeba divided by anger after police shooting death of Aubrey Donahue

The police shooting death of 27-year-old Aubrey Donahue in Mareeba has lit a match after decades of tensions between Indigenous residents and law enforcement in the town. Read our special report.

• Watch: Rising tensions bring town to brink

Protests and vandalism erupted on the streets of Mareeba this week as a match was lit on decades of tensions between Indigenous residents and police.

The death of 27-year-old Aubrey Donahue has brought into statewide focus a distrust between police and the indigenous population coursing through a town gripped by escalating crime.

In the past decade, the rate of offences has grown significantly in the far north town.

Queensland Police statistics show the overall offence rate increased from 13,794 per 100,000 people in 2012 to 22,228 in 2022.

The assault rate increased from 984 per 100,000 people to 3297 over the same period. The rate of sexual offences remained relatively unchanged over the period, prompting some concerns about under-reporting when contextualised in the broader trend.

Aubrey Donahue was fatally shot by specialist police in Mareeba. Picture: Supplied

The break-in rate increased from 1228 per 100,000 people to 2117 while car theft increased from 137 to 576.

Against this backdrop, a disdain for police has crept into the town’s indigenous community, particularly among younger men.

The latest bout of unrest followed the death of Donahue, who was shot following a siege that began on the morning of Saturday, March 25, when he began threatening self-harm.

What was at the beginning a police welfare check quickly escalated into a siege situation as Mr Donahue, police allege, held his female partner at knifepoint.

A community meeting the following day appeared to inflame an already angry mood when an ethical standards police detective was announced as a key figure in the investigation.

Algen Donahue leads a march through the streets of Mareeba after his twin brother was shot dead on Saturday. Picture: Peter Carruthers

A person in the crowd asked one of the north’s top cops, Detective Inspector Kevin Goan, to ensure the officers involved in the shooting would also address the community.

“They should be there too. You gotta make sure brother,’’ a man is heard saying.

“I won’t be making sure that happens,’’ Detective Inspector Goan replied.

By Monday night a large street protest was underway along with acts of vandalism, including a rock being thrown at a police car.

The unrest spread into Brisbane in the week where a protest mirroring the American Black Lives Matter movement was held Thursday night and, by the end of the week, high profile Indigenous adviser to Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, Gracelyn Smallwood, had resigned.

Professor Smallwood said police actions in relation to Indigenous people were getting worse, and three-decade old recommendations from the Royal Commission into Indigenous Deaths in Custody were still being ignored.

A relative yells messages of support after the meeting at the Mareeba Community Church Fellowship centre into the shooting death of Aubrey Donahue. Picture: Brendan Radke

Police Commissioner Katarina Caroll told The Sunday Mail she would invite her colleague back anytime.

“Professor Gracelyn Smallwood, I would consider her a colleague and a friend and I appreciate that this is hard for her and I accept that if she wanted to leave the group, that’s up to her,” Ms Carroll said.

In Mareeba, the Indigenous community, with a few exceptions, is rallying behind the family of Mr Donahue with respected elder and Baptist pastor Vincent Mathieson questioning why non-lethal methods were not used to restrain the man who he said was his grandson.

“There were ways of using pepper spray and a taser,” Pastor Mathieson said.

“They just shot him.’’

Police allege Aubrey Donahue held a woman at knifepoint before he was shot. Picture: Brian Cassey

But one prominent elder who asked to remain anonymous pointed to Donahue’s lengthy criminal history and said the community was well aware the deceased had committed numerous acts of domestic violence.

While she earnestly believed Mareeba was a racist town she said: “This was not about racism, this was about domestic violence, and the police did their job.’’

Many in the business community, including those who suffered damage in Monday night’s protest were too fearful to speak. One told a journalist: “Please don’t come back here, we don’t want to make ourselves a target.’’

Deputy Mayor Kevin Davies would not comment.

Brother-in-law of the deceased Dion Bermister said the events had solidified his desire to become a politician to support his community – he says he wants to right what he perceives as wrongs.

“I am announcing I am running for the Kowanyama Council at the next elections and I can tell you, I have a lot of community backing in making this decision,’’ he said.

Aubrey Donahue’s brother-in-law Dion Bermister. Picture: Brian Cassey

While the town remained quiet for the remainder of the week after the Monday protest, the anger and discontent are likely to continue as the police investigation and coronial process continue.

The town 64 km west of Cairns, where the Barron River joins Granite Creek, still has echoes of the wealth which it enjoyed in the 20th Century partly on the back of wealth generated by the tobacco industry.

The very name of the town is Indigenous, meaning “meeting of the waters’’ in the Muluridji dialect and there are many Indigenous groups in the district sprawling out around Mount Carbine such as the Yalanji, the Djungan the Barbarrum and the Walkamin.

Many believe the town suffers due to its proximity to Lotus Glen prison – a short drive outside Mareeba. There is a churn of offenders from the community, to the prison, to the community and back again.

Pastor Vincent Mathieson said Aubrey Donahue’s death had hit him hard. Picture: Brian Cassey

Pastor Mathieson has done his best to point young people in a more positive direction for more than four decades.

He turned to God and the Baptist Church in the 1970s and is now a leader in the Mareeba Community Church, earning widespread respect in the district after dedicating his life to Christian fellowship work including four years of theology study in Cairns, Sunday school teaching, youth programs and prison chaplaincy.

He said the loss of any life was a tragedy but the death of Mr Donahue had hit him hard.

“I held him when he was a baby,’’ he said.