‘Band-aids’: Aurukun teachers offered an extra $8,000 a year, plus $150 a day

Teachers at the troubled Aurukun school are being offered ever-increasing incentives.

New staff accommodation for Aurukun school teachers have been built near the police station and heavily fortified, with 7 foot steel fencing surrounding the compound and security guards patrolling the grounds 24 hours a day. Picture: Brendan Radke

Teachers at the troubled Aurukun school are being offered ever-increasing incentives after the school after more than half their teaching staff resigned at the end of last term, largely as a result of violent incidents at the school.

Education sector sources have revealed that the school initially offered $8000 to existing teachers in Aurukun on top of the baseline salary with $5000 offered on arrival for new teachers. 

But the department has now increased that to $9000 with an extra $150 per day at the school as fears about a staff shortage grow.

The Aurukun State School, in the small indigenous town on the Gulf of Carpentaria, 800 kilometres north northwest of Cairns on Cape York in Far North Queensland. Picture: Brendan Radke

It comes after some former teachers at Aurukun State School had called on the Queensland Department of Education to shut the violence-stricken school, amid an increased number of daily lockdowns because of assaults, threats of sexual violence, and kids carrying machetes.

The new incentives have been labelled by some as “band-aids” that “don’t fix the core of the problem” as it emerges that the school has no full-time school trauma counsellor or psychologist.

School board member Keri Tamwoy has been lobbying the Department for several months to get a full-time trauma counsellor.

The Department of Education declined to reveal how much it spends on security guards at the school and the teacher’s compound compared with mental health services at the school.

It is understood that while there are no full-time mental health workers at the school, the school employs 10 full-time security guards.

“The department has a range of programs and strategies in place to manage security at

schools, including fencing, closed circuit television (CCTV), electronic security alarm

systems and security patrols where required,” a spokesman said.

Lamai Woolla, 10, plays computer games in the Aurukun Shire Council's Knowledge Centre for children in Aurukun. Picture: Brendan Radke

But when asked about the cost of this for taxpayers the Department said: “For security reasons, the department cannot disclose further detail on school security.”

When questioned as to whether the Department would employ full-time mental health staff at the school, the spokesman said Aurukun State School staff had engaged in professional learning on trauma-informed practice at the start of the 2024 school year.

“A range of specialist support staff are working in the Aurukun State School community

providing support for students’ mental health and wellbeing including psychologists, social

workers, guidance officers and youth workers.”

Just six of Aurukun’s teaching 23 staff remained teaching at the school when term one concluded on March 21.

Originally published as ‘Band-aids’: Aurukun teachers offered an extra $8,000 a year, plus $150 a day