It marks a 21 per cent rise in a year and the highest number of offences in all Queensland magistrates courts, with Townsville second at 1300 charges.

Brisbane Magistrates Court dealt with 1146 charges in the same period.

Superintendent Monique Ralph, who oversees the Cairns region’s specialist domestic violence unit, says a change in how charges are laid has partly contributed to the increase in the figures.

“Everything is now focused on the victim,” she said.

“We’re digging back through, not just dealing with that one incident, going right back, asking questions … someone is ringing, checking on them (after the incident).

“Because quite often, when you have two people in a scenario, they’re quite afraid to talk to us.

“When we do it in reverse and contact them with their concern, we have better engagement because it’s not in the heat of the moment. It’s when they’ve had time to reflect.”

Police are also pressing charges in situations where there’s strong evidence of crimes being committed, Superintendent Ralph said.

“If a victim has an obvious cut or there’s a lot of damage to the house, once upon a time it would be the approach of ‘do you want to make a complaint about that? While the person that’s done that is standing right beside them,” she said.

“Now we’re adding those complaints in and following up on that criminal aspect as well … we’ve taken it off the victims.”

Superintendent Ralph said the increase in figures was also due to QPS’s “shift in culture” but that did not mean domestic violence was decreasing or plateauing.

“Two thousand charges, that’s 2000 more people protected,” she said.

“That’s a credit to our people, for taking that extra time and going right through the holistic approach.

“Once upon a time (domestic violence call-outs) were very rare, but now it is significant. It’s one of our highest priorities and one of our highest calls for service.”

Amid increasing demand, training for all QPS personnel, including administrative staff, has helped the force identify high-risk behaviour and coercive control.

The Cairns police domestic violence unit is also partnering with mental health and youth workers, with recruitment under way to grow the region’s co-responder team to about 30 specialists.

“Instead of us all working in silo helping these people, it’s one team. It’s a huge investment, but one that is completely necessary,” Superintendent Ralph said.

More than a 1000 Domestic Violence Order applications have been lodged in the Cairns Magistrates Court in the past ten months, with women making up almost eight in 10 protected persons and intimate relationships the nature of seven in 10 applications.

In the same time period the Cairns court has also dealt with more than 2600 contravened DVOs – a 15 per cent rise on the previous year.

A rise in the number of breached orders shows there’s still plenty of work to do in targeting perpetrators, Superintendent Ralph says.

“It can’t just always be that we’re helping the person who’s the victim, we also need to stop the behaviour,” she said.

“And unfortunately, when young people grow up, seeing this from their families, extended families, it becomes the norm for them.

“We need to educate our young people, we need generational change.”

annabel.bowles@news.com.au