Katherine Women’s Information and Legal Service say town is in ‘crisis’ after second alleged domestic violence homicide in 70 days

Domestic violence advocates have called Katherine one of the most dangerous places in Australia to be a woman after the suspected homicide of a 22-year-old woman on the outskirts of town.

Generic imagery of Katherine Police Station. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A small Northern Territory town in “crisis” is mourning the loss of yet another woman in a suspected domestic violence killing — the second in just 70 days.

NT Police said a 22-year-old woman had died following a suspected domestic violence incident on the outskirts of Katherine township on Monday night.

A spokesman said police responded to reports of a “distressed man” on O’Shea Terrace around 9.10pm, and the young woman was found nearby.

Despite attempts to save her, she was pronounced deceased by St John Ambulance shortly after.

The spokesman said her 36-year-old partner was arrested at the scene, and was likely to be charged overnight.

Katherine Women’s Information and Legal Service chief executive Siob­han Mackay said this was the second alleged domestic violence related death in the small town of just 8000 people in the past two months.

“There’s a profound grief right now,” Ms Mackay said.

She said her thoughts were with the young woman’s friends, family and community, but pressed that many more Big Rivers Region women and children still faced the same danger unless urgent action was taken. 

“We’re at crisis levels in Katherine,” Ms Mackay said.

“You look at the court list and only a handful of cases are not related to domestic violence.

“It continues to be at a staggering rate.”

Ms Mackay said every day multiple new clients would walk through the KWIL office doors desperately trying to access specialist legal services, but they did not always have the capacity for all of them.

She said in January KWILS had to turn away 25 women, almost one a day.

Katherine Women’s Information and Legal Service (KWILS) chief executive Siob­han Mackay. Picture: Supplied

“Every woman you have to turn away, that doesn’t leave you. You continue to worry about her, if she found help,” she said.

The KWILS latest annual report said there had been a “relentless increase” in domestic violence in the region, with NT police reporting the rate of domestic violence offending was a “staggering” 7121 per 100,000 people in 2023.

“Making Katherine women some of the most at-risk people in the country,” the report said.

The latest suspected domestic killing comes the same day the Australian Institute of Criminology released its report investigating 34 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s homicide rates.

The AIC report found of the 476 First Nations women killed across Australia since 1989, nearly a third were Territorian.

And 71 per cent of these 146 NT mothers, daughters, aunties and sisters were killed by their intimate partners.

Ms Mackay said these statistics were not surprising, indeed “it’s all too expected unfortunately”.

After a six-month coronial inquiry into domestic violence in the Territory, Ms Mackay said one of the most “shattering” realisations was how unsurprising the horrific evidence was.

“We had heard all these stories before,” she said

With the findings to be delivered on November 25, she called on the new Territory government to listen to the recommendations and “honour these women’s stories”.

Ms Mackay said while there had been positive announcements from both the Territory and Federal governments about domestic violence funding, there remained a lack of clarity around how the new money would be rolled out.

The new Domestic Violence Minister Robyn Cahill. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Ms Mackay called on the CLP government to outline their plan for a promised $180m in baseline funding over the next five years, and for the rollout to occur in “a reasonably quick manner”.

Ms Mackay also said it was critical for both levels of government to finalise the National Access to Justice Partnership to provide funding certainty beyond June 2025, and for specific boosts to specialist women’s legal clinics.

The new Domestic Violence Minister Robyn Cahill maintained her commitment to the additional domestic violence funding, but did not outline if it would be allocated in line with the expert-led Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Interagency Coordination and Reform Office mapping report.

Ms Cahill also did not confirm if the CLP would restart and make a permanent ICRO body, which would allow departments and the domestic violence sector to coordinate and provide expert advice to the government.

However she argued the CLP’s proposed October changes to expand electronic monitoring on bail and restoring mandatory sentencing for domestic violence offences would “keep women and children safe and supporting police and other frontline services to reduce crime, including domestic violence”.

“But we can’t solve this issue alone,” Ms Cahill said.

In September the National Cabinet announced a $4.7 billion package for domestic violence, which Ms Cahill said should be allocated according to need rather than a “per capita funding formula”.

“This is a tragic incident and I want to pass on my deepest sympathies to the victim’s family,” Ms Cahill said.