Wadeye: NT Police break up 100 person fight, person shot with crossbow

The unrest gripping a remote Aboriginal settlement has continued, with two people requiring medical treatment for serious injuries. NT Police has expressed its growing frustration.

Wadeye, Northern Territory. Picture: Jason Walls

Police have expressed their growing frustration at the unrest turning remote Aboriginal community Wadeye into a war zone, with officers forced to intervene in an all-in fight on Sunday night involving a variety of weapons.

About 6pm, local police responded to reports of up to 100 people fighting within the West Daly community, armed with various weapons, including crossbows, NT Police said in a statement.

“The crowd dispersed upon police attendance,” the statement read.

“An adult man was located with a crossbow bolt in his leg and was conveyed to the local clinic for treatment while another man suffered a fractured leg that also required medical attention at the clinic.

“NT Police are continuing to monitor the situation and investigations are underway to identify the offenders involved.”

Wadeye Police Station. Port Keats. Picture: File

Acting Commander Virginia Read expressed her organisation’s frustration.

“Once again, NT Police are responding to large-scale fighting in Wadeye that has resulted in injuries,” she said.

“The community needs to come together and work on solutions to these conflicts. The ongoing fighting is causing a great deal of stress for the people who call Wadeye home and is completely unnecessary”

“Police are committed to maintaining community safety and we will continue to respond to these incidents as well as working with Elders, traditional owners and the community to facilitate calm.”

The Wadeye police compound was broken into in December 2023, one of seven times in the last 12 months. Picture: Supplied

After a period of calm in the wake of the death of a 33-year-old father-of-three in April 2022, and before that, in 2021, an estimated 500 people displaced due to violence and criminal destruction, the town’s troubles have returned with a vengeance.

Earlier this month, after attempts were made to breach Wadeye Police Station by ramming it, with police vehicles also rammed, NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst said police were responding to a month-long escalation in violence in the troubled region.

On December 30 last year, NT Police dispatched five officers from the newly formed Territory Safety Division to Wadeye, in the hopes a high-visibility presence would help quell the unrest.