Abuse in Queensland-run dormitories laid bare in Truth-Telling inquiry

An Indigenous elder separated from his parents as a child and subjected to ‘physical, sexual and mental abuse’ in a Queensland government-run dormitory has shared his experiences with a landmark inquiry.

Wakka Wakka man David Wragge, 66, gave evidence on Thursday. Picture: Mackenzie Scott

An Indigenous elder separated from his parents as a child and subjected to “physical, sexual and mental abuse” in a Queensland government-run dormitory has shared his experiences with a landmark inquiry.

Appearing before the second day of the Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry in Brisbane, Wakka Wakka man David Wragge, 66, gave evidence on the six years he lived in the dormitories of the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg, 230kms northwest of Brisbane, and the impact education had on shaping his life.

Mr Wragge was nine when he and his five siblings were put into the dormitories upon the separation of their parents. While the sections for the girls and babies were “locked-down” each night, transient men would come and go from the boy’s quarters.

“We had no secure lock down, anyone could have come in, cut our throats or whatever,” he said. “The trauma that came out of that, that dormitory; we had abuse, physical, sexual and mental abuse.

“All of us, including myself … It’s part of my healing journey”

Now an advocate for child protection, Mr Wragge said he believed children and men should never be left alone

The siblings didn’t see their mother once during the six years they lived in the dormitory and could see their father only over the white picket fence that separated them from the rest of the community. During that time, they had no possessions of their own.

Beating and floggings with a strap or a switch were part of the daily routine.

“There was no love given to us,” Mr Wragge said.

He finished school in year 9 when he relocated with his mother and siblings to Roma in 1973. He decided to return to Cherbourg the following year to continue his schooling at Murgon High School and was one of seven Aboriginal boys to graduate in 1976.

Mr Wragge played a role in the 2012 Carmody inquiry into child protection in Queensland and was also a community engagement officer for the 2013 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He is currently a member of the Stolen Generations Reference Group for the Healing Foundation.

The historic inquiry is expected to run for three years and is designed to uncover the impacts of colonisation to improve outcomes for First Nations people.

Mr Wragge hopes the findings of the final report are used to inform the school curriculum and university education. “The real history of Queensland is about the history of all these missions and reserves and people that were displaced from their lands, their culture, traditional laws,” he said. “It is about rewriting the wrong of the past history.

The inquiry will continue on Friday.