Cape York leader Dion Creek arrested on domestic violence charges

An emerging Cape York Indigenous leader has been charged with multiple offences.

Cape York Land Council chief executive Dion Creek in 2019.

An emerging Indigenous leader who runs one of Australia’s most powerful land councils and was recently appointed to a state health service board has been charged with a raft of serious domestic violence and stalking offences.

Dion Creek, chief executive of the Cape York Land Council, was arrested at the weekend in Cairns on 15 charges relating to alleged offences over the past five years.

Mr Creek, who remains in custody, has been touted as among a new generation of Indigenous leaders with grassroots support in Aboriginal communities and strong political connections in both major parties.

In 2022, he became the youngest CEO of the Cape York Land Council, a native title representative body that has been a leader in the Aboriginal land rights ­struggle since it was formed in 1990.

Mr Creek, 38, was heavily involved in last year’s revival of the bid for World Heritage listing of parts of Cape York, launched jointly by the state and federal Labor governments.

The father of five was denied bail by the Cairns Magistrates Court after appearing on the 15 domestic violence offences, which included four counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of common assault. He was also charged with unlawful stalking.

It is understood the police investigation involved alleged violence against two women.

The board of the Cape York Land Council, headed by Richie Ah Mat, will meet on Thursday to discuss what action to take now that its CEO has been remanded in custody until October.

A spokesman for the land council said a statement would be issued after the meeting.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman suspended Mr Creek from the board of the Torres and Cape Hospital Health Service, with the notice hand-­delivered to his watch-house cell earlier this week.

Mr Creek was appointed to the regional health board in March.

Queensland police would not comment on the investigation or charges laid against Mr Creek, citing privacy reasons.

Lockhart River Mayor Wayne Butcher. Picture: Brendan Radke

The Cairns Magistrates Court issued a statement, confirming the charges.

Earlier this year, The Australian spoke with Mr Creek, who is a traditional owner, about his involvement in the state-federal push for World Heritage listing on Cape York.

He defended the renewed push for a listing, which was instigated and then abandoned by the then Rudd federal government in the face of widespread opposition from traditional owners and the land council. “It will be good for Cape York, it will help ensure our lands are protected,’’ he told The Australian in January.

At the time, several Indigenous leaders had been sceptical about the benefit of a World Heritage listing and the then secrecy surrounding the proposal, which has since been submitted to ­UNESCO.

“We had to work with the government and work out the processes, which will involve consultation with TOs (traditional owners),’’ Mr Creek said.

His appointment as land council CEO followed in the footsteps of his mother, Ann Creek, who was the body’s first female chief executive in 1997.

He is the second Indigenous leader on Cape York to be arrested for alleged domestic violence in recent months.

In late June, Lockhart River mayor Wayne Butcher, 53, was arrested and charged with six offences, including strangulation, suffocation, deprivation of liberty and assault.

Mr Butcher is the longest-­serving mayor in Cape York, and a former head of the Indigenous Leader’s Forum.

The Cairns Magistrates Court was told it was alleged Mr Butcher had punched a woman in the face and strangled her in the bedroom of a Lockhart River home a few hours before the arrest.

He was also accused of attacking the same woman with a metal torch and kicking her while on the ground in a separate incident in December 2022.

He has been granted bail and is denying the allegations.