Death towns: These Far North areas have a lower life expectancy than any country in the world

People in these FNQ communities are dying on average 30 years younger than those in Brisbane, and lower than the country with the world’s lowest life expectancy – find out where and why.

A family walks down the main street of Aurukun, a small Indigenous town on The Gulf of Carpentaria, 800 kilometres north northwest of Cairns on Cape York in Far North Queensland. Picture: Brendan Radke

People in remote Far North Queensland communities are dying on average 30 years younger than those in Brisbane and below that in Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia.

One region in the Far North has a lower life expectancy that any other country in the world including the world’s lowest – Nigeria and Chad (53).

New figures from the Public Health Information Development Unit at Torrens University show that the Far North has some of the lowest life expectancy rates in the country.

While the average lifespan in Cairns is 76 years, it is just 50 in the Shire of Burke in Far North West Queensland on The Gulf of Carpentaria, adjoining the Northern Territory border.

Burke’s life expectancy is lower than the country with the lowest life expectancy in the world – the central African nation of Chad – where it is 53.

Only two other areas in Australia – East Pilbara and Ngaanyatjarra (both at 49) in remote Western Australia have a lower life expectancy.

Between 2017 and 2021 the median age of death was 53 in Kowanyama, and 54 in Aurukun and Mornington Island.

The leading cause of death in Kowanyama is coronary health diseases followed by lung disease and suicide.

In Aurukun, Carpentaria and Yarrabah, diabetes is the number one cause.

Last month, the Cairns Post revealed how people were selling drugs or sly alcohol, breaking into shops and letting the electricity go out just so they can eat, as cost of living pressures soar in remote Far North Queensland.

In Kowanyama baby formula sells for $59.

On Mornington Island food is 70 per cent more expensive than in Cairns with a trolley costing $1000 to fill: Tim Tams are $10, a rump of steak is $30 and toothpaste is $15 a tube.

Kowanyama and Yarrabah have also emerged as the two areas with the highest unemployment in the nation – 48% and 47% respectively – following data analysis from the Cairns Post earlier this month.

It is a Closing the Gap target to close the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2031.

Nationally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males born in 2020–2022 are expected to live to 71.9 years and females to 75.6 years, and non-Indigenous males and females to 80.6 years and 83.8 years respectively.

The life expectancy across those four Far North areas (including Burke) in the Far North puts them below that of a number of lower income or trouble-plagued countries including Papua New Guinea (66), Afghanistan (64), the Democratic Republic of Congo (60), Somalia (57) and South Sudan (56).

Debra Malthouse, CEO of Apunipima Cape York Health, which operates in several areas including Koyanyama and Aurukun said: “Across Cape York, we are almost seeing a mass-comorbidity epidemic, where patients don’t just have diabetes or heart disease for example, they are dealing with multiple chronic health conditions which can be complex and require different types of ongoing care.”

“Overcrowded housing, poor access to good quality and affordable fresh produce, education and poor employment opportunities are just some of the social determinants of health that affect many Cape York communities.”

Ms Malthouse said that funding and training for more generalists GPs, Aboriginal Health Practitioners and Aboriginal Health Workers was needed.

The data also shows the life expectancy was 56 in Pormpuraaw and 57 in Doomadgee and Yarrabah.

In Tablelands it is 76 and 77 in Mareeba.

In Douglas it is 75.

Originally published as Death towns: These Far North areas have a lower life expectancy than any country in the world