Martha Day and siblings Elizabeth and Johnathan told to leave Manunda bush camp

Three Indigenous siblings who fled violence in the Cape have found peace in Cairns bushland but now they’re being made to move on. What are their options now?

THREE Aboriginal siblings have made a home out of their bush camp in Manunda for the past eight months.

They said it’s the safest place for them, free from the domestic violence and intertribal warfare they fled from, and away from the abuse they experienced in crisis housing across Cairns.

Now they’re being ordered to move on, told by Cairns Regional Council they have until Tuesday to vacate their current place of residence.

“They just told us we need to pack up and move on and I said, ‘Where the hell are we going to go to? This is our home’,” said Martha Day, who lives in her wing of the camp with her sister Elizabeth and brother Johnathan.

Martha, Elizabeth and Johnathan Day moved from Mapoon to Cairns nine months ago to escape conflict. They have been living in a camp in the bush, but the Cairns Regional Council has given them until Tuesday to move on. They say they have nowhere to go. Picture: Brendan Radke

“We just love living in the bush. If we pack up, we’re still going to be going back into town and sleeping there.”

Ms Day originally moved from Old Mapoon in Cape York to escape an abusive relationship. She stayed in crisis housing for one week in Cairns but said the overcrowding made her leave. She has been at the Manunda bush camp ever since.

“We don’t know where to go, what to do, where to make the next camp. We’ve got no home. We’ve been on the social housing list for eight years,” she said.

Elizabeth Day said some crisis accommodation options in Cairns feel like staying in a jailhouse and she has found a much more peaceful existence in the bush. Picture: Brendan Radke

Ms Day said two male staff members from Cairns Regional Council and a female staff member from Mission Australia visited all the camp residents on Thursday, August 11, and informed everyone they would need to move.

Ms Day said another wing of the camp housed an infant and other children but said it wasn’t right for kids to be living there.

“It feels a little bit scary to live out in the bush sometimes because people do ice around here,” she said.

“But it’s peaceful,” Elizabeth said.

The Days’ bush camp at Manunda. Picture: Brendan Radke

“The whole reason we’re out here camping is because we have no stable or safe place to stay.

“In our community in Napranum there’s big riots right now. People running around with knives, skidding cars, waving spears.”

Martha said: “Some do die in front of our face. It’s scary looking at the spear land in them.”

Elizabeth said crisis accommodation in Cairns felt like living in a jailhouse.

“It’s dangerous to stay in there. Drunk people come in every night swearing, harassing us, bossing us around and fighting over blankets and beds,” she said

“We don’t get those people here, and we like our set-up.”

Destry Puia, Cairns Regional Council’s director of lifestyle and community, said council liaison officers attended the site at Manunda to engage with the occupants after being notified by Mission Australia.

“The occupants were also informed they were camping illegally and would need to move on,” said Mr Puia.

Mr Puia said the council’s liaison officers committed to the occupants they would return the next week with Mission Australia Outreach representatives to support the camp’s residents in accessing emergency or crisis accommodation.

“The impact that illegal camping has on surrounding residents also needs to be considered alongside those of the camp occupants,” he said.

“Under council’s local laws … police can be asked to assist where people refuse to vacate.”

Mission Australia area manager Mark Jentz said his team visited the group on Thursday and identified two teenagers with a one-year-old child.

“The young family requested assistance and we were able to immediately find short-term accommodation for them,” he said.

Originally published as Martha Day and siblings Elizabeth and Johnathan told to leave Manunda bush camp