Mt Isa suffering amid violent ‘flare ups’, as crime totals surge

Police say family feuds are fuelling a “flare up” of violent brawls in Mount Isa, with kids as young as 11 and 12 charged after the outback town’s latest street fight.

Police say family feuds are fuelling a “flare up” of violent street brawls in Mount Isa, as shocking footage of a fight involving children being bashed has emerged.

It comes as new data also reveals the number of crimes committed in Mount Isa has almost doubled in the past decade.

Queensland Police statistics reveal 13,731 offences were committed in Mount Isa in 2024 compared to 8160 in 2014, with the region’s crime growing at a faster rate than its population.

On Friday, harrowing footage was released on social media showing multiple people stomping on and punching a person on Abel Smith Parade at Mount Isa about 2am on Friday morning.

The fight followed a wild brawl near Mount Isa Hospital on May 9, which involved a group of 30 adults, with four women charged with public nuisance as a result.

Mount Isa District Acting Inspector Adrian Rieck said “from time to time we do have flare ups that occur within family groups and they do spill out onto the roadway or into public spaces.”

Mount Isa fight video stills ., crime, gangs, violence

“We have a number of feuding or warring families that may sometimes have issues with each other and it will overspill into the street or into a physical fight,” he said. “It can happen, and it can involve fights. All of those matters are investigated fully and appropriated.”

Insp Rieck said what was most concerning about the most recent incident on Friday was that no one called police.

“We really need people to communicate with us. That job overnight we can confirm nobody contacted the police about that,” he said.

“We have children that were involved in that matter that were being assaulted but no one felt the need to call police or emergency services. No one called an ambulance or anything like that.”

Insp Rieck said there had been a concentrated effort to bring crime down in Mount Isa and he had seen a decrease in repeat youth offenders in the region.

“Since 2023, I’ve been able to put in a number of programs,” he said.

“I’ve got significant decreases across the board in person offences, property offences. 2023 through to 2025, particularly last year, I’ve been able to decrease unlawful use of motor vehicles. “I’ve gotten at least 100 less stolen cars in Mount Isa in that period of time than previous.”

But leader of the Katter’s Australian Party Robbie Katter said there needed to be an alternative to sentencing. He said until bush sentencing was considered crime would keep happening.

Mr Katter said “nothing had been fixed” in his view.

“Not even close,” he said.

“You get a reprieve where everyone goes ‘it seems to have abated’ but typically that just is a cyclic thing.

“This is a function of the kids, the main offenders have just gone to juvie for that period – they get locked up and then a few months later they come back on the street.”

QPS data from May 2025 shows the number of overall offences across Mt Isa has risen steeply since Covid.

Insp Rieck said his most recent operation had almost completely got rid of car thefts in tourist parks.

Mount Isa District Acting Inspector Adrian Rieck said what was most concerning about the most recent incident on Friday was that no one called police.

Mount Isa City Council Mayor Peta MacRae said brawls in the city happened more often than she would like but it wasn’t normal behaviour.

“The police are under-resourced to deal with the extreme amounts of DV and violence that we have in our community,” she said.

“There’s a lot of issues at play. Obviously poverty is one, we also have people coming across the border and down from The Gulf to access services.”

Ms MacRae said council had been advocating the state government for more resources and also to come up with a model to have a rehabilitation facility for young people in Mount Isa.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the state government was committed to addressing crime in Mount Isa and pointed to the introduction of Making Queensland Safer law reforms to be presented to parliament this week.

On Saturday morning police confirmed three youths had been charged after the violent street brawl in Mount Isa on Friday.

A 13-year-old girl, 12-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl were charged with assault occasioning bodily harm and common assault.

Originally published as Mt Isa suffering amid violent ‘flare ups’, as crime totals surge