Safety concern in remote community with police station unstaffed

A remote Far North Queensland community fears it is being left without police support while authorities try to fill vacancies at its empty police station.

Earlier this week, Queensland Police Service (QPS) confirmed the Laura police station was sitting empty while recruitment was underway to replace the solo officer, who had taken unplanned leave.

The remote Cape York township posting, 310 kilometres north-west of Cairns, covers a vast remote area incorporating the tourist gateway Peninsula Development Road (PDR).

QPS said patrols and call-outs in the meantime were covered by officers from Cooktown and Hope Vale, more than 140km away.

The Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service said any gap in remote police staffing was deeply concerning for domestic violence victim-survivors.

Acting chief executive Thelma Schwartz said she was not surprised by the vacancy, describing remote understaffing as a long-standing problem.

"It doesn't matter if you're a victim-survivor of domestic, family and sexual violence living in metropolitan Queensland, regional Queensland, rural and remote Queensland," she said.

"The response from police should be the same: it should be urgent, it should be available."

Ms Schwartz said she had frequently raised slow response times, including to the commission of inquiry into police domestic violence responses.

She said calls from towns without a local officer were diverted elsewhere, which could mean delays of several hours.

That risk grows as the wet season arrives and flooding threatens to cut roads across the tropical north.

Ms Schwartz said the risk of opportunistic violence from perpetrators due to lack of police presence was also well known.

Already underpoliced

Locals said the Laura division was already stretched even before the vacancy, with its two-officer posting long staffed by just one.

Palmerville Station resident Archie Levers said his community often had incidents where they struggled to get police support.

"We have a lot of illegal campers and illegal prospectors and people lighting fires, arsonists," he said.

"We had one incident last year that we had to call Mareeba police because we knew that it was serious."

Laura Quinkan Dance Festival organiser Debbie Symonds said she was concerned the community was not informed of the unstaffed police station, particularly given the amount of tourists passing through the area.

"It is the last bit of bitumen till they finish between the PDR before you hit dirt, and that's where a lot of issues can start and end in that town," she said.

While she welcomed news police were in the process of recruiting, she hoped QPS would ensure any new officers brought to the region were equipped to understand and work with the community.

"[We need] someone that is very balanced between cultural significance and events as well as being able to uphold law and be respected for that," she said.

Union critical of slow response

Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior said QPS could have sent a relief officer to Laura straight away while it recruited.

"That position could have been filled, it simply wasn't because it was going to cost too much money," Mr Prior said.

"It's simply not good enough. The community of Laura deserved better. They deserve a police officer."

Mr Prior said Laura was not an isolated case, with 745 positions vacant across the service.

He said the union met with QPS on Thursday morning and understood the station would be staffed as soon as possible.

A QPS spokesperson said recruitment for a relieving officer was underway, with the aim of having them start as soon as possible.

QPS said it could not detail how long Laura was unstaffed due to operational security.

"Far North police remain focused on the safety of local communities, their officers, and ensuring the highest levels of service delivery are always maintained," the QPS spokesperson said.

In a statement, Police Minister Dan Purdie said 272 new officers had been posted to the Far North since the LNP came to power.