Anger and violence spilled into the streets of Alice Springs after the discovery of the body of a five-year-old Indigenous girl who had been reported missing from her home on the town's outskirts late on Saturday. Her family have used the name Kumanjayi Little Baby in line with Indigenous customs.
The girl's body was located on Thursday by one of hundreds of volunteers searching the harsh desert country surrounding the popular Northern Territory tourist town.
Authorities identified a 47-year-old man, Jefferson Lewis, as the suspect in the alleged killing. Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said Lewis was located by locals late on Thursday night and had been severely beaten before police took him into custody. Lewis was taken to Alice Springs Hospital for treatment and then moved to the territory capital, Darwin, in the early hours of Friday for his own safety. Dole said Lewis is likely to face charges in the coming days.
Around 400 people assembled outside Alice Springs Hospital where Lewis was being treated, attempting to force entry, Dole said. Local reporting indicated police deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd. Protesters threw projectiles and set fires, with two police vehicles reported to have been set alight. Authorities confirmed that two police officers and two medical workers sustained injuries during the unrest.
"The violent outpouring that we saw last night, the attacks on police and emergency services personnel, not only is not acceptable, but it’s not reflective of what we’ve seen for the last five days," Commissioner Dole said, referring to the prior cooperation between locals and police during the search.
The clashes followed an extensive community-led search across difficult terrain. Hundreds of residents joined efforts to locate the missing child before her body was found on Thursday.
The episode unfolded against a backdrop of long-standing challenges in relations between the Australian state and Indigenous communities. Indigenous Australians comprise around 3.8% of the country's population of about 27 million, and the Northern Territory town where this occurred has long-standing social and economic strains. Thousands of people, including the victim and her family, live in camp communities on the outskirts of Alice Springs where housing and services are often described as inadequate.
Alice Springs has in the past imposed curfews and alcohol restrictions to try to contain periods of unrest in local Indigenous communities. The current disturbances resulted in direct harm to frontline personnel and significant damage to property as police and emergency services responded to attempts to breach the hospital.
Authorities moved to secure the suspect and said they expected criminal charges to follow. The full legal process and any further public order consequences remain subject to official actions in the coming days.