The Top End town where 15 people died preventable deaths in six months

Remote Indigenous communities across Australia are painfully aware that their life expectancy rates are worsening compared to the non-Indigenous population.

Note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family.

But in the Northern Territory Gulf of Carpentaria community of Borroloola, residents feel their death rate is "not normal", and are calling for an investigation into why they are losing so many people.

Mambaliya elder Nancy Yukuwal McDinny said the community of 900 was in shock after 15 people, aged from their 20s to their 50s, had died there from chronic health conditions or suicide in the space of six months.

She said her younger brother, referred to as Mr McDinny for cultural reasons, had died aged 50 from cancer last year.

"I was in big shock, I'm 67, older than my brother, who just passed away," she said.

"And too many of our young people, we don't know why they passed away — they were young people."

Her son Gadrian Hoosan said the whole community was reeling.

"They are our loved ones that we're losing — and we are all sad because we have lost a lot of family in Borroloola," he said.

The family said Borroloola's NT government-run clinic does not provide enough health checks and prevention programs.

"The Northern Territory government should be helping more," Ms McDinny said.

"They should put a lot of money into the community to build a new clinic with 24-hour doctors to be there. We're not happy."

It is a view shared by Maria Pyro, whose 51-year-old aunt Teresa Rory died from kidney and liver failure in January.

"We've lost 15 of our people," she said.

"It's not normal to have people just dropping dead — I mean, these are young people in their 40s and 30s.

"It's a crisis. We need help now, not tomorrow, not when it suits the government to come down here — we want to see action now."

Overworked staff, overcrowded houses

Ms Pyro said the Borroloola clinic also appeared to be overworked.

"What I see when I go down to the clinic is that the nurses and the doctors are just so busy fixing acute problems," she said.

"They don't have time to go out and do primary healthcare because they're too busy doing emergency stuff.

"But if we had a preventative program here, we'd stop losing people."

Ms Pyro said poor living conditions and overcrowding were also factors contributing to bad health outcomes.

"Most of my family and friends have 10 to 20 people living in their house, it's not normal to live like this," she said.

"Where's the Australian dream — what Australian dream?"

Ms Rory's brother Keith Rory is calling on the NT government to investigate whether her death and some of the others could have been prevented through better healthcare.

"She shouldn't have died, she was too young, that's why we want an investigation, that's what I'm chasing up, and accountability, for my sister, and for the 14 others," he said.

New clinic promised

NT Health Minister and local MLA Steve Edgington did not respond to a request for an interview, and the NT Health Department did not answer the ABC's question about whether it would investigate the deaths.

The department's deputy chief executive, Fiona Renshaw, said in a statement the Borroloola clinic was "appropriately staffed to meet operational requirements".

Ms Renshaw said the department had run a health-check week in Borroloola, during which 80 people had check-ups, as well as a heart-check week, along with prevention and vaccination programs across the territory.

She said the clinic was "working with the community to improve health outcomes".

"NT Health acknowledges the passing of community members in Borroloola and extends its condolences to their families and loved ones,"

she said.

The government has promised to build a new clinic in Borroloola later this year, with the builder tender saying the current facility is "not fit for purpose and operates at above optimal capacity".

NT Health Complaints Commissioner Ruth Brisbane said the commission had received 26 complaints about remote clinics from communities in the past 12 months, with many related to the provision of medication.

That marked a steep decrease on the 787 complaints and inquiries across the whole of the NT last financial year.

She said people in remote communities were often reluctant to complain to the commission.

"We tend to find that people often feel less comfortable to complain where there's a single service, and that's the only service that they have, there is that high level of anxiety and reluctance to lodge a complaint," she said.

"So it's complicated to know whether people are not complaining because they don't know about the commission, or are there other factors that play into that as well."

'Too familiar with death'

Closing the Gap data shows that nationally, the rate of avoidable Indigenous deaths has risen from 177 per 100,000 people 10 years ago to 220 now — more than double the whole-of-community average of 97.

Federal Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said her government was working to try to close that gap.

She said there were too many deaths in her home community of Borroloola, where her niece died before Christmas in an alleged domestic violence attack, and across the country.

"I'm very conscious of a number of communities that are really experiencing distress," she said.

"Borroloola is certainly one of those in terms of deaths.

"I still have to bury my niece from tragic circumstances — this is something that is shared by First Nations people across the country. We are just too familiar with death."