UP to 60 Indigenous people are spending their days drinking and camping on the banks of the Leichhardt River, but no one seems to have a concrete solution to a situation that's getting worse by the year.
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Not even Mount Isa Riverbed Action Group caseworker Shelly Sarkas who said she was resigning from her position after three years because of stress and despair at a problem that wasn't getting fixed.
Ms Sarkas said she worked with the same 60 or 70 clients who line the banks of the Leichhardt River each day, offering them help to find accommodation, employment, legal services, identification and support.
"They need somewhere by the river where it's safe for them to stay.
"We've tried to speak with different groups but no one wants them on their property.
"At the moment the clients won't follow the rules, they'll camp wherever, if they get fined they'll come back, it doesn't matter to them."
She said Riverbed Action Group offered life skills programs and Friday outings to distract their clients from alcohol.
"But often we'll get to Lake Moondarra and they'll want to come straight back - 'it's drinking time'," she said.
"When I started here doing a traineeship I felt sorry for them but I've learnt you can't show sympathy but you can show empathy.
"We help so many but it's a circle, we'll get them into accommodation and they'll be straight back here again."
Ms Sarkas said the action group had a positive outcome with about 20 per cent of their clients.
"I think alcohol restrictions like they have in the Northern Territory would help here," she said.
"The Mayor of this town should build a facility where they can go, do whatever they like and if they burn it down then that's their fault.
"They should get the basic human right to live their lives how they want to and at least that way it would sort out who actually wants to make their lives better.
"And would stop wasting police time."
She said facilities like Topsy Harry Centre and refuges often had strict rules on drinking and restrictions that her client's couldn't handle.
"They like going down to the river because that's where they feel free.
"Often there are tribal issues with certain people not getting along and a lot are banned from accommodation and rental properties, so they go down to the river to get away from that stuff and all the rules."
North Queensland Indigenous Catholic social services chief executive officer Fiona Hill said the majority of people spending time near the riverbed had proper accommodation.
"They're happy to be camping there, it's where they want to be, but we need to keep our waterways safe and clean as well," she said.
Ms Hill said about 50 per cent of Indigenous people using the river as a camping ground were from the Northern Territory.
Alcohol played a huge part in drawing people to the river, she said.
"It's an addiction or an illness I guess, a lot of the riverbed people are addicted to alcohol.
"If the government could change Centrelink paydays back to one day a week, like a Wednesday one week and a Thursday the next, it would help."
"At the moment you can choose your payday so in a house of five people it means one person is getting paid each day."
Riverbed Action Group coordinator Chad Duffy said he thought police officers needed education on how to deal with the riverbed campers.
Mr Duffy said he'd seen "some" officers using unnecessary force to move groups along.
Mount Isa Mayor Tony McGrady said he hoped he could show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Minister Glen Elms the problem Mount Isa faced with Indigenous riverbed campers when he visited the area next week.
"I have made the council position clear that we will not tolerate a situation of people living in the riverbed," he said.
"We will work with the police to remove them. In fact today we are commencing our clean up of the river and we will continue to do so.
"To suggest a facility be made available for these people would not be condoned by the council.
"I have a strong view, which is if people come and live in our community they have to accept the rules which the community imposes upon itself.