Far North farm plan to treat kid criminals
Awards for green crusaders
MONDAY MARCH 12 2018 SUPPORT is growing for a relocation program in Cairns to be introduced which would place youth offenders on a remote farm for rehabilitation instead of locking them up.
The call for a relocation program similar to the Petford Wellness Association model comes after about 70 Cairns residents sick of the region’s youth crime problem gathered on Saturday with state and federal members of parliament to address the issue.
Alwyn Lyall attended the meeting at Woree to share his experience as a Petford Wellness Association student about 30 years ago.
“I started going out there when I was about 12 years old,” he said.
“Back in the day it was like an award. If you did well in school and went every day of the week you’d get to go out and muck around with horses on the weekend.”
Mr Lyall has since sent his 12 kids to the program voluntarily and said he understood what a difference a similar program would make for young offenders.
“You can do something with them every day here in town, but at night they’ll be going home to the same thing, which is overcrowded houses, nobody to look after or care for them,” he said.
“Petford would take them away from that circle of life that they have when they live in the city.”
State Member for Hill Shane Knuth said there was “a lot of anger out there” about the way young offenders were being rehabilitated.
“We’ve had systems in place where children have been relocated to other areas and set up in a program,” he said.
“This system has proven to work, and if we keep going back to what we’re doing now we’re going to trouble.”
He said Katter’s Australian Party was already working on developing policy to implement programs based on the Petford Wellness Association across the state.
“We have a policy of relocation sentencing, we have worked on this for about 12 months,” he said.
“We’re still gathering and fall into big collating information because we want to make sure that what we put together actually works.
“Townsville’s had enough, Cairns has had enough and we really need to do something.”
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PETFORD Wellness Association is a four-step program to help juvenile offenders. Step 1 is assessing wellbeing, family structure and the young person’s early life. Step 2 includes family support during court appearances and admission to remote diversion programs. Step 3 centres around horsemanship and healthy diets. This time includes supervised social activities with opposite-sex attendees. Step 4 is completion of the sentence. The participant is reintegrated to society and will visit with support workers for the next few months. A LONG-STANDING tree planting program on the Tablelands has received a special award at the annual Wet Tropics Cassowary Awards.
Trees for the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands (TREAT) were given the chairwoman’s gong at the awards on Saturday night by Wet Tropics Management Authority chairwoman Leslie Shirreffs.
“Every so often we come across an individual or organisation which stands out as a leader, uniting and inspiring the community behind a common goal,” she said. The award acknowledged the organisation’s work over 35 years.
There were eight winners from 47 nominees. The others are:
■ Thorsborne Award for Community Conservation Rehabilitation (joint winners): Rainforest Rescue and Dr Karen Coombes.
■ Tourism and Presentation Award: Small World Journeys.
■ Innovation Award: Distinguished Professor William F. Laurance.
■ Education Award: Holloways Beach and Tinaroo Environment Education centres: School Science and Sustainability Enrichment Program.
■ People. Country. Culture. Award: Djunbunji Land and Sea Program.
■ Community Champions Award (joint winners): Liz Gallie and Gavin Singleton.
■ Young Cassowary Award: Asha Mayberry.
■ Local Government and Industry Initiatives Award: Cairns Regional Council.