Indigenous Queensland boy found dead in rural town Emerald

A nine-year-old boy has been found dead at his home, sparking widespread calls for an investigation into suicide rates among children in indigenous communities.

The youngster was discovered by his cousin lying in the backyard of his home in the rural mining town of Emerald, in Queensland, last Wednesday.

The death of the primary school student has been ruled ‘non-suspicious’ by police, but comes just weeks after his uncle reportedly took his own life, The Australian reports.

While police are reportedly investigating if the child’s death was an accident, it has added to fears of the mental health of children in remote Australian communities. 

NICRS researcher Gerry ­Georgatos said they were providing assistance to the family of the young boy, while also dubbing the high rate of Indigenous suicides a ‘crisis’.

‘There are no words imaginable when a young child suicides,’ Mr Georgatos told The Australian.

‘To lose children at 9, 10, 11 should be unimaginable,­ but there is a ­crisis in this nation that is getting worse.’

With Indigenous children taking their lives at twice the rate of others, the National Indigenous Critical Response Service (NICRS) was initiated last year.

The youngster was discovered by his cousin lying in the backyard of his home in the rural mining town of Emerald, in Queensland (pictured), last Wednesday

But despite it being rolled out nationwide, Mr Georgatos said the suicide level was a political and moral ‘abomination’.

‘Eighty per cent of Australia’s suicides of children aged 12 years and less are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children,’ he said.

An investigation is already underway into the suicides of 13 indigenous children within a three-and-a-half year span in a remote Western Australia community.

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