Inquest Raises Alarming Questions as NSW Child Protective Services Under Scrutiny

As the Mitchell family bids adieu to their tenure at Angourie Resort, they express heartfelt gratitude to their dedicated staff, who weathered the challenges and triumphs alongside them. Linda Mitchell emphasized the resilience exhibited through natural disasters, economic downturns, and unprecedented global crises, contrasting these with the jubilant moments of weddings, conferences, and celebrations that underscored the resort’s vibrant history. Despite parting ways with Angourie Resort, the Mitchell family remains firmly anchored in the hospitality industry, continuing to oversee the Blue Dolphin Resort, a cornerstone of the Lower Clarence tourism landscape. Mark Mitchell affirmed the family’s commitment, signalling Danielle and Mathew Mitchell’s continued stewardship of the Blue Dolphin Resort, a testament to their enduring legacy in the hospitality realm.

Disturbing revelations have surfaced as a coronial inquest delves into the tragic demise of a nine-month-old baby girl, referred to as Baby Q, whose life ended tragically after being drowned by her father in the Tweed River back in 2018. Despite prior interactions with child protective services, the period leading up to this heartbreaking incident raised critical concerns about the effectiveness of the safety measures in place to protect vulnerable children.

The inquest, spearheaded by Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame, initiated a meticulous examination into the circumstances surrounding Baby Q’s untimely death. The child protective services, weeks before the fatal event, reportedly noted no safety concerns despite the family’s precarious circumstances. The family, grappling with homelessness, had undergone numerous relocations between Queensland and northern New South Wales, amplifying the complexities of their situation.

Details emerging during the inquest highlighted alarming facts about the father’s mental health condition. With a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a lapse in medication, the father’s past health records unveiled distressing indications of prior hallucinations, prompting visions instructing him to abduct and harm an infant. Shockingly, the father attempted to relinquish the baby to a homeless woman earlier on the tragic day of her demise, a detail that underscores the father’s deteriorating mental state.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Donna Ward SC, shed light on the sequence of events, indicating the father’s distressing actions leading up to the irreversible tragedy. Surveillance footage captured the father’s desperate attempts to give away Baby Q before ultimately heading to the Tweed River foreshore, where he callously threw her into the water.

The culmination of this distressing narrative was a courtroom verdict in 2020, where the father was deemed not guilty of murder due to mental health concerns. However, the inquest, now underway, aims to address critical inquiries about the systemic failures and lapses in the safety net meant to protect vulnerable children like Baby Q.

Ms. Ward underscored the pivotal focus of the inquest, highlighting the urgent need for recommendations to bolster child protective services and other governmental agencies. The overarching goal is to prevent similar harrowing incidents from recurring in the future, fostering a more robust safety apparatus for children in precarious circumstances.

The inquest’s gravity lies not just in seeking accountability for the past but in charting a path forward to fortify protective measures and enact tangible reforms within the child welfare system. It represents a critical juncture, prompting a meticulous introspection into systemic flaws and a fervent determination to safeguard the most vulnerable members of our society.

More engaging stories of the outback

Title: The Drover’s Daughter Rides Again

Author: Patsy Kemp

Price: $30.00

Publisher: Patsy Kemp

By Samantha Elley

You may remember I reviewed Patsy’s rst book e Drover’s Daughter where she writes of her childhood on the road in the 1950s-60s when droving was a way of life for some families.

Well, Patsy is back with another round of anecdotes and fascinating stories of a way of life not so common in outback NSW and Queensland, as it once was.

is time Patsy relates stories of how her parents met and carries on to her adventures a er she le the droving life behind to make her own way in the world.

A er living in the big city of Melbourne and a