Aborigines say federal intervention has left them sick

DARWIN - Elders are threatening to abandon their remote community in central Australia, claiming rubbish and ankle-deep sewage are making residents sick.

A group of 30 indigenous leaders from Ampilatwaja have set up a protest camp 3km from the township, about 300km northeast of Alice Springs.

They say the federal intervention into remote communities has left them demoralised and sick, and they are threatening to build a new community on traditional lands not subject to government control.

"Under your intervention team's poor management, my people and community is in disarray," said community spokesman Richard Downs. "[There is] malfunctioning with dust, rubbish and poor housing with leaking sewerage ... We have no other choice but have now decided and agreed upon a return to our grandfather's/mother's country which is on the pastoral lease."

Downs said the intervention had widened the gap in Aboriginal disadvantage, and Government Business Managers (GBMs) deployed to the community had not shown "compassion, understanding or respect".

A Northern Territory government spokeswoman said "urgent work" was needed on seven houses and their septic tanks.

Work was expected to start this morning "at the latest".

- AAP