Two seriously injured in Palumpa violence, Wadeye unrest continues

Police say two people have been seriously injured in fighting between armed groups in the remote Northern Territory community of Palumpa, 350 kilometres south-west of Darwin, while violent unrest in the nearby community of Wadeye has flared up again.

An NT Police spokesperson said two men went to the Palumpa clinic at 11am yesterday with serious injuries — one with lacerations to his ankles, another with lacerations to his hands.

Both men were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital for treatment.

Officers said the injuries happened after up to 12 people were fighting with weapons, with one 20-year-old man arrested.

Palumpa, also known as Nganmarriyanga, has a population of around 400 people and is just 45km from the troubled community of Wadeye, where violence has been ongoing for several months.

Unrest again flared up in Wadeye yesterday morning, with more than 200 armed people fighting near the community's Creek Camp and police using capsicum spray to disperse the crowd.

The NT Police spokesperson said investigators did not yet know if the Palumpa violence was linked to the unrest in Wadeye.

Last month, a 22-year-old man was seriously injured after being speared in the back in fighting between armed groups in Wadeye, and a 30-year-old man received serious injuries to his head and leg during fighting between a large group of people from the community in Darwin, last month.

Some of the members of the men's families recently told the ABC they were concerned the injuries would continue to drive more tit-for-tat violence between Wadeye's Indigenous clans.

Twenty-four clans live on Kardu Diminin land in the community, where 2,500 people have lived since missionaries arrived with colonisation.

The feud has flared periodically over several decades and resulted in the death of a man and dozens of houses burnt in 2022.