Education advocates are calling for urgent legislation of boarding standards amid fresh child mistreatment claims at an outback Queensland hostel.
First Nations children who boarded at the Alice River Student Hostel in Barcaldine have told the ABC they were abused and assaulted, poorly fed, left in the care of other children, and forced to work for free in the operator's tourist business.
Another guardian said her 12-year-old granddaughter was "kicked out" of the hostel and told to sleep on the side of the road.
The facility is one of 280 boarding providers around the country that receive a share of more than $170 million in federal subsidies through ABSTUDY to support Indigenous children studying away from home.
There is no mandated qualification for workers at boarding facilities and no providers are required to meet legislated minimum standards in terms of quality of care they provide children.
Boarding Training Australia chief executive Steve Florisson, a former director of Indigenous Education and Boarding Australia, said there was a lot at stake.
"You've got a lot of vulnerable young people in boarding and some of these organisations completely fly under the radar," Dr Florisson said.
"They don't seek support, they don't seek training and we just don't really know they exist."
Dr Florisson said a national boarding standard was developed in 2015 but acted as a guide and was not enforced.
He said without legislated standards providers would continue to run with little oversight.
"That standard also only has a one-line mention of First Nations students," he said.
"What we have is a standard that applies to [hundreds] of boarding providers that is unmanned and dated."
'They failed in their duty of care'
Deanne Major sent her 12-year-old granddaughter to the Alice River Student Hostel in 2022 to attend high school in Barcaldine because there was no high school in her hometown of Boulia.
The East Arrernte woman signed forms to allow government funding to be directed to the hostel to pay for her granddaughter's food and accommodation expenses.
The ABC understands the hostel receives about $800,000 per year in government payments.
"It was the biggest mistake of my life," Ms Major said.
Ms Major said three days after she dropped her granddaughter at the hostel, she received a frantic call late at night from the 12-year-old, saying she and a friend had been kicked out.
"She was stressed and crying, saying the girls had had a fight and the [hostel] had kicked them out," Ms Major said.
"[The hostel] threw their things on the lawn and told them to get out.
"She was left by the side of the road and told to sleep at the bus stop overnight."
The operator of the Alice River Student Hostel did not respond to questions.
Ms Major said she called police but claimed officers didn't take her concerns seriously.
In a statement, a Queensland Police spokesperson said officers attended the hostel in March 2022 and spoke to those involved but no formal complaint was made.
"The QPS investigate all reported allegations and complaints of criminal offences," the spokesperson said.
Ms Major said the hostel never contacted her about her granddaugther's sudden expulsion.
"I'm disgusted, I'm hurt and angry," Ms Major said.
"I sent my kid down there to get an education thinking she was getting looked after.
"But they failed in their duty of care."
"It was racism. Two little black girls out in the street, who cares about them?"
In a previous statement to the ABC, the hostel operator said they did not want to give any allegations credit by responding to them.
In the statement they also said their students had "self-fulfilled prophesied lives that were usually filled with violence, crime, substance abuse, sexual abuse, premature morbidity and mortality, unemployment, imprisonment and extreme poverty".
The statement said families were "primarily grateful for the respite that our hostel provides their children from the risks, temptations and predators back home".
The ABC has chosen not to identify Ms Major's 12-year-old granddaughter due to her age, but the girl told the ABC the incident was "traumatising".
"Since being in Barcaldine I just don't feel safe around other adults. I don't want to go to boarding school anymore or be far away from home," she said.
Ms Major's granddaughter now attends school in Mount Isa.
"If there was a couple of white kids there, something would have been done about [the Alice River Student Hostel]," Ms Major said.
'They were starving'
Lindy Punch said she sent her daughter Dana to the Alice River Student Hostel in 2016 and was not notified when Dana was suddenly expelled just two weeks later.
"I didn't know where she was," she said.
Ms Punch said she tried to contact the hostel operator numerous times to get answers but never heard back.
She said she signed forms to allow about $2,500 worth of ABSTUDY funding to go to the hostel.
"[Dana] lived on two-minute noodles and kangaroo meat," Ms Punch said.
"They had to cut the kangaroo meat up themselves ... they had no money for anything else."
She said children used to ring up parents asking for money because they were starving.
"I'm disappointed that this was allowed to happen," she said.
Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace has previously said allegations relating to the Alice River Hostel were "very concerning" and that she had asked the department to take further steps to support the students.
In a statement, federal Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was undertaking a review to "identify systemic reform options to better support First Nations boarding students from rural and remote areas".
Calls for Indigenous-led solutions
Indigenous Education and Boarding Australia (IEBA) wrote to the federal government last month demanding legislated standards be implemented.
The peak body initially raised concerns in a 2016 parliamentary committee relating to the administration of ABSTUDY and educational outcomes of First Nations children.
Their calls were not acted upon.
Dr Florisson said the government had put the issue in the "too hard basket".
He said cases such as the Alice River Student Hostel highlighted how urgent the matter was.
"This matter is really so critical, it can't be ignored," he said.
Dr Florisson said a specific mandated standard should be made for Indigenous boarding students in consultation with First Nations leaders.
"It should take into account cultural safety, cultural care, making places culturally welcoming and enables young people to complete their secondary education," he said.
"It's so important to get this right for young people because we know there are a group of kids who do not engage with school again if their boarding experience has been unsatisfactory or they got homesick.
"We have mandated standards in aged care and childcare — why not boarding?"
