Leaving Yuendumu on the day Kumanjayi Walker was ultimately shot by a police officer "went against everything" a remote community nurse had "ever learned", the Northern Territory coroner has been told.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Cassandra Holland worked as a nurse in Yuendumu, a remote community 300 kilometres from Alice Springs, for five months, before Mr Walker died on November 9, 2019.
Mr Walker was shot three times by NT Police Constable Zachary Rolfe, who has since been acquitted of all charges.
A coronial inquest into his death has heard the clinic's nursing staff evacuated the community hours before the police shooting due to concerns for their personal safety.
However, Ms Holland told the coroner she hadn't been affected by the "escalation" in property crimes against nursing staff and didn't want to leave.
"I don't believe any community should be left without nurses," Ms Holland said.
"It went against everything I ever learned … Yuendumu had a lot of sick people."
Nurse believed withdrawal not 'appropriate'
The coroner was told the Indigenous health clinic staff had also not been affected by recent break-ins and were not involved in discussions about nurses leaving.
Counsel Assisting the coroner suggested they should have been included.
"I anticipate that I will submit to Her Honour that nursing staff should have asked the Yapa [Warlpiri] clinic staff what they thought about kardiya [non-Aboriginal] staff leaving the community and whether anything else could have been done. What do you think about that in hindsight?" asked Dr Peggy Dwyer.
"With the value of hindsight … I believe [health department managers] should have come to the community and taken over and worked with the police and worked with the community. I don't believe … the withdrawal of the clinic staff was appropriate," Ms Holland said.
Ms Holland also said she was not aware of a risk assessment being done before the nurses withdrew.
The coroner heard the Yuendumu-based team of nurses were "close-knit" and did not have the "opportunity" to socialise with other stakeholders or members of the community.
"There was no opportunity to go out and meet the community … we were encouraged to stay within the confines of our yard," Ms Holland said.
"It was dangerous [to walk in the community] … You'd get taken down by the [stray] dogs."
Ms Holland told the coroner she has not been "allowed" to return to Yuendumu to work since 2019 because her managers told her the community had blamed her for the nurses evacuating.
"I have trauma, after the fact that a 19-year-old died in community and there was no health response and I am very hurt by the way I was treated by Northern Territory Health," Ms Holland said.
Young nurse recalls feeling 'nervous' about crime
A 21-year-old graduate nurse saw "rakes and shovels and pickaxes" left in her colleague's backyard hours before health staff evacuated Yuendumu due to safety concerns and Kumanjayi Walker was fatally shot by a police officer, the Northern Territory coroner has heard.
Mathilda Starbuck was the third Yuendumu-based nurse called to give evidence to the coronial inquest into the death of Mr Walker.
She was one of several nurses who had left the community when Mr Walker was shot by a police officer during an attempted arrest on the evening of November 9, 2019.
The officer who fired the fatal shots, Constable Zachary Rolfe, has since been acquitted of all charges relating to the death.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage is presiding over a months-long inquest examining the circumstances of the police shooting.
Health service 'can't continue' if nurses' safety at risk, community told
The court was told on Tuesday that Ms Starbuck had told police the nurses thought leaving Yuendumu could "send a message" to the community that ongoing break-ins at nurses' homes put their safety at risk.
Under cross examination from the barrister for Mr Walker's family, Gerard Mullins, Ms Starbuck was asked to explain her comments.
"We couldn't provide a service if we were unsafe and that was the reason we were removed from the community," Ms Starbuck said.
"Let's not sugar-coat it, you thought that what was happening here was that the nurses and management were sending a message to the community that unless they stop doing this stuff, they weren't going to have a health service?" Mr Mullins asked.
"I think we wanted the community to understand that if the safety of the nurses were put at risk, then the health service can't continue as fully staffed … then that changes the service that we can provide for health care," Ms Starbuck said.
Nurses given 'direction' to evacuate Yuendumu
Ms Starbuck told the coroner that health department management had given the nurses a "direction" to evacuate, after attempted break-ins at nurses' homes in the early hours of November 9, 2019.
Ms Starbuck recalled being woken by a colleague after she heard people attempting to break into her home and the neighbouring property of another nurse.
The court heard attending police officers, Sergeant Julie Frost and Senior Constable Chris Hand, told the nurses "they thought they knew who may have been leading the break-ins and that there was a plan in place … it was mentioned that a person had lunged at police officers with an axe prior when they were trying to arrest them".
Sergeant Frost has earlier told the coroner police had no evidence to suggest Mr Walker was involved in the break-ins.
The young nurse told the coroner she was "nervous" about the break-ins, which she felt were "targeting" nursing staff.
"Being by myself in the house, and then previously what Julie [Frost] had said about the person who they thought was breaking in had gone at police with an axe," Ms Starbuck said.
"And then seeing what they'd used to try and get into Luana [Symonds'] house was a bit unnerving, that they could potentially enter my house, and have the same things."
The coroner heard "rakes, shovels and pickaxes" were found in Luana Symonds' backyard.
Ms Starbuck, who was the youngest and most inexperienced member of the nursing staff, told the coroner she wasn't involved in discussions with Yuendumu elders or members of the community before the nurses ultimately left for Alice Springs on the afternoon of November 9, 2019.
She agreed with Counsel Assisting the Coroner Peggy Dwyer that "in hindsight", while she had a "genuine reason to be fearful … it would have been better to be able to discuss all those fears with the community and ask for the community's support going forward — before the clinic staff moved out."
The inquest continues.
