Emerald community supporting domestic violence awareness

According to Queensland Police Service (QPS), across Australia, police are called out to domestic and family violence incidents once every two minutes.
On average, QPS responds to 260 domestic and family violence occurrences each day.
In 2020, QPS investigated more than 107,000 domestic and family violence occurrences across the state.
QPS said domestic and family violence is not only physical, but can be emotional, sexual, financial, social, spiritual, verbal, psychological, or technology based.
Coercive control, or domestic and family violence involving controlling behaviour, can cause the person being abused to be fearful – often fearing for their safety or the safety of their loved ones.
On Tuesday, May 4, a candlelight vigil was held in Emerald at the Central Highlands Regional Council building at 6pm.
Queensland Police spokesperson Renae Cannon said the event was organised and supported by various community groups such as Centacare, Central Highland Regional Council (CHRC), Queensland Police and Central Queensland Indigenous Development (CQID).
“The vigil is to remember lives that have been lost via domestic violence and to raise community awareness of how domestic violence affects our community in the hope of making a change,” Ms Cannon said.
“It was only a small ceremony, but we would love to see more people attend which is why I would love to increase the awareness of the event.
“Speeches were made by Centacare employees, Police, CQID and a prayer by Ross Grierson with singers Katie Penfold and Roslyn Horsfall contributing as well.
“The speeches involved the impact of how domestic violence affects our community and our community members.
“This event occurs every year on the first Monday of May, however with the public holiday this year it was held on Tuesday.
“Police attend between 30 to 40 domestic violence related incidents each month in Emerald alone and we would love to be able to reduce this amount.
“We have a Purple Park Run coming up on Saturday, May 15 and a march against violence on May 31.”
If you or someone you know is facing a domestic violence situation, call Centacare on 1300 523 985, to report non-urgent domestic and family violence matters call Queensland Police on 131 444, or to report an emergency call triple zero.
This Friday, May 7, there will be a Domestic Violence Awareness Rugby League game at McIndoe Park, Emerald with the curtain raiser starting at 6.30pm.