A remote Indigenous island that has been dry for two decades could soon see alcohol served at a local tavern, after more than a decade of consultation.
Mornington Island Shire Councillor David Barnes said he believed the council was "months" away from having a community tavern re-opened to serve legally-produced alcohol at specific times in restricted quantities.
He said the alcohol prohibition had had its place, but that dangerous amounts of poorly home-brewed alcohol were being consumed on the island, located in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
"Recently we undertook some community consultation here ... where we asked people how they felt about the prohibition," Cr Barnes said.
"A large percentage of people were in favour of re-introducing some form of controlled alcohol as opposed to continuing down the path of prohibition.
"Prohibition, unfortunately, all of the intentions are good, as a philosophy it sounds workable, but as we've seen in history and as we've seen here on Mornington Island ... unfortunately it doesn't do what it's meant to do.
Home-brew health concerns
Cr Barnes said the prevalence of home-brew was concerning, with no consistency in the products.
He said despite the overwhelming support for the tavern, some members of the community were wary.
"I mean, prohibition wasn't just put it on the ground here as an exercise or an experiment — it was an attempt to try to curb some of the already dangerous situations that were evolving because of alcohol on Mornington Island.
"And people are afraid that that might happen again."
Cr Barnes said he hoped to see a tavern legally operating in the coming months.
"Hopefully within the next few months we will start operating again, with a licence that was fairly similar to [a lodge] that was here on the island at one time," he said.
"We'll have a motel and a restaurant where people will be able to consume alcohol while they are customers there. There won't be any takeaways in the short term, though this is being worked toward also."
Dry community needs support
Peter d'Abbs, an honorary fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research in Brisbane, said issues faced by dry communities, such as home-brew and 'sly grogging' (the illegal sale of alcohol), were difficult to combat.
His research has shown that dry communities can be effective, but only when the community supports the initiative.
"But one of the key aspects of the dry communities legislation in the Northern Territory is that communities become dry because they want to become dry.
"Now, it's a bit complicated, because the Commonwealth intervention in 2007 overrules that, but prior to that, all the dry communities were dry communities by choice."
Dr d'Abbs said the effectiveness of re-introducing alcohol to a previously dry community often came down to leadership and being able to find common ground.
"It's difficult anywhere; it's particularly difficult in most Aboriginal communities," he said.
