After nearly 20 years of prohibition, legal alcohol will be reintroduced to the remote community of Mornington Island in north-west Queensland.
The Gulf of Carpentaria island is one of 19 Indigenous communities across the state where liquor is restricted or banned under state-imposed plans.
But from today the island will move from a zero-carriage limit to regulated access of liquor after extensive consultation with community leaders.
It means residents and visitors will be allowed to have up to 4.5 litres or 12 cans of low or mid-strength beer or pre-mixed spirits to drink at home.
A ban on home brew and the equipment to create it will remain in place.
Liquor ban counter-productive
Ministerial Champion for Mornington Island Meaghan Scanlon said the government had listened to the community's call for change to address health issues relating to illicit alcohol use.
"Last year I visited Mornington Island to speak with the Mayor and the community to better understand the opportunities and challenges they're facing," Ms Scanlon said.
"There has been strong community support for introducing the carriage limit as a key strategy to address home brew with very high alcohol concentration, which has had tragic health impacts in community."
The government will provide $150,000 to the local council to help implement the change and a further $185,000 to help with therapeutic support.
Member for Traeger and leader of Katter's Australian Party, Robbie Katter, welcomed the decision and said the ban had become counter-productive.
"This is about putting responsibility back in communities to manage themselves and to mature to a point where they can work through issues," he said.
"Prohibition doesn't work too well.
"[The ban] might have mitigated violence and alcohol at the start but in the end, it only promoted drugs and home brewing.
Home brewing and sly grogging
In late 2003, opening hours at Mornington Island's only tavern were restricted and limits were put in place on the sale of takeaway alcohol and home brewing after a series of violent brawls.
Six years later, the tavern's doors were permanently closed after an increase in violence.
Local leaders say since then, the ban on liquor has done little to reduce dangerous drinking or curb alcohol-related violence.
Illegal practices such as home brewing and sly grogging have instead plagued the "dry island" and led to devastating consequences.
A report published in 2017 into alcohol bans in remote Queensland communities found home brewing practices caused serious health issues such as early onset renal failure.
"When they took the alcohol away, it left with us alcoholics," Mornington Shire Mayor Kyle Yanner told the ABC earlier this year.
Sly grogging, which is the illicit sale of alcohol, also drained money from households in vulnerable communities.
Hopes for a new chapter
Last year, the town's tavern opened its doors again for supervised drinking events.
Local leaders said the licensed venue provided a safe and legitimate environment for drinking and would help improve the community's relationship with alcohol.
"There has been a policy of prohibition but it has been a murky area because there has been no oversight, no contingencies around what people are consuming, how much they consume," Mr Barnes said.
"Financially, it's not about making booming sales and huge amounts of profit off the tavern.
"It's really just about helping people to mitigate their behaviour, to get along with each other, follow some guidelines around alcohol and have a good time together, de-stress, all of the things that people want to do reasonably when they're consuming alcohol.
"It's been going very, very well."
