As COVID-19 outbreaks escalate across the Northern Territory, a remote community has been forced to use an office building with 10 mattresses in a makeshift effort to quarantine up to 30 people.
That's the situation in Palumpa — also known as Nganmarriyang — a remote community about 300 kilometres south-west of Darwin.
Home to about 458 people, Palumpa has been placed under lock-in restrictions until at least 2pm on Sunday, and a Commonwealth biosecurity zone until February 17.
In a race to keep up with the community's rising coronavirus cases, the Thamarrurr Development Corporation (TDC) vacated its office to provide an isolation facility for COVID-positive people.
Hosting up to 30 people at a time, the office has just two bathrooms: one without a working light bulb.
The corporation also provided photos to the ABC showing COVID-19 patients in the back of a ute being transported to an airport.
TDC chief executive Scott McIntyre said the health response from the Northern Territory government felt very different in the Western Daly community.
"I haven't seen that happen between Nightcliff and Howard Springs."
A separate, demountable facility with two bedrooms was also housing 16 people, Mr McIntyre said.
While praising front-line workers, he said the NT government's response to COVID-19 in Palumpa — and the nearby larger community of Wadeye — was inadequate.
"Wadeye and this region [are] part of Australia and what people are seeing, is that people are being treated like second-class citizens," Mr McIntyre said.
"It's not good enough."
The NT government did not respond to criticism of its health response, nor did it provide the total COVID-19 case numbers in Wadeye or Palumpa before deadline.
However, the TDC estimated up to 70 residents have contracted the virus.
A surge force of nurses from the NT government has been sent to the Western Daly community to support staff on the ground.
Opposition MLA for Barkly, Steve Edgington, represents several communities undergoing lock-in restrictions, including Ampilatwatja.
He said the government had not been sending enough frontline workers to the communities in their hour of need.
"It has been poor for a number of weeks. We've seen nothing but chaos and dysfunction from the Gunner government."
'I'm being treated like a king'
In contrast, remote Territorians at Howard Springs quarantine facility have reported feeling guilty about the quality of their treatment compared to that of their family members back home.
Mangatjay Yunupingu, from the small community of Yirrkala in East Arnhem, said he entered Howard Springs quarantine facility on Sunday, after he tested positive to COVID-19 at an Aboriginal hostel in Darwin.
His wife, Alison, also tested positive at a Darwin renal clinic, where she was due to receive dialysis treatment.
With his wife in hospital accommodation and nowhere else to safely isolate, Mr Yunupingu said he was taken to Howard Springs.
"We've got non-stop food coming in, which is good in a way, but I'm not going to eat it all," he said.
Mr Yunupingu said that, although he was grateful to be in the comfort of Howard Springs, he said he couldn't help compare his experience to his family's conditions in Yirrkala.
"I'm being treated like a king over here and my family, they should be treated, as something better than how they are living over there now," he said.
"I'm thinking, I'd rather be out there than here, really."
