Horrific map exposes impact of domestic violence in Australia

June 05, 2024

On Tuesday morning, police were called by a concerned neighbour to a Gold Coast home, where they found the body of Kelly Wilkinson.

Three children under the age of 9 were inside the Arundel house, while the “beautiful” mum’s body was discovered in the backyard, with “burn-type injuries”, in what Detective Inspector Chris Ahearn called “a very confronting scene”.

Her former partner, 34-year-old Brian Earl Johnston, was found in the front yard of a home two blocks away in a “semiconscious state”, with serious burns to his hands and airway. He was charged with murder by detectives on Tuesday night.

Mr Johnston is also accused of breaching a bail condition, Southport Magistrates Court heard today, although no further details about the allegation were revealed. His lawyer, Chris Hannay, told reporters that domestic violence issues have “been ongoing a little while, so he was already in court on those”.

Ms Wilkinson was just 27 years old. And if her story sounds familiar, that’s because, in Australia – where on average one woman is killed by a current or former partner each week – it is.

The killing of women by men’s violence, Associate Professor of Crimonology and Director of Monash University’s Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, Kate Fitz-Gibbon, told news.com.au, “is a persistent national emergency”.

“We absolutely cannot accept that each week in Australia a woman is killed by her current or former male partner,” Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

“Federal, state and territory governments need to divert the attention and resources required to better ensure women’s safety and freedom from violence.”

In Ms Wilkinson’s home state of Queensland alone, damning statistics revealed in February that domestic violence order breaches had doubled in the past six years – despite fewer DVO applications through the courts.

Research showed that last year was the worst on record for domestic, family and sexual violence around Australia – a time when “there were so many more barriers to reaching out for safety and support”, Chief Executive of Women’s Safety NSW, Hayley Foster, told news.com.au.

The pandemic has been used, Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly told news.com.au, “to justify controlling behaviours such as limiting access to money, controlling someone’s ability to acquire and use money, or making threats about the family’s economic security”.

“Unfortunately, however, rates of violence and abuse have not declined since this time. We are still seeing unprecedented numbers of women and children reaching out for safety and support,” Ms Foster said, citing the economic impacts of COVID-19, particularly experienced by women, as only worsening the situation.

“Not only are we seeing an escalation of violence and abuse being triggered by household financial stress, but we’re also seeing more and more women trapped in violent and abusive households as they don’t have the financial means to escape and sustain alternative accommodation for themselves and their children if they have them.”

While these stress-related factors can increase the severity of frequency of violence, Ms Kinnersly said, “they do not cause violence against women, and they do not excuse it”.

“There is no excuse for any kind of violence or abuse … While we are in a new year now, there is no doubt that many women are still dealing with the impacts of the violence they experienced during that period last year,” she added.

What Australians need to understand – and what this year has already shown – about domestic violence, both Ms Foster and Dr Fitz-Gibbon explained, is that it’s an issue “prevalent across all corners of the Australian community”.

The above map, compiled by journalist Sherele Moody, represents the Australian women and children who have lost their lives to forms of violence – demonstrating just how terrible the situation is.

“This is not a problem that is unique to one culture, community and socio-economic group,” Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

“The beginning of 2021 has shown so clearly that disrespect towards women and violence against women is ever present in institutions and structures across our country. This must change.”

Intimate partner violence, Ms Foster added, “is the single biggest preventable driver of death, disability and illness in Australian women aged 18-44 years of age”, with 95 per cent of Australians who have experienced it naming a male perpetrator.

“We need to understand that the men who use violence and abuse in their relationships are not some typical, shady, monster-like characters,” she said.

“They’re our family members, our friends, our colleagues and community members.”

Both Ms Foster and Ms Kinnersly explained that homicide is “only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to violence against women in Australia”.

“Rather than seeing these incidents as shocking anomalies, we must look at them as part of a broader pattern of violence against women – violence that takes many forms,” Ms Kinnersly said.

“We need to understand these deaths in the context of the very high rates of physical and sexual violence against women in Australia, including relationship and family violence, dating violence, workplace sexual harassment and street harassment.

“We must see all this violence as existing on a continuum, examine what causes this violence and what role we play in stopping it from happening in the first place.”

In the wake of Ms Wilkinson’s death – and even in the months before it – Ms Foster said she’s been “really encouraged by the way Australians, and particularly Australian women, have spoken up to say ‘enough is enough, it’s time we prioritised women’s safety’”.

“Domestic, family and sexual violence and violence against women and children generally is a whole of community problem and requires a whole of community solution,” she explained.

“We can all do so much to change this story. Look out for red flags in the relationships around you, speak up and support your friends, family, employees, colleagues and community, and let your elected representatives know that this issue is important to you and you want to see it prioritised.”

Ending violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women must also be a national priority, Ms Kinnersly said, adding that “we cannot ignore the compounding effect that racism and the ongoing impacts of colonisation have in exacerbating the levels of violence” against them.

“Governments and all of us working on this issue must listen to First Nations women and communities when they tell us what the solutions are, and we must support and resource those culturally safe, community led solutions,” she said.

“We need to take women’s safety seriously,” Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

“It must be prioritised in the same way as other issues that affect national security.”

Read related topics:Domestic Violence

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