{"id":653879,"date":"2026-05-06T18:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653879\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:50:11","slug":"horrified-wagga-residents-call-for-proper-sanitation-at-homeless-camp-where-baby-was-found-dead-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653879\/","title":{"rendered":"Horrified Wagga residents call for proper sanitation at homeless camp where baby was found dead | Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tent where a newborn baby was found dead at Wagga beach<\/a> at the weekend was part of a homeless encampment up to a 15-minute walk away from the nearest public toilets or running water, with residents in a nearby apartment block saying conditions were \u201cworse than a Syrian war camp\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tragedy has prompted fury in the community, with residents of Wagga Wagga calling on authorities to take urgent action to make the encampments safe and sanitary.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old mother had been living on the Murrumbidgee riverbank with her partner when she went into labour. On Saturday police were called to the camp where they found one of her newborns had died.<\/p>\n

The woman and the other twin were taken to hospital. The woman has been discharged from hospital while the infant \u2013 who was in a critical condition on Monday \u2013 has been transferred to a hospital in Sydney.<\/p>\n

It is unclear why the newborn died.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

One resident, who lives along the riverbank encampment but did not want to be named, said the woman, who is Indigenous, had not returned to the camp.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood that the woman had other children who were not present during the birth and had not been living with the couple in the tent. Her partner was there during the birth.<\/p>\n

Wagga residents attend a town hall-style meeting on Tuesday to discuss the plight of homeless people in their city. Photograph: Sean Davey\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Homelessness is a growing problem in Wagga, with multiple encampments in the area. Several people working in local social services said the river camp \u2013 which includes about 10 tents \u2013 was seen as a safer, quieter spot compared with other encampments, with single women, some under 25, living there.<\/p>\n

A city councillor, Amelia Parkins, said the larger encampment in town, Wilks Park campground, was well managed, with waste collection and access to bathrooms. At a community meeting on Tuesday night there were calls for the council to offer the same level of amenities to those living in other encampments.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil can do that,\u201d Parkins said. \u201cBut that would have to be a short-term option, just to assist people with hygiene and sanitation right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closest public toilets are about a 10- to 15-minute walk away from most of the tents, and are closed overnight. People in the river encampment had been using water from a much closer apartment building until access was restricted.<\/p>\n

Parkins said she was investigating whether the council had asked for the water to be restricted after complaints from apartment residents about people from the camp using water.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to clean water is a fundamental human right,\u201d Parkins said. \u201cAnd something that council should be able to provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat goes for the waste collection as well. You know, council runs all of the waste management.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if it had asked for the water to be restricted, Wagga Wagga city council said it had been contacted by apartment residents who complained about people \u201ccamping on private property, bathing and washing under the taps at that property, and intimidating residents\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeneral advice was given by compliance officers in response to that specific request to secure the public areas of the complex, per the resident\u2019s request,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cCouncil does not manage infrastructure on private property.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council said the public amenities at Wagga beach \u201cremain accessible in line with normal operating hours\u201d and it had not been informed about concerns that a woman living on the riverbank was pregnant.<\/p>\n

A broader problem<\/p>\n

Residents and councillors are calling for more permanent housing solutions, asking the New South Wales<\/a> government to invest in social housing and to provide more funding for support services.<\/p>\n

Homes NSW has worked with the woman\u2019s family for many years and she has had help with both short- and long-term property. The assistance had been relinquished.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople [living rough] may be offered housing on a short-term basis and that\u2019s a really tricky thing,\u201d Parkins said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve set up camp, say, down at the river, to then relocate for one or two weeks, only to then have to go back to the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a local meeting on Tuesday night, residents were visibly shaken by the tragedy, and outraged that the housing crisis had become so bad that a woman had given birth in a tent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s pretty distraught that something like this has happened in Wagga,\u201d Parkins said. \u201cThere\u2019s a general feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, and a lot of people desperately want to do something but don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NSW housing minister, Rose Jackson, the local state MP, Joe McGirr, and the mayor of Wagga, Dallas Tout, will meet on Thursday to discuss the baby\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The president of Wagga Women\u2019s Health<\/a> Centre, Vickie Burkinshaw, backed calls for immediate \u201cpractical solutions\u201d such as access to clean drinking water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no sanitation down there,\u201d Burkinshaw said. \u201cSo a lot of the camps do gravitate towards where there is sanitation but there\u2019s clearly not enough of it for the number of people that are using it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the long term, she said, the community needed more social homes. The waitlist for social housing in the area was about 700 people, Burkinshaw said, and it could take up to four years for even the most vulnerable to find a place. She said all tiers of government were failing the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cBureaucracy has tried to deal with this for a very long time, and we are just not getting the results,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are not getting people off the streets. We are putting more people on to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Additional reporting by Caitlin Cassidy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tent where a newborn baby was found dead at Wagga beach at the weekend was part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-653879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}