Three Queensland councils have initiated or implemented crackdowns on homeless camps across the state’s south east this week.
The three local governments – Brisbane city council, the City of Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast city council – all deny coordination between them.
But residents of tent cities in Brisbane’s Musgrave Park, and Carey Park in the Gold Coast now face eviction after being issued notices on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday, for the third time in a month, residents in Moreton Bay’s Eddie Highland Park were cleared out with the aid of an excavator and police.
Gold Coast homelessness support organiser Ember Lenarduzzi said the 20-30 residents of Carey Park were issued an enforceable notice for the first time on Wednesday, ordering them to leave.
At about midday, a group of police and council rangers arrived at the park and began gathering details, before issuing notices.
“They were preparing basically to take their stuff,” Lenarduzzi said.
“They gave them 24 hours.”
Lenarduzzi expressed scepticism that the actions by the three councils were not coordinated, despite the lack of evidence.
“I believe it would be pretty damn crazy for all three of them to happen on the same day without warning and very suddenly,” she said.
Residents of Brisbane’s Musgrave Park were also expecting to be moved on Thursday, as the area plays host to the annual Paniyiri Greek festival on the weekend of 18 May.
Its tent city of about 13 tents and 20 residents are typically shifted into temporary emergency accommodation or an exclusion zone set aside for them during the event.
But Brisbane city council has yet to clarify whether any tents will be allowed to stay – and placed 24-hour eviction notices on most tents in the park on Tuesday, even those in last year’s exclusion zone.
A large group gathered in the park to protest Wednesday’s eviction, including some members of the Cfmeu who happened to be in the area.
In March, Brisbane mayor Adrian Schrinner announced a city-wide crackdown on people sleeping rough in Brisbane’s parks, threatening eviction within just 24 hours, in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Nick Wittman, an organiser from the Community Union Defence League said they want the exclusion zone to be allowed again and suitable accommodation offered for everyone who wants it.
“We’re not asking for much. We’re asking for a little bit of dignity for people who are already incredibly vulnerable,” he said.
Shane Mason and Tracey Osmond were among the park residents ordered to move on from Moreton Bay’s Eddie Highland Park on Wednesday, after defying instructions to do so last month.
The park is still home to a number of people who were moved on in the council’s previous two tent city clearances, now living in new tents. There is also a new resident; a domestic violence survivor with a three-year-old child. The pair were issued a two-week notice to be out of the park within a fortnight on Wednesday.
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Guardian Australia observed council rangers use heavy machinery to remove material from another tent, and clear the remnants of other abandoned tents.
A confrontation broke out between police and rangers and Mason, Osmond and their supporters, as the latter said the former were attempting to move their possessions. They had previously vowed not to move unless long-term accommodation was provided.
“They weren’t taking my generator!” Osmond said.
Halfway through the confrontation, the pair were offered a one-bedroom home in Margate. It immediately came to an end.
For the first time in two years they will no longer be homeless.
Tracey called it a “Mother’s Day present”; it’s also her birthday.
“But how can I feel so happy when they’re still doing this to people? It’s not right,” she said.
“I feel bad because we got a house.”
A spokesperson for Moreton Bay council described the clearance as “business as usual”.
Compliance notices were issued to three rough sleepers, she said, and rangers also executed nine notices given previously and cleared rubbish left on the site since the last clearance on 24 April.
A spokesperson for Brisbane city council said it was “taking a calm, measured and considered approach” to the tent encampment “to get people out of dangerous encampments and into safe accommodation”.
“Brisbane residents have grown increasingly concerned about the violence, drug use and antisocial behaviour occurring in tent encampments in parks,” she said.
The housing minister, Sam O’Connor, said housing outreach officers “were in Eddie Hyland Park, Musgrave Park and Carey Park over the past few days engaging with as many people as they safely could”.
“They will be back again this week and for as long as is needed,” he said.
