16 Jan 2013

Logan feud family moving out

1:48 pm on 16 January 2013

One of the families at the centre of a racial feud in Logan City, south of Brisbane, is moving out of their home.

Members of the Briggs family said they were forced to hide in a back room of their home on the weekend when a group of men attacked their house with bricks and metal bars.

It was just one incident in a number of clashes between Indigenous and Pacific Islander groups on the same street over the past few days. The riot squad had to separate them.

The ABC reports three men have been arrested in the conflict which has exposed long-standing tensions in Logan.

David Briggs said his brother, wife and four children will move out of Douglas Street to the Gold Coast on Wednesday.

"The offer was passed by Mayor (Pam Parker),'' he said.

Mr Briggs said the move will give the family a fresh start.

"We believe it's part of (the) solution - it will bring peace, harmony," he said.

"(The) problem will always be there whether it is in Woodridge, Logan, (or) Ipswich - my family has made a wise decision.

"This morning it's a shake-up for them but there's a release in thinking they're moving, going to a new area and starting a new life with other people in the [neighbourhood]."

The ABC reports the family is being assisted to move by the Housing Department.

Logan's woes on the table at summit

Logan Mayor Pam Parker earlier said a summit aimed at easing social unrest must focus on decades-old problems, including high unemployment in the city, south of Brisbane.

Police descended on the suburb of Woodridge after four nights of confrontations between an Aboriginal family and a Pacific Islander family, and their supporters.

AAP reports Douglas Street, where the worst confrontations have occurred, was relatively quiet on Tuesday night.

Ms Parker is to convene two-day summit next month, involving community leaders and representatives from the state and federal governments.

She says there are big issues for some residents of Logan, including access to employment and training.

"We have extremely high unemployment in Woodridge and it's inter-generational," Ms Parker said.

"We've got to use it as an opportunity to address issues that have been around for some 20-odd years ... through commitments at the state and federal level."

On Tuesday, Ms Parker met Queensland Police Minister Jack Dempsey, who promised an increased police presence until the confrontations stopped.

Members of the two families have told The Courier-Mail newspaper about an argument at a set of traffic lights between separate cars of Aboriginal and Pacific Island men on Saturday night.

A confrontation followed at a supermarket and then at Douglas St, where a car owned by a member of the Palau family was damaged.

Islanders retaliated by smashing in the windows of three cars at the home of the Aboriginal family.

Rocks were also hurled through the windows and walls of the house as its residents hid in a barricaded back room.