Coroner links infant death to unsafe sleeping conditions after mother’s eviction
A Northern Territory coroner concluded that a six-week-old Aboriginal baby died from sudden unexpected death of an infant after her mother was forced to sleep on a floor mattress in overcrowded housing.
In a report released without an inquest, Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage determined that a six-week-old Aboriginal girl died of sudden unexpected death of an infant in September 2024 because her mother had no safe place to sleep the baby. The 21-year-old mother, who had been evicted from crisis accommodation six days earlier, was compelled to share a single mattress on a relative’s lounge-room floor with eight other occupants, including three who had previously assaulted her.
Hospital records show the only safe-sleep instruction she received was a nurse’s initialed checklist. The coroner faulted the Department of Children and Families for failing to provide interim accommodation or adequate services, and she urged the NT government to identify, quantify and map homelessness among pregnant and new mothers and to create funded pathways to suitable housing, especially for Aboriginal families. The findings come amid the territory’s highest infant mortality rate in Australia, notably higher for Aboriginal infants.
Why it matters
The case highlights systemic gaps in housing and child-safety support for vulnerable mothers, especially in the NT.
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