Three hospitalized after violent dispute over housing at Central Australian outstation

Three people have been hospitalised following a violent disturbance in a remote outstation in Central Australia last weekend amid an ongoing dispute over housing that family members fear could spiral into further bloodshed.

Relatives of those injured say the unrest was part of a feud between rival families among the traditional owners of the Oak Valley outstation, about 90km south of Alice Springs.

The small community only has a handful of homes and the traditional owners of the area have been locked in a battle about who can live there for the last eight years.

Arrernte sisters and Oak Valley traditional owners Tara and Erin Liddy were in the Top End, away from their family and outstation, when they began getting calls in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"My brother, who was down there at the time, he called me at 3:25 or something in the morning and said 'I need help, you need to call the police'," Erin Liddy said.

"So he was all the way down there and I was up here calling family members to try and get help."

Tara Liddy said the sisters called police and were then sent videos of the attack posted on social media.

She said a group of at least 10 people perpetrated the attack and there were a number of children present during the disturbance, which left three of her family members with significant injuries.

"One of them has a broken jaw," she said.

"There's a broken eye socket and the 60-year-old lady, she has a significant damage to her eye.

"We had to fly the children back to Darwin yesterday, they're all traumatised, having nightmares, they can't sleep."

A Northern Territory Police spokesperson said officers attended the outstation and investigations led them to make arrests later that day.

Police then charged two men, aged 36 and 52, and a 55-year-old woman, with a series of offences, including aggravated assault and engaging in violent conduct.

All three faced the Alice Springs Local Court on Tuesday.

The NT Police spokesperson said investigations were ongoing and the people involved were known to one another.

"Police have engaged relevant stakeholders and are seeking the support of agencies to provide education and mediation for the involved family groups," they said.

The Liddy sisters say the dispute that sparked the violence is over access to housing at Oak Valley, where a rival family group wants to move into a house but have been barred by the Aboriginal land trust board that manages the homes.

“They were served letters … to tell them that they were not allowed on our country, they were not allowed to set foot on our homelands because of their behaviour," they said.

Tara Liddy said the Central Land Council (CLC) had not helped to settle the dispute over the house, despite numerous family members reaching out for help to find a resolution.

"This issue has been sitting with them for a significant amount of time and they have refused to facilitate any form of mediation or intervene in a way that protects the safety of these old people that are sitting on their traditional homelands," she said.

However, in a statement CLC chief executive Les Turner said they had offered mediation to both parties but "haven't achieved agreement yet".

"Where a family conflict is unrelated to land or traditional ownership, our role is limited to helping to arrange an independent mediation, if both sides agree to do that," he said.

Tara Liddy said she was worried that unless an authoritative decision was made about who could live at Oak Valley outstation, the dispute would continue and the violence could escalate.