Table 1 Statements relating to the elements of the model of illicit supply and consumption of alcohol

Suppliers

 Legitimate sources

A

There’s no restriction on wholesaling of alcohol. So people go to [large liquor supplier] or somewhere like that in Cairns, a liquor wholesale there. They don’t even need to go, they can get [trucking company] to bring up a pallet of booze one way or the other which could be delivered to a house or a property or somewhere like where there’s no record of it what so ever. That’s then sold for astronomical rates. (Male, 50+, non-Indigenous, local community)

B

What they [‘sly grog’ sellers] were doing was they come and stash alcohol in front garden of the house and come back at night to pick it up to take it back to [community name]. [….] They were putting bottles of rum in the car from garden. They must have went to [licensed premises] and got bottles and put down that address, and the next guy and the next guy [did the same]. Then to the [another licensed premises], [they] ended up with 23 bottles rum, 7 cartons. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, Indigenous policy and services)

 On-selling from legitimate sources ‘sly grog’

C

…..there is a bit of intel that there is sly grogging I guess you could say, someone in [regional centre] is buying a whole heap and the locals are buying off them because it’s not on registers or stuff like that which kind of makes sense, because sometimes you will have something go off here and you get the register from [regional town] and there will be like 3 or 4 cartons, and you will be like they got more than 3 or 4 cartons these guys. (Male, 25–50, non-Indigenous, Police, region 1; Male, 25–50, not-Indigenous, Government-justice)

D

People from other communities come here purposefully to sell to [a range of communities and towns named]. Family members sell in the communities where they have families. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, local community)

E

It’s not only [AMP community name] people but other outside people come here (to sell grog). Not white fellas, black fellas. (Male, 50 + , Indigenous, local community)

F

There are locals that supply it, there is white fellas that supply it to them…. (Male, 50 + , not-Indigenous, Government)

 Homebrew

G

It has affected young people, with earlier age of onset of renal failure. People drink the home brew before it has fermented properly. (Focus group: Female, 25–50, Indigenous; Female, 25–50, Aboriginal; Male, 25–50, Indigenous; Government-health services)

H

Then they get chest pains, tummy pains, diarrhoea. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, Government-health services)

I

When they took away the alcohol it left us with alcoholics. We (at the clinic) were worried about withdrawals. There is no rehab service (for detoxification). But no-one had withdrawals. Why? Because they made home-brew. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, Government-health services)

Responses-challenges for Police enforcement

 Challenges for police enforcement

K

When they left, the cops were at end of street, and he said “are you sure alcohol went into the car?” I said “yes”. They rang me next day to say thanks, but it was hard to ring up, you know, ‘cos it’s my people. But when they told me 23 bottles, that’s good, they’re only paying 50 something dollars for bottle and selling for 200, 300, 400 dollars in there [AMP community]. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, Indigenous policy and services)

L

The police, for instance, the police switch off here at 2o’ clock in the morning, you know, you can’t get it. [….] So if they buy a couple of cartons of grog here, in trading hours, they go round to their mates place, and then through the middle of the night, after 2o’ clock, they just drive out there at will. No one’s gonna pull ‘em up. You could drive out there today and I bet you’d drive into that community without seeing a copper. They don’t have the numbers here, so you can’t blame the police ‘cos they don’t have the numbers here to do it. (Male, 50+, Indigenous, other-liquor retailer)

 Diversion of enforcement

M

But they knew by 1 [o’clock] in the morning when nothing else was coming through that everyone else had been warned. By this time people had got back to [community name], they’d made the phone calls and said “Don’t come”. So they know probably about 3 of 4 o’clock that morning that another two car loads are coming in but they didn’t catch them. Because they knew, well they knew by the aftermath the next day. But those people had been warned enough to say “there’s a road block there, don’t come. We’ll let you know when the police come back into town”. (Female, 50+, Indigenous, Indigenous policy and services)

N

There’s only one area where you can get phone reception. And they will pull up there and ring up their mates sitting out the front of the Police Station, and ask how many police cars at the station, the boys will give them the signal and if all the cars are there, they will continue. (Focus group: Female, 50+, Indigenous; Male, 25–50, not-Indigenous; Male, 25–50; Indigenous, Government-justice)

 Hiding alcohol outside the restricted area

O

The Rangers find grog buried in fridges and eskies [coolers]. The grog runners bring it into the designated spots and the buyers go out and pick it up when they can. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, local community)

P

People are digging up holes and burying alcohol. People on mobile phones calling and telling ‘hey police coming, ditch the alcohol’. (Female, 25–50, Indigenous, local community)

 Multiple entry paths

Q

….. there are so many routes into this place that they know about that we don’t… they have got a network… the police play cat and mouse, they might get one-twentieth of it I would say, if that. (Male, 50+, not-Indigenous, Government)

 Extreme risks

R

And I still remember one night, there was three of us in the police vehicle. We were sitting next to the highway and we could hear a truck coming…. And so we had the lights turned off and the car turned off so we could hear. And we could hear this truck coming towards us. And all of sudden one of the constables has gone, “they’re coming with their headlights off”. So all of sudden I’ve realised they’re going to plough into us as we’re doing this road stop. So all of sudden, thanks to this constable’s quick thinking, he has turned the truck on, turned on the headlights, and thrown it into reverse,… at the same this truck was doing 120 km/h plus and is within 100 m of the front of us. So we started reversing back, this truck’s trying to do a runner. I could see it was full of people. And they’ve gone around us and they’re trying to get back to [community name]…. And they were starting to weave all over the road. Eventually, they’ve lost control and slid and thank goodness didn’t roll. And people have just piled out. I didn’t realise how many there were and the car was full of spirits and other alcohol. And aside from nearly everyone getting killed from a head on… we get into a fight with these guys, and there’s six of them and three of us….. and I’m think this is all over grog. There’s so many people who have nearly died in the last 10 min, over alcohol. (Male, 25–50, not-Indigenous, Government-justice)

Profit margin and impacts from the trade

 Profit margin

S

A five litre carton of [wine brand] is $200. Four litres is $100. (Male, <25, Indigenous, local community)

T

…its [prohibition] just created a very lucrative black market, $350, $380 bottle of rum. (Male, 50+, not-Indigenous, Government-health)

U

Last year or the year before there was one bottle of rum left. I think they got $850 for it. Last one during the wet. (Focus group: Female, 50+, Indigenous; Female, 50+, not-Indigenous; local community)

V

One car seized, 25 bottles rum, 13 cartons beer, few other things. (Male, 25–50, not-Indigenous; Man 25–50, Indigenous; Government-justice)

W

But last week alone, I think the Police got 18 bottles of rum off one flight, [unclear]… new Police Sergeant, new approach to it, did a random night time, pop out late at night they got another 27 bottles of rum. (Male, 50+, not-Indigenous, Government-health)

 Impacts

X

….and noticing there is still a lot of violence happening there, even though it is meant to be a dry community, there is a lot of sly grogging happening down there, when alcohol comes to the community it gets quite volatile down there. (Male, 25–50, not-Indigenous, Other-non government)

Y

“There is some big bucks being made [with sly grog]… they drink to get drunk because everybody else wants your grog… you got to rush the drinking so you don’t get charged. (Male, 50+, not-Indigenous, Government-health)