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Name
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Baxter Detention Centre
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Type of carceral site
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Detention Centre
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Dates of use
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2002 – 2007
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Quote
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One person told me five years in prison for arson would be better than five years in Baxter under Greg Wallis' and Philip Ruddock's regime.
Reportage.
Keogh, Jane. "Report and Reflections on Baxter Detention Centre Visits." Refugee Action Campaign, Feb 2003, https://refugeeaction.org/information/inside-the-detention-centres/report-and-reflections-on-baxter-detention-centre-visits/. Accessed 20 May 2026.
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We sang, like at the football, 'We Want Freedom'. We did not do violence. We were in our own compound, a place where we are allowed to be. But about fifty guards came in riot gear and sprayed tear gas into our faces. We could not sleep, our eyes were so hurting. The next day we asked for some medication for our eyes but they said no. Since then they punish us. They take our mattresses, everything except four walls they take. We cannot sit quiet without them come up to us to demand something or try make us angry. We cannot play billiards; we have no newspapers, no phone, no visits, no cricket ball. My family in Iran is sick and they worry about me and I cannot phone them, tell them I am OK.'
Asylum Seeker Testimony.
Anonymous qtd. in Keogh, Jane, "Report and Reflections on Baxter Detention Centre Visits," Refugee Action Campaign, Feb 2003, https://refugeeaction.org/information/inside-the-detention-centres/report-and-reflections-on-baxter-detention-centre-visits/. Accessed 20 May 2026.
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Within Baxter were nine compounds housing approximately 200 detainees, each contained within a secure perimeter. It also contained a visitor processing centre, visitor's centre, catering kitchen, management unit for special case detainees, education centre, property warehouse, sports oval, office complex, control room housing the facility's security surveillance system, medical centre, and maintenance compound. [...] The perimeter consisted of two twelve-foot fences with 'no man's land' separating them, where motion sensors and microwaves were installed. The outer fence was electrified with a level of voltage to 'stun' rather than suffer great pain or injury, which would prevent climbing.
Autobiography of a Detention Centre Operations Manager.
Franklin, Darren. Within the Wire. 2021, Boolarong Press, pp. 37-38.
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Authority
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Migration Reform Act 1992; Department of Immigration and Border Protection
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Contact
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Niamh
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identifier
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SITE-BAX
