A remote Indigenous council in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in Queensland says the community’s safety is in jeopardy and local police cannot perform their job properly as most of the town of about 1,000 residents has been without street lights for approximately 15 months.

The Mornington Shire Council said a significant number of street lights on Mornington Island, which are owned by the council, were damaged by lightning in February 2017.

Chief executive Frank Mills said the council had been trying to get the lights fixed by Ergon Energy ever since to protect the safety of the community.