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Police are investigating the deaths of two young boys who were found inside a car at a remote Indigenous community in central Queensland.
The boys, aged two and three, were found in the vehicle at Woorabinda, about 520 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, on Friday night.
Detective Superintendent Darrin Shadlow said the children were related, but were not brothers.
He said while the cause of the deaths would not be confirmed until post-mortems could be performed, they were likely due to “heat-related stress”.
“They hadn’t travelled in that vehicle – the vehicle was in the rear yard of the residence,” Shadlow said.
“So it appears that it’s a tragic accident where the children have somehow gotten into the vehicle and had been there for some time.”
The two-year-old was found on the rear seat of a parked car in a Richardson Street backyard and taken to Woorabinda hospital about 7.48pm, where he was pronounced dead.
About 11⁄2 hours later, police went to the address where they found another boy, the three-year-old, in the same car.
“The second child was laying down in the rear foot well of the vehicle and wasn’t seen by the residents when they located the first child,” Shadlow said.
Detectives would investigate whether the boys had locked themselves into the vehicle.
“We will examine the vehicle meticulously in relation to the locks on the doors, all of that kind of thing,” Shadlow said.
“It’s not a used vehicle, so there was no electronics for the windows or anything like that.”
Shadlow said family member were home at the time of the “traumatic event”.
“It’s a close-knit community, Woorabinda,” he said. “It’s a tragic event for the community and also for the hospital staff and the first responders.”
Police said a crime scene had been declared as detectives worked to determine what had happened to the toddlers.
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