It says why in the article: “The facility is housing people affected by the Katherine region COVID-19 outbreak as well as returned travellers from repatriation flights, including a man who tested positive for the Omicron variant on Monday.”
The facilities were originally built in 2012 to house 3500 temporary Japanese oil and gas construction workers through 2018 for the giant Impex project.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-29/inpex-legacy-riding-boom-avoiding-bust-nt-economy/10236158
When the project was finished the Japanese gave the facilities to the Northern Territory in 2019. Now on the average with returning Aussies from overseas and housing the few aboriginals, it has on the average only 600 people. The overview of the large site, makes it look like it holds many people (it can), but that because it was first built for the 3500 Japanese, but at the peak of construction there were 8000 (only 1000 were local) workers who had to be housed and it was expanded.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/04/beyond-marketing-cliches-inside-howard-springs-quarantine-centre-i-find-shel
You might not like the policy, but Australians returning to Australia had to spend 14 days in quarantine. In the past, they were put up in hotels in the downtown cities (some states are still doing it). It didn't work very well, as many of the workers at the hotels got the Covid, so they started bringing some overseas to the facilities in the Northern Territory to house these people.
https://coronavirus.nt.gov.au/travel/quarantine/mandatory-supervised-quarantine
They normally just stay for 14 days. The facilities are fairly basic, but clean and in most cases, much better than where some of the aboriginals live in squalid conditions(their own choice) in the NT. This story in the Washington Post (I know, a very lefty media site), tells the story of an Aussie returning home and his experiences staying there for the 14 days. It shows what the rooms and food look like.
They are hardly concentration camps. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/australia-darwin-covid-quarantine/2021/05/21/f72bc0ac-ad1b-11eb-82c1-896aca955bb9_story.html It a bit outdated from May, because now all Aussies can come home and I believe the borders are open to all on December 15th.
Again, you might not like the policy, but this article explains why the few aboriginals from one community were moved to the same facilities where the returning Aussies were in quarantine.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-21/nt-explainer-on-new-cases-in-binjari-and-rockhole/100638192
Many of the aboriginals liked living there, but should only be there for 14 days, unless the outbreak continues.
https://aecom.com/projects/manigurr-ma-village/ere
is a short article about the construction in 2012 from the architecture firm
Have you stayed in one yet?
What difference does it who built the camp when the government has taken it over and sends people there to punish them? This second-hand “contact” is almost certainly vaccinated because it’s compulsory in the NT to have a job — there’s a $5024 fine for going to work without a vaccination certificate. So what risk was reduced and to whom?
Is there anyone you actually think should not be arbitrarily detained by the government? What if they put you in there because you knew someone who knew someone who had covid?
That makes it just ducky! Sukhanovka, which Solzhenitlyn dubbed the worst of the Gulag prisons, was a former monastery (and is today).
Who takes care of their children and pets while they are incarcerated? Does anyone keep an eye on their homes? Watch for parcels on the porch so they aren’t stolen? Make sure the house is locked and alarm turned on. etc.