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League legend Backo passes away

August 5, 2025

Queensland rugby league great Sam Backo has died in hospital after a three-month battle with tropical soil disease melioidosis.

The State of Origin forward, 64, was admitted to Cairns Hospital in April and diagnosed with the bacterial disease. Backo also underwent surgery after a heart attack two years ago/

“He was of course all those things, but he was also a strong fighter for his people, the Warrgamay people and the South Sea Islander community, descended from Ni-Vanuatu and Solomon Islander people kidnapped as slave labour for the Queensland and NSW sugar industry,” his sisters Dolores, Charmaene, Kathrine and Jewel said in a statement.

Backo was born in Ingham in 1961. His mother Evelyn Scott was an Aboriginal rights activist and a key figure in the 1967 referendum that achieved citizenship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Peter Rowe

Peter Rowe leads First Nations News as Editor, with over three decades of experience across international newsrooms, digital platforms and media strategy roles. For the past 20 years, he’s worked in Australia – reporting, editing and advising on stories that shape public debate.