Police evict Aboriginal campers

Dozens of Aboriginal people have been evicted from their park camp at Heirisson Island in Perth in a surprise morning raid amid accusations that Perth City Council had broken a promise to warn ahead of any action.

The sight of dozens of tents, camp fires, Aboriginal flags, protest signs and people has been a regular and divisive fixture at the Swan River island for more than a year.

Perth Council decided residents of the so-called "Matagarup refugee camp" or "camp for the homeless" had been illegally living there for long enough and sent in rangers and police on Tuesday.

There were some angry verbal clashes but police said there were no arrests and only two move-on notices were issued.

Groups of people, including children, teenagers and the elderly, including a family of five kids from Melbourne, sat around with their possessions strewn all over a car park on the edge of the camp as council workers seized tents, generators and other items and put them in a van.

Outspoken homeless advocate Gerry Georgatos, who regularly works with Aboriginal people, said the council had failed in its duty of care and broken a promise it made to warn ahead about forced evictions to give welfare services the chance to move people and their possessions safely.

"How are these people supposed to cart this stuff? How are they supposed to feed their families tonight? How are they supposed to care for them? It is impossible," he told AAP.

There was violence at the site in 2012 when a `tent embassy' was set up to protest native title issues.

The current camp was set up to protest the closure of remote Aboriginal communities, but there are conflicting views about its current purpose, with two young male French backpackers using the site on Tuesday as free accommodation.

Of the campers AAP spoke to, some said they were there to protest but more said they were homeless, in some cases due to the closure of communities.

Some campers told AAP they were local Nyoongar people who had nowhere else to go, had been kicked out of public housing or Aboriginal communities and would be living on Perth streets if not at the island.

"We need water, we need food and shelter ... the government should come and discuss it with us and not send their goon squad ... there is other police work out there in the community," Nyoongar man Desmond Burton told AAP.

"I went for a walk in town last night ... I saw homeless people out the front doors of businesses ... we can go and do that, sleep out but that's not right."

When asked where he would sleep on Tuesday night, Mr Burton said he would be back at Heirisson Island when the police left, with tents donated by generous people "on their way as we speak".

Perth Council did not comment on Tuesday but its view is that it has adequately offered services to people, that most campers have access to housing if they want it but many have refused.