AN ELDERLY indigenous woman burned to death at a government-funded aged care centre that had no night-time supervision and was the subject of a complaint to the federal Health Department that documented neglect, unhygienic conditions and inadequate facilities.

But a year later virtually nothing had been done to improve the facility or dozens of others that experts say come under the Federal Government's duty of care, ABC1's Lateline program will report tonight.

A report by the deputy coroner obtained by the program says Dulcie Brumby died in incredible pain at the Docker River aged care facility in the Northern Territory when she fell into a fire pit during a 12-hour period in which residents were entirely unsupervised.

In an interview with Lateline, a youth worker, Mark Swindells, said Ms Brumby was "engulfed in flames" and "I can't imagine a more atrocious way to perish".

The deputy coroner, Celia Kemp, found that Ms Brumby had needed "a much greater level of care than the Docker River aged care facility could provide" and that "it is clear that the risk of the deceased burning herself during the long unsupervised night hours, was high and predictable".

Ms Kemp elected not to hold an inquest because the aged care facility was "moving toward having overnight staff".

But more than a year later there is still no overnight staff and residents in distress - two of them bedridden - must ring an alarm to alert staff living in off-site community housing.

A community development consultant, Maggie Kavanagh, sent a letter in 2005 documenting the lack of supervision and substandard conditions, including rubbish and dog faeces strewn about the grounds, broken paving and residents with "a stench of urine on them".

The letter also went to the federal Labor member for Northern Territory, Warren Snowdon, and Ms Kavanagh met government officials in May.

The director of the Elder Abuse Prevention Association, Lillian Jeter, said the Docker River facility - one of 39 indigenous homes in Australia - was run by the local community, but the duty of care to residents lay with the Health Department.