South Australian outback nurse Gayle Woodford, who was raped and murdered in the APY Lands, was assaulted by a different criminal in the same remote community two years before her death, an inquest has heard.

Key points: Dudley Davey was jailed for life with a 32-year non-parole period

Dudley Davey was jailed for life with a 32-year non-parole period Nganampa Health Clinic closed one clinic in the APY Lands after an attack

Nganampa Health Clinic closed one clinic in the APY Lands after an attack The inquest was told hiring a security guard would cost $2.6 million

The 56-year-old mother was employed by the Nganampa Health Council (NHC) as a nurse and was working in the APY Lands community of Fregon when she was murdered by convicted rapist Dudley Davey in March 2016.

She was on-call alone on the night she was raped and killed after responding to Davey, who was seeking medical assistance.

Davey was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 32 years.

The inquest is expected to probe the overall safety of on-call remote area nurses, the police presence in remote communities and Davey's release from prison prior to the attack.

On Thursday, the inquest was told Mrs Woodford was attacked while working in Fregon by a different serial criminal in 2014.

David Busuttil — who was NHC's health services manager when Mrs Woodford was killed — has been in the witness box over two days.

Former NHC manager quizzed over nurse safety

He was questioned about the prior attack on Mrs Woodford and another three alleged attacks on nurses across the APY Lands.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Ahura Kalali, asked Mr Busuttil: "Do you agree it's an extremely frightening position to be in as a nurse?"

Mr Busuttil replied: "Yes".

The counsel assisting also asked: "Wasn't it foreseeable to you, prior to Mrs Woodford's death, a nurse could be harmed or sexually assaulted?"

Mr Busuttil agreed with that suggestion.

Former NHC health services manager David Busuttil leaves the Coroner's Court. ( ABC News: Claire Campbell )

The inquest has previously heard that senior APY Lands police had warned NHC management not to allow nurses to work alone after another nurse was attacked in a different community — which the ABC has chosen not to name for legal reasons.

That community's clinic was closed down following the attack.

But Mr Busuttil told the inquest he could not recall the specific meeting with police where they advised him and other NHC staff not to allow nurses to work alone, but he said officers "did say something like that".

"I don't recall doing anything specific with [the advice]," he said.

The inquest has also previously heard that Fregon was akin to the "Wild West" and without a police presence, had become "lawless".

On Thursday afternoon, NHC medical director Dr Paul Torzillo told the inquest that having nurses work in pairs across remote APY Lands communities would "triple the nursing budget".

"We're funded by the taxpayer through the Commonwealth, it's something that wouldn't be possible," he said.

Gayle and Keith Woodford before the murder in March 2016. ( Supplied: Keith Woodford )

He said hiring security guards for nurses would also be costly.

"The primary reason that was not implemented was that it would never be funded," he said.

"Two people fly in, fly out in six communities — it's $2.6 million … if you're adding travel costs, that's $3.5 million.

"Nobody else in the sector was doing it."

He said other health service providers across the Northern Territory and Central Australia did not provide security guards for staff.

But when Dr Torzillo was questioned about whether any "official costings" had been completed in relation to security guards, he responded: "I'm reasonably confident there weren't [any]".

Dr Torzillo told the inquest he had done "some costings" recently as part of his statement to the coroner.

The inquest continues.