Elsie May Robertson's naked body shouldn't have been found battered and hanging off a mattress in her aunt's Cairns unit.
The woman's death was entirely preventable and a tragic illustration of the need for domestic violence reforms, a coroner has heard.
Ms Robertson, 39, was killed by her on-and-off de facto husband of a decade, James Grannigan, in March 2013.
An inquest into her death has heard the pair had been to court numerous times for violence, including once when Grannigan was the aggrieved.
Counsel assisting, Emily Cooper, said the court orders were not effective and pointed Coroner Terry Ryan to tougher laws recently passed by the Queensland government.
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"Ms Robertson's death is a timely reminder ... of why this major reform is required," she told the inquest.
"The assault went on for a number of hours which ... was not unusual for Mr Grannigan."
The coroner heard Ms Robertson most likely died from blunt-force trauma to the head while intoxicated by alcohol and marijuana.
Grannigan is serving an eight-year jail sentence for her manslaughter and has not previously explained what happened.
He said he punched Ms Robertson in the head numerous times before she started hitting herself with a cup.
Grannigan said "there was blood all on the wall" and he asked Ms Robertson's aunt, Anne Conway, to call the police.
"She could have been alive here if aunty had picked up the phone and rang," Grannigan said.
Ms Conway says she heard yells and sounds like her niece's head being hit against a concrete wall after the couple started arguing in a bedroom early in the afternoon.
The ruckus continued on and off for hours and Ms Conway eventually convinced Grannigan to let her see her niece, who was naked, unresponsive and bleeding from her mouth.
But neither Ms Conway nor her partner Alan Donovan called police straight away.
Ms Cooper said the pair viewed domestic violence as a private matter and were also scared of Grannigan.
It took police more than an hour to respond to Ms Conway's call after 9pm.
The coroner is expected to hand down his findings and recommendations on Friday.
