Three people have been arrested as a fierce racial clash continues between two families in a street at Logan, south of Brisbane.

Police have maintained a presence in Douglas Street in suburban Woodridge since the feud began between the Aboriginal and Pacific Island groups on Saturday night.

On Tuesday night, an Aboriginal man and a Pacific Island man were arrested amid the riots, following the arrest of a Caucasian man whose car was searched in connection with unrelated matters earlier in the day.

Police have set up a makeshift barrier between the feuding families while searching cars and people for weapons when they attempt to enter the street.

Tempers flared throughout the day on Tuesday after officers had been able to get between the groups on Monday night, when youths were seen ripping palings off fences to use as makeshift weapons.

Superintendent Noel Powers had said on Tuesday that arrests were a "last-resort" option.

"It was an extremely volatile situation last night and any enforcement action would have escalated that," he told reporters.

The bitter feud looks unlikely to be resolved in the near future, with both sides blaming the other and refusing to back down.

Tongan local Sione Palau, 26, says the Pacific Islanders have banded together to protect themselves from indigenous residents.

"The Tongans and Samoans are together because they are after us," Mr Palau told AAP.

But indigenous community leader Paul Butterworth insists his people are the victims.

"We are defending ourselves. We're not going to just lay down like doormats," he said.

Community leaders are now struggling to resolve the stand-off.

Premier Campbell Newman has suggested the state government would consider moving families from public housing in the area if they wanted to escape the racial tension.

Logan Mayor Pam Parker is organising a ministerial summit and community forum to work towards solutions.

The situation hasn't been helped by a widely-condemned tweet from federal MP Andrew Laming, who wrote: "Mobs tearing up Logan. Did any of them do a day's work today, or was it business as usual and welfare on tap?"

Tension between the groups has been brewing in the multicultural city since indigenous man Richard Saunders was bashed to death in a Woodridge park in 2008.

Indigenous residents also hold their Pacific Islander neighbours responsible for last month's death of Aboriginal 17-year-old Jackson Doolan, despite police finding he accidentally fell into the path of an oncoming train.

Rumours have been circulating that he was chased by a group of Pacific Island youths.

The latest stoush ignited on Saturday night when a group of Pacific Islanders, armed with machetes, bricks and metal poles, set upon an indigenous family's house in the street, forcing the occupants to barricade themselves inside a back room.