By ERWIN CHLANDA
The parents of local resident James Christian arrived yesterday from Sydney to visit their son and for a trip today to TiTree to see friends.
They hired a car and parked it where some locals want the National Indigenous Art Gallery to be located, at Anzac Oval, using the well-lit car park, says Mr Christian.
This morning they found the vehicle heavily vandalised, inside and out, including the rear vision display and sound unit and other instruments on the dashboard.
There was nothing to steal, says Mr Christian: “There wasn’t even a five cent coin in there.”
He says for him it’s the second time this year to become the victim of vandals: In January, while he was asleep in his home, they broke in, found his car keys, stole his car and used it to ram-raid the Turf Club premises to steal alcohol.
“We have robbed people of their understanding of responsibility,” says Mr Christian.
Could’ve happened anywhere in Alice. Nothing new, just normal.
I feel so sorry for the visitors. Clearly they had not heard about our naughty children.
A pity the government does not stand up and say, “enough is enough”. But no, we pussy foot around and do not want to be called racist so we do nothing, but make excuses for these arseholes.
Young or not, this behaviour was once not tolerated, now it is.
Do not blame the police, as they do a terrific job with the resources, but if the courts left these arseholes out onto the street again, with a slap, they do the same thing again, and destroy someone else’s holiday or home or car.
Whether CLP or ALP are in charge, the issue has not yet found a satisfactory solution to disenchanted youth. Bored? Hungry? Set loose to demolish rather than build their own future. Sad situation when at an early age home is not a place to be.
With some of the $30m ear-marked for the indigenous art gallery (surely a worthwhile initiative) perhaps that the old Anzac High School could be turned into a youth refuge, where kids could find bed, food and education in a caring environment, close to the Youth Centre for activities, close to the oval for sports, and close to family at Charles Creek and other camps. I dream. Do you?
@ Maya (Posted March 9, 2018 at 11:00 am): I’m with you, Maya, that is precisely the right purpose for that old school complex. It’s also not far from St Philip’s College which is in the process of acquiring the defunct RSL Club so there seems to me to be great potential to integrate services and opportunities for the benefit of these children and our community.
I think everybody is fed up to the back teeth with the lack of progress in resolving these decades-long problems of intergenerational youth crime and mayhem. NT Self-Government has proven no better (and demonstrably considerably worse) than the popularly maligned Commonwealth era of control of Territory affairs in tackling these issues.
I believe most of us are not interested in grandiose, big bucks projects of dubious merit – we’ve gone down this pathway a number of times previously and the track record of fulfilling economic nirvana that governments entice us with to support these schemes invariably falls well short of ambition.
The Government’s highest priority (and I don’t care which party is in control) must focus on the children and youth, because if we can get that right everything else will follow.
The possible fly in the ointment of using Anzac High for anything is asbestos. I have been told that the building is riddled with it, and while I do not know if that is true, given its age I think it likely.
If true, is it manageable? Again, I don’t know.
@ Hal Duell (Posted March 10, 2018 at 10:53 am): It probably is the case there is asbestos in the buildings, Hal, but the place has been in use for a variety of roles since its construction in 1952 and I’ve never heard of anyone contracting asbestosis from that place or any other of similar age in Alice Springs.
I’m rather suspicious that asbestos is suddenly being raised now, it’s strongly reminiscent of the “concrete cancer” that became the excuse for the demolition of the legendary Hotel Darwin in 1999.
Hmm, are we witnessing history repeating – the old CLP regime overseeing the destruction of a city centre landmark in Darwin almost 20 years ago, and the current Labor government seeking to do the same for a historically valuable education landmark in Alice Springs? (Maybe it’s relevant to note the CLP government in 1999 had 18 members, as does the current Labor government. Warning! That big majority didn’t save the CLP from losing office for the first time at the next Territory elections in 2001).
The fact is the old Alice Springs Upper Primary School cum original Alice Springs High School cum Community College of Central Australia cum Anzac Hill High School complex is in remarkably good – and I note there is some use being made of it at present, too.
A follow-up to my previous comment, I’m informed that the asbestos has been removed from the old Anzac Hill High School complex so that is not an issue for the use of those buildings.
I’ve no doubt that old school site is of considerable historical importance to Alice Springs. Nothing should be done to remove them until that history is assessed. There should be no return to the situation that existed in our town in the 1980s, which in fact was the origin of heritage protection legislation in the Northern Territory.
Alex: If the asbestos is gone then I can think of no good reason to remove a sound building with local heritage significance that could easily be repurposed to provide shelter, assistance and guidance for Alice’s rampaging youth.
And the rugby codes could continue to use the historic Anzac oval.
But when did good ideas ever sway a government determined to talk loud, spend big and accomplish little?
Hal, this is just the latest attempt to re-purpose Anzac Oval as a village green, first proposed by the Alice Springs Town Council in 1979 and firmly resisted by the rugby codes (and especially by John Reeves, then ALP Alice Springs branch president, rugby league president, elected as alderman on the town council, and not long afterwards elected as Member for the Northern Territory. He is now a Federal Court judge.).
The village green concept was tried again in 1994 when the ASTC attempted to relocate the rugby codes to the Ross Park Oval, enticed there by the promise of lighting to facilitate games at night; and stoutly resisted and defeated by local Eastside residents, led by the Eastside Residents’ Association of which I was then a committee member.
And now here we go again …
Quite apart from the old high school complex, Anzac Oval itself is of considerable historical value as it is the first turfed sports oval in the NT and it was established entirely as a community effort over the summer of 1951-52 – no government assistance involved.
Part of that work was done by the town’s children who were organised by the new Youth Centre into an emu parade on one weekend that cleared the whole area of rocks and sticks.
Ah yes, the bad old days of Commonwealth control.
Further to my comments on this and other articles concerning the issue of Anzac Oval as a site for the proposed Cultural Centre, let me repeat my objection to the choice of Anzac Oval for this project.
The entire site is of historic and cultural significance to Alice Springs and deserves to be kept as it is. Why build over an area that is currently used and loved by all Alice’s residents in order to build a massively expensive Cultural Centre that will cost the earth not only to build, but to maintain.
There are other sites. Let’s hope the government listens to the people and chooses one of them. I suggest there will be resentment rippling through the town if they heavy-handedly go against what seems to be the majority opinion on this.
No one is expressing objections to building a Cultural Centre. This could change if it is pushed down our throats.