LATEST ARTICLES

Cleared for take-off?

Erwin Chlanda
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Cleared for take-off?

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Check the thermometer and smile, if you are a glider pilot, that is: Central Australia in summer is the world’s best place for flying without an engine.

It’s Alice where world distance and speed records have been set for decades.

A launch via a tow plane takes you to 3000 feet above the local airport and from there you’re off to Uluru, Marla Bore in SA and back to Alice, for example.

No motor, no noise, except rushing air.

For the uninitiated, this is how it works: You’re always looking for thermals. That’s a mass of hot air rising, sometimes at a rate of 1000 feet per minute.

You listen out for the rate-of-climb whistle, the higher the pitch the faster you’re going up. Or you can follow follow a friendly hawk or eagle, circling in the same “lift”.

You aircraft has a glide ratio of 36-to-one: For every kilometre in altitude you can fly a distance of 36 kilometres.

Competition gliders are equipped with oxygen and you can go up to 20,000 feet, that’s 6000 metres which gives you credit for a horizontal distance of more than 200 kilometres.

Regrettably, these phenomenal opportunities, during what is normally the dead season in The Centre, are not taken advantage of.

Sport aviation is in a nosedive, according to gliding club president Sam McKay.

The club operates only one day a week, Saturdays, from 10am.

The group has two dual seater training aircraft but only one fully qualified instructor, plus three with limited qualifications.

The Alice Springs Aero Club, which operates from the main airport as well as Bond Springs, currently offers no training.

Recreational power aircraft training by Ken Watts, son of the awe-inspiring instructor Ossie Watts, is not available at the moment.

And yet flying conditions could not be more ideal.

The weather is usually perfect. The commercial air traffic is sparse. There are a few hundred kilometres of emergency landing places – the sealed highways north, south and west. (The author has landed on all three.)

The Bond Springs airstrip itself is just 20 kilometres north of town. It has 1.6 kilometres of main runway and about 600m of cross strip.

There would be ample space for a hotel, pool, restaurant and so on – a tourist village attracting flying nuts from around the world.

In its hay day Bond Springs was used for gliding, skydiving, ultralights and light aircraft, helicopters.

It could even be a terminal for cheap flights to Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin, using commuter-style turboprop aircraft, avoiding airport charges and the main airlines’ extortionate fares.

The distance from town to either airport is pretty well the same.

Any doubts about the opportunities of Bond Springs are quickly dispelled by a look at the records of international gliding ace Hans-Werner Grosse.

Hans-Werner-Grosse and his wife Karin.

The German set his 24th world gliding record near Alice Springs, during one of his several visits.

In 1982 Grosse averaged 144 kph over a 750 kilometre triangular course to beat the previous record of 141 kph.

Grosse at times was doing better than 200 kph in his 19-meter wingspan single seater German ASW17.

In December 1980 he set a triangle distance world record of 1272 km in Alice Springs.

He took me up for a flight.

“Have you always been flying,” I asked him.

“Yes. Gliding. And before that we were also doing a different kind of flying,” he answered.

In WW2 Mr Grosse was a German Luftwaffe bomber pilot.

On February 18, 2021 he passed away at the age of 98.

How much gas talk is hot air?

Erwin Chlanda
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0
How much gas talk is hot air?

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Take out the hype and Beetaloo gas is a pretty thin project.

The sub-basin, 900 km north of Alice Springs, is “estimated” to contain 500 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The NT Government refers to this estimate as being “by industry”.

Studies and “industry analysis” projecting that development “could” produce 13,000+ jobs by 2040; increase economic activity by $17+ billion … and so on.

While not prepared to put their names to these claims, NT governments – the current CLP one and its Labor predecessor – are touting that Beetaloo “could propel advanced manufacturing, domestic supply security and cleaner energy production in Australia, while accelerating multibillion dollar growth in the Territory economy.

“Resource estimations (by industry not the government, remember) are equivalent to more than 1,000 times the current annual domestic consumption in Australia, or the amount of energy required to drive a car 483 million kilometres.”

An expert in highly-placed public and NGO positions, speaking to the Alice Springs News on the condition of not being named, says there is not a great deal we can be sure about at this stage.

At the moment there are just four or five drills and they are “looking promising”. However, full exploration of what’s in the basin of 28,000 square kilometres is a long way off.

No production licensing is in place, so there is no production and hence no royalties are flowing to the NT Government.

Very little is going to happen in the next five years and the downstream infrastructure is up to 10 years away, says our source.

The upside is the field’s development is a Federal infrastructure project and not much cash is from the NT.

The Territory is putting in a dollar for dollar subsidy for drilling via the NT Geological Survey.

Our source says WA’s policy of retaining the equivalent of 15% of gas exported for WA consumers is a chicken and egg issue in the NT.

The current market is too small. The main Territory use of gas is for “keeping the lights on in Darwin”.

But if the objective is in fact “accelerating multibillion dollar growth” then cheap gas could attract the necessary manufacturing industry.

The role of Beetaloo in the Territory’s quest towards renewable energy is a puzzle.

In the current global debate gas is seen as a transitional solution, until dirty coal is phased out and solar takes over.

Gas is less dirty than coal but it still is non-renewable, which means the faster we get to solar the better for the world.

That’s not the way Nicole Manison seems to see it. She was the darling of the 300 miners gathering for the Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES) in Alice Springs.

The Alice Springs News asked her at the 2023 AGES for how long Beetaloo will be supplying gas.

She replied: “Beetaloo will continue to operate for as long as it is commercially viable. [The companies] work towards making sure they are viable and profitable. While demand is there they will continue to operate.”

No mention here of accelerating solar development so Beetaloo can be shut down sooner.

Ms Manison was the NT Mines Minister from the 2020 election.

In April 2024, she signed a gas supply agreement with US firm Tamboran Resources, without a competitive tender process, and without divulging the costs.

Less than three months later, she accepted a job with Tamboran as vice-president of government relations and public affairs.

Another likely interest group to get Beetaloo flowing until it’s dry are those Traditional Owners who support the development (some are fiercely opposed). They stand to obtain payments, hundreds of millions of dollars, for their consent to produce gas from their land.

When gas production stops, so do the payments. TOs don’t own the sun.

PHOTO from the 2021 AGES conference (from left): Minister Manison, Chief Minister Michael Gunner, Alice Springs airport stall staff including CEO Dave Batic and Ian Scrimgeour, Executive Director, NT Geological Survey.

 

UPDATE January 8

A Northern Land Council spokesperson said: “Traditional Owners are able to benefit from a range of social, commercial, and economic development agreements including solar farming, mining, agricultural, and pastoral projects on their land. This includes a number of projects within the Beetaloo Basin.

“These land use agreements can also include employment and training opportunities.

“The Northern Land Council has facilitated a number of solar projects on Aboriginal land across its region; and will continue to follow the directives of Traditional Owners towards progressing further opportunities.”

Democratic government disappeared into a Mafia-like den of secrecy

Erwin Chlanda
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Democratic government disappeared into a Mafia-like den of secrecy

COMMENT by DON FULLER

Dr Fuller provided this text in part to expand on the comments by editor ERWIN CHLANDA in the New Year’s Day edition.

Increasingly, NT citizens are questioning the moral conduct and integrity of government, viewing it as not fit for purpose, and often corrupt. They see politicians as focused mainly on their personal careers, fighting their way to the top through patronage and factional infighting and then leaving to use information acquired in government, to work for their own benefit, on very large salaries in business organisations.

These problems have been magnified by a lack of concern in the NT for the main principles of a Westminster style democratic government and have involved governments dismantling some of the key requirements.

These include ignoring Ministerial Codes of Conduct for post-employment and politicizing senior levels of the NT Public Service and the NT Police Force.

The foundations of a merit based Public Service with security of tenure have been demolished. Inequitable, unfair and unjust treatment, favouring senior levels of the Public Service and NT Police, have become the norm.

Accountability, openness and transparency in government essential underpinnings of a democratic government have virtually disappeared into a Mafia-like den of secrecy!

There have been major failures in governance in the Territory, particularly since Self-Government in 1978. Successive NT governments have been unable to bridge the differences in cultures in the main demographic groups in the Territory.

This is surprising since many of the early proponents of Self-Government of the Territory such as Ron Withnall, Bernie Kilgariff, Goff Letts, Dick Ward and Harry Chan for example, were individuals who respected racial differences and diversity and differences of intellectual tradition and thought.

However, the NT seems to be a clear example of the difference that occurs between visions and achievements due to serious problems of implementation occurring following Self-Government. It brought to the fore a completely different set of priorities that often seemed to prioritize individual political wealth seeking over concerns for the wider Territory population.

In addition, the them vs us adversarial position adopted between the main racial groups in the Territory sowed the seeds for what the Territory now reaps.

What is particularly noteworthy is that such a difference in approach was unnecessary in those early days as racial harmony was one of the defining successes of the Territory.

It appears that as the actual implementation of Self-Government proceeded in the Territory this them vs us morphed further into the presence of a troubling group of business oligarchs with close and apparently secretive relationships with some senior politicians.

A culture developed of what goes on in the Territory, stays and is OK in the Territory. Beside the many other problems associated with this approach was the fact that most people, especially Aboriginal people, were completely excluded from such governance and wealth seeking arrangements.

This cultural shift in governance responsibilities had major implications for the proper functioning of democratic government in the form of government for the people.

From this grew an acceptance of a lack of accountability and openness and transparency in government which seriously impedes government in the Territory today. It is, as if a governance structure has now grown in the Territory that would only be acceptable in some developing African states.

What can be expected following this serious slide in the ethics and principles of good governance in the Northern Territory?

As I have pointed out previously, the evidence is clear that there is likely to be higher levels of corruption and mismanagement, limited economic development, retarded growth and employment and a higher level of social conflict in the Northern Territory.

A number would argue that such indicators are already obvious.

Fewer and fewer companies and organisations will be prepared to risk an environment so badly governed and uncertain, with the accompanying unacceptably high levels of risk.

This can be expected to undermine government revenues further and in turn limit the capacity of the Territory government to protect and develop their residents through the further hollowing out of education, health and police and justice systems, for example.

Basic infrastructure such as power, roads and communication systems are also likely to be affected.

Very importantly, the risks are likely to be even more troubling for the Territory.

The particular demographic structure of the Territory means that rapidly increasing social problems – associated with marginalised Aboriginal societies who are untrusting of government. They are also dealing with collapsing Aboriginal law, culture and social structures which are likely to increase further, with very serious implications for residents of the Territory.

Such increased social dislocation, with the associated problems of disharmony and violence, are likely to gather pace with an important section of the NT community unable to develop strong, ethical and reliable linkages with leadership in government.

Ethical and responsible leadership is vital at the senior levels of pParliamentary democracy and government to set the necessary standards and examples to individuals, institutions and organisations in society.

Successful democratic governments also require and encourage a high level of community participation rather than operating as a closed, self-interested, separate, them vs us club.

There is likely to be nowhere more important in Australia that this occurs rapidly than in the Northern Territory.

Without such leadership, the NT is bound to fail and the compounding negative consequences are likely to be increasingly severe for Territory residents.

This will continue and escalate until Northern Territory political leaders appreciate they are elected to serve all members of the public in an ethical and responsible manner, rather than their own private interests.

The current Chief Minister seems beset by the unfortunate tragedy of modern democratic politics involving the pursuit of office without a guiding vision or understanding of the foundations of good governance.

This inevitably results in a failure of leadership.

However, alongside such serious governance failures has been a failure of governance in key Indigenous organizations such as land councils. These organizations are in serious need of review and reform.

Failures in these important Aboriginal organisations often affect marginalized and poor Aboriginal people to a greater extent than the obvious failures occurring in Non-Aboriginal governance in the Territory. This is because Non-Aboriginal people with higher levels of education and skills for a mainstream economy, find it far easier to adapt and overcome barriers.

As pointed out by Warren Mundine recently, despite the vast land resources owned by Aboriginal groups in the Territory, the fundamental building blocks of a successful market based economy in Australia are absent due to land rights legislation, and the suffocating presence of the Land Councils with their large, unwieldy, expensive bureaucracies.

This inability to build economic activity on Aboriginal land sets up a self-reinforcing cycle of very weak business activity, low school attendance, low educational outcomes, social dysfunction and crime.

However, while Aboriginal people suffer the most as owners of these assets, their non-productive use also affects the economic and social situation of Australians as a whole, in a substantial way.

This is occurring as royalties meant for desperate Aboriginal people are being funnelled by bodies associated with Land Councils, into long term asset accumulation for purposes unknown.

Governments at both the NT and Federal levels have shown a disturbing inability to confront such major maladministration and wastage of resources.

There is little doubt for example, even amongst many Aboriginal people that land councils are acting as a serious barrier to the economic and human development of Aboriginal people and preventing the economic use of huge assets of Aboriginal land for doubtful purposes such as long-term wealth building investments.

PHOTO (supplied): Central Land Council delegate group meeting in April 2023 supporting a Yes vote in the Voice referendum which was not successful. Dr Fuller describes land councils as a serious barrier to the economic and human development of Aboriginal people and comments on the use of “huge assets of Aboriginal land” for doubtful purposes such as long-term wealth building investments.

Saving Alice in 2025: it starts today

Erwin Chlanda
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Saving Alice in 2025: it starts today

Comment by ERWIN CHLANDA

My journalistic work in the Territory began early on Christmas Day 1974, looking down from the aircraft of Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns onto the Northern Territory capital that had been all but annihilated by Cyclone Tracy.

In four hours of filming on the ground I recorded some of Australia’s most dramatic news footage. A public service clown told me it the public must not see it. I found an Ansett pilot flying to Perth. He took my movies and a note from a young Darwin couple, who had driven me around. It was for their parents, telling them they were OK.

I syndicated my film through Nine TV to all Australian television networks as well as overseas. It was broadcast a few hours after the disaster.

That was seven days and half a century ago.

Tracey put a stop to our plans of moving to Cairns in Queensland from Streaky Bay in SA where I had been the editor of the weekly Sentinel newspaper for five years. Scuba diving with mates along one of the nation’s most beautiful coastlines, rich in ocean creatures, had been on the agenda for most weekends. Two of my kids spent the first years of their lives there.

By late December 1974 my family and I had reached Alice Springs, having stopped on the way at Lake Eyre which, at six metres deep, had reached its high water mark. It hasn’t done so since.

It took us no time at all to pick Central Australia as our new home. Here it is, seen through my eyes.

It was a country with endless news, current affairs and magazine stories, beginning with the extraordinary generosity of the town’s people to the Darwin evacuees streaming south.

There was a booming tourist industry. Imminent Territory self-government and Aboriginal land rights were seen a path to inter-racial understanding as well as commercial development.

I photographed Gough Whitlam pouring sand into Vincent Lingiari’s hand at Daguragu on August 16. 1975.

This was a region bursting with promise.

The living space was sparse only with respect to population, but full of yarns, sunshine, clean air, stars in the sky, colours on the ground, wilderness embracing you, creating a sense of freedom rare in the world.

The Northern Territory is 16 times the size of Austria, population seven million, my country of birth.

Respect and enjoyment of fellow human beings was never in doubt but apart from that you could do whatever you liked in “the bush” which included The Alice.

Camping and trekking in pristine wilderness. Thronging to the Yuendumu Sports Day, to the breakthrough art shows out of the Western Desert.

As an aviation fanatic I was soaring in gliders in some of the world’s best thermal lifts. Light aircraft flying in usually perfect weather and in uncrowded airspace. Skydiving in almost permanently suitable conditions.

Add to that the later avalanche of GST money from Canberra, five times the national per capita amount, not counting the Federal spending on Aborigines, and you’re in paradise.

So how come in 2024 Alice Springs had the highest crime rate in the nation, the highest imprisonment rate, endless reports about health and education shortfalls, the doubling of homes for sale, the halving of tourism, shops shutting down and people armed with “edged” weapons breaking into aged peoples’ dwellings, demanding the keys to their cars to use them for life threatening joyrides around town?

How come Aboriginal people who have freehold ownership of half the Territory – that’s eight times the size of Austria – can’t make a living from it?

In 2025 that must change. As the region’s only locally owned news medium, in our 31st year of publication, with a story archive of seven million words, with 28,425 readers’ comments since 2011 making it a prime, moderated medium for public debate, the Alice Springs News will do its best to provide the public with the information to make that happen.

We have a hundred or so children running rings around a police force 2.7 times greater per capita than the nation’s.

We have police and Territory Families returning young repeat offenders to supposedly responsible adults.

We asked the police to let us know about the follow-up processes: Are those kids getting food? A bed to sleep in? A shower? Clean clothes? Are they taken to the school bus? Are they prevented from galavanting around town in the middle of the night?

Do the cops have a network of contacts able to signal trouble ahead? Or are they relegated to wait until a crime has been committed? Are they equipped to prevent crimes? These are the issues fundamental to the crime spree that seems set to destroy the town.

We got no answers. We will keep demanding them.

Our sources will be the elected politicians, not their minders from whom journalists are usually usually expected to get information.

Over the years this has become a practice that is completely unacceptable, a bastardisation of the journalistic craft. If politicians do not make themselves available then that is a “no comment” and we find a way to obtain the information for our readers in another way, acting in compliance with the Journalists’ Code of Ethics and professionalism.

The out-of-control crime not only has locals in fear for their lives, it discourages people the town needs – in all sorts of professionals and trades – from moving in.

Misery has become the town’s principal industry, keeping afloat NGOs competing with each other for taxpayers’ cash whilst not being compelled to provide value for money assessments of their activities nor transparency about them.

And when the Mayor gives the Alice’s reputation the coup de grace by calling for the armed forces or the Federal police to restore order, the Prime Minister just forks out a further few million.

The change we need must happen right now.

The system where a handful of people behind closed doors pick mates without particular skills and let them run up a Government a debt of $11 billion has not served us well.

During our four year terms the Opposition is usually sitting on its hands instead of examining blow by blow every step the government is taking.

There is very little new in the world and every move is likely to have a forerunner. Has it worked? Has it failed?

That is what the people, who in democracies have the power, and especially the media and the academics, need to be probing.

That means the governments must provide absolute transparency.

If that is withheld the alarm bells need to ring.

“Commercial in confidence” just doesn’t cut it. When governments spend public money the public has an absolute right to know how.

Bland bumph issued by minders on behalf of ministers is unacceptable. The elected ministers are the proper source and must make themselves available personally to give answers, so long as the questions are reasonable. If they don’t that is a sign they have something to hide, and the public needs to redouble its efforts to find out, until they are fully informed.

NT Oppositions need to develop proven and costed policies that are known to the voters and are set to go. Oppositions rarely do that kind of homework. Then they spend their first six months in power blaming the former regime for actions they should have taken to task when they took place. Then they settle smugly into the usual government incompetence, oblivious to the region’s fabulous opportunities.

After half a century it’s time for the Territory, with its natural beauty, immense resources and inspiring ethnic diversity to be governed competently.

It’s up to all of us to make sure it happens. Starting today.

 

UPDATE 5pm

Hi Erwin, I note that Alice Springs is still dealing with excessive juvenile misbehaviour and criminality.

As you know the Commonwealth has the responsibility for Aboriginals and any agreed plans to reduce and eliminate bad behaviour rests with funding from the Commonwealth. The NT money box is empty?

I have not seen any plans that will save the general population of Alice Springs and after 60 years of failed Aboriginal policies I don’t expect any new plan will automatically fix the juvenile criminality problem.

I believe that there pockets of success with Bush Camps, carefully located and managed with care and patience.

As an orphan thrown in to the outback and given a real opportunity,  I support and endorse the intervention for selected youngsters.

Going bush is the recipe for improvement.

It would be helpful if the residents of Alice Springs, people Ted Egan and Donna AhChee, were co-opted to help.

Regards, Roger (Stainless) Steele OAM

 

Mr Steele was a Country Liberal Party Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1987.

PHOTO: There is the flipside to the current troubles of Alice Springs, an example of can-do, and that’s the Finke Desert Race. Unsurprisingly it is run by volunteers, 300 of them, with government involvement strictly determined by the committee. Since Geoff Curtis in 1976 rode to victory his Yamaha 250 (on which he also commuted to work with his dog sitting on his tank) The Finke has become the richest off-road race in Australia with one of the most difficult courses in one of the most remote places in the world. It has more than 600 competitors racing over a 460 km course that is open to allcomers. The race is a major source of income for the town.

 

UPDATE 3/1/24 at 12.30pm

Police Media release: Police has arrested three youths in relation to an aggravated robbery that occurred in Alice Springs yesterday evening.
At 8.10pm, the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received reports that a 65-year-old female had been assaulted and robbed at a residence on Lyndavale Drive in Larapinta.
The victim was returning home when she was allegedly assaulted by two youths who stole her handbag containing her car keys and personal items. The two offenders were joined by an additional offender and fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle.
Members from Operation Ludlow, the Territory Response Group, the Drone Unit, and general duties responded, and the stolen motor vehicle was apprehended on Blain Street in Araluen 11 minutes after being reported stolen.
A 12-year-old female, a 13-year-old male and a 14-year-old female were arrested without incident.
The 13-year-old and 14-year-old are expected to be charged with using a motor vehicle without consent.
The 12-year-old will be dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act (2005).
Police are urging anyone with information about the incident to make contact on 131 444.
UPDATE 4/1/24
The NT Police has sought assistance from the South Australia Police “to continue an increased police presence in Alice Springs and transition NT Officers out of Central Australia and back to the Top End, particularly in Katherine,” according to a media release.

Ten SA Police officers will be sent for the first eight-day rotation. They are expected to leave Adelaide on Monday and be sworn in as officers of the NT Police. It is expected the deployment will end in early February.

Each South Australian officer will be partnered with an NT police officer, and be utilised for patrolling high risk locations, licensed premises and engaging with unaccompanied youth.

“The officers have received full cultural awareness training, with South Australian Police having assisted Alice Springs in a similar capacity in April 2024,” states the release.

Commissioner Michael Murphy said: “I have made the decision to draw our members back to their various locations to ensure policing operations are continued throughout the Top End.

“The assistance of SA Police will … ensure the good work we have seen in Alice Springs over the past few months is continued.”

Cricket icon celebrates Central Australian achievers

Erwin Chlanda
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15
Cricket icon celebrates Central Australian achievers

Review by MARK SMITH

A significant part of the new book by Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins, Tested, is devoted to achievers from from Central Australia.

“Please not now,” were the first words Cummins thought when he unexpectedly became Australia’s 47th Test Captain at age 28.

His being a new father at that time may explain his interest in the history of the boys from St Francis House, many whom came from The Centre, and to write about John Moriarty’s lifelong connection with the other boys from the home, including Gordon Briscoe, Charles Perkins and Malcolm Cooper.

Cummins notes their shared sporting talent, rivalry and activism, initially through the Aborigines Progress Association.

He writes that excellence emerges in clusters.

Moriarty’s interview with Cummins covers sensitive topics with grace, such as his forced removal from his Yanyuwa mother, when he was only four, to their chance reunion in Alice Springs in 1953, near the old Stuart Arms Hotel.

Cummins was connected with John Moriarty through his work as a UNICEF Ambassador. This role brought him to visit Booroloola on the Macarthur River to experience first hand life in remote communities and how the Moriarty Foundation programs are helping children to excel in life and sport.

Whether it was painting rocks, singing songs or kicking the footy, Cummins experienced why a wrap-around, holistic, culturally-connected approach can be a game changer in remote communities for Indigenous children.

Every week the Foundation helps more than 2,200 Indigenous children and their families in 18 remote and regional communities across the Northern Territory, addressing 13 of the 17 Federal Government Closing the Gap targets.

The Moriarty Foundation was created in 2011 by John and his wife Ros Moriarty at the request of senior Aboriginal Law women in Borroloola, who wanted to see their grandchildren educated.

“A number of boys from Borroloola, went to St Francis House, including the talented rugby players Wally McArthur and Jim Foster who played successfully in England.

The Moriarty Foundation employs 50 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff members as local community football coaches and early years educators, representing 73% of its workforce. 

Such is Cummins’s regard for John Moriarty that in this book his words sit in a chapter  between former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the icon Dennis Lillee, arguably the greatest fast bowler of all time.

In 1960 Moriarty was the first Indigenous person selected to play soccer for Australia – the first Aboriginal socceroo: “John was selected by our national soccer team to represent a country that refused to count him and many of his loved ones in a census, and denied them their right of movement and choice,” writes Cummins.

“He would have every right to be angry, yet there just isn’t any anger in hm. As I spoke to him I was in awe of his sense of gratitude and grace.”

PHOTO: Pat Cummins visits Booroloola as a UNICEF Ambassador.

[Mark Smith is chair of the St Francis House Project and is making the film Finding Miss Almond about the boys from St Francis House and his grandparents Isabel and Percy Smith.]

People without power

Erwin Chlanda
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2
People without power

Dear Editor,

I write with concern about the plight of the thousands of Territorians who rely on prepaid electricity to keep their lights on each day – along with their air conditioners (especially in the searing heat of Central Australia), fridges as well as to keep other critical appliances and devices running.

In the 2022/23 financial year, there were just under 104,000 (largely involuntary) self-disconnections across 2430 households in regional areas of the NT with prepaid electricity meters, with an average duration of around six hours without electricity.

These figures do not include the thousands of other households in remote areas using pre-paid electricity, where disconnections would be occurring at a similar rate.

Prepaid electricity is clearly unaffordable for so many of the households who use it.

This Christmas, as you pass by the bright lights and decorations in the neighbourhoods around you, spare a thought for those households who may have the lights go out this week – maybe once, maybe twice or even more.

I implore the Northern Territory Government to take urgent action to help rectify this situation. While rolling out solar across public and social housing is required in the medium term, there are immediate things that can be done.

One of the factors contributing to the high rate of self-disconnections is that households using prepaid meters are charged a higher kilowatt/per hour rate (32.11c) than people on post payment meters (29.21c), arguably based on the fact that they are not billed for a fixed daily rate charge.

In reality, once a prepayment household’s daily consumption goes above around 20 kWh, they pay a larger dollar amount than post payment households – yet prepayment households are some of the lowest income households in the NT.

The NT Government could help fix this now, by charging the same kW/h tariff rate for all households in the NT – which would immediately increase affordability and decrease the rate of disconnections.

Secondly, people on the lowest incomes (Jobseeker ($786 a fortnight) and Youth Allowance ($646 fortnight) are not eligible for the NT Concession scheme which provides concessions on electricity ($1200 a year for people on prepayment meters) but a someone on a part time wage can earn up to $2501 per fortnight and still qualify for a part pension payment – and therefore is eligible to receive an electricity concession.

The NT Government can fix this now, by expanding the NT Concession Scheme to people on the lowest income support payments such as Job Seeker and Youth Allowance.

The crisis of prepaid electricity requires an immediate response.

Jonathan Pilbrow, Alice Springs

Nature never takes a holiday: What Cyclone Tracy means for us today

Erwin Chlanda
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8
Nature never takes a holiday: What Cyclone Tracy means for us today

By ALEX NELSON

As 2024 winds down unsurprisingly much attention is directed to the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy which destroyed Darwin in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974.

After months of work, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) recently unveiled its renewed, highly popular Cyclone Tracy exhibition. The original exhibition was opened in 1994.

There’s an intriguing set of coincidences in relation to Cyclone Tracy and the opening of its namesake exhibitions at MAGNT in Darwin, as the years 1974, 1994 and 2024 also featured NT election campaigns in which the CLP won 17 seats each time.

The first fully elected NT Legislative Assembly in 1974 had only just commenced, with the elections held on October 19 and the first sittings in November.

Devastated Darwin after Cyclone Tracy (Photo: Hazards, Disasters and Survival, 1992).

As cyclones go, Tracy was tiny and short-lived but packed a wallop; indeed, it’s likely due to its size that this cyclone’s energy was concentrated in a small area, rather like a giant tornado.

As chance would have it, the approaching monsoon front caused Tracy to dogleg around the Tiwi Islands and flung it directly towards the Territory’s capital city – it was a bullseye.

Inadequate construction standards for most buildings, in particular houses, left the majority susceptible to Tracy’s intense wind, leading to immense destruction reminiscent of a nuclear explosion.

This disaster has gone on to influence national building standards; and I recall a swift reaction from the Commonwealth as our family’s partially constructed new home on the CSIRO Field Station at the end of Heath Road was apparently obliged to be completed to cyclone-proof standards!

Cyclone Tracy bookended a year of weather extremes across much of Australia, notably commencing with Cyclone Wanda which crossed the Queensland coast on January 24 (exactly 11 months before Tracy) about 150km north of Brisbane.

Wanda’s wind caused little damage but the system triggered intensive rain for almost a week on top of already saturated catchments, leading to major flooding in Brisbane – one of the worst ever experienced.

Like Tracy for Darwin, the Brisbane flood of ’74 is considered a “defining moment” for that city.

There was a national outpouring of sympathy for Brisbane, including in Alice Springs where former Queenslander (Mrs) Pat Duncalfe, an employee at Pine Gap, gained the support of the Rotary Club of Stuart and Alice Springs Jaycees to combine with Radio 8HA for a 24-hour fund-raising appeal held on the weekend of 9-10 February.

The appeal was tremendously successful, raising $17,000, including donations raised on a QANTAS airliner flying over the Alice (by contrast, $5,000 was raised in Darwin in a fortnight).

“The manager of 8HA, Mr Ren Kelley, said this was the first time 8HA had been on air for 24 hours. He said that a staff of about 20 had worked throughout the night to answer phone calls and keep the station running.” (Centralian Advocate, 14/02/74).

Architect Peter Dermoudy’s “Futuro” home in Darwin, early 1970s. This was one of about 100 “space age” houses around the world but proved no match for Cyclone Tracy. Flying debris sliced it like an egg.

No-one had the slightest inkling this was to prove a mere practice run for the Cyclone Tracy appeal at the end of the year.

When the Brisbane flood appeal was held, Alice Springs itself was completely isolated by floodwaters in every direction.

Frequent heavy rains of long duration commenced in late 1973 but the birds really came home to roost as wet weather conditions exposed the long-known inadequacy of road and rail links between the NT and the rest of Australia.

The snail’s pace of necessary infrastructure improvements is best illustrated by the original Central Australian Railway, notoriously susceptible to floods: “A hint that the Commonwealth Railways might re-route portion of the line from the South to Alice Springs in a bid to obviate flood delays, was given at the Tourist seminar in Alice Springs this week.

“Mr B. M. Hogan, Assistant Secretary, Commonwealth Railways, spoke of a much more sympathetic route.

“Mr Hogan told the seminar that a route to Alice Springs from a point east of Tarcoola on the Adelaide-Perth railway would be much better.

“There would be no creek beds and no ‘flash floods’. It is ‘a happy exercise’ to contemplate such a line into the Territory, he said” (Centralian Advocate, 13/10/66).

By the end of 1973, no real progress had been made, and local member Bernie Kilgariff took the Whitlam Government to task over it: “There are no safe all-weather road links with the adjacent States, there is an antiquated narrow-gauge rail link with Port Augusta South Australia, which is constantly cut by washaways and derailments and thirdly, there are pitifully inadequate port facilities at Darwin.

“My main concern and criticism is that our links with the rest of Australia are still weak and pathetically unreliable. We have no guaranteed all-weather link.

“In 1968-69 the previous government planned to build a new standard gauge line from Tarcoola west of Port Augusta to Alice Springs.

“There has been some activity behind the scenes by the Commonwealth Railways on this project [but] I know of no firm timetable for work, or the announcement of a specific agreement.

“I also notice that the words, ‘to undertake as a matter of urgency’ to construct the north-south standardised rail link, have now been deleted from the Australian Labor Party policy” (Centralian Advocate, 3/01/74).

Simultaneously, there was agitation for a bridge in Alice Springs: “The Department of the Northern Territory is likely to give a ‘sympathetic hearing’ to representations for a bridge to carry motor traffic over the Todd River, according to the Member for Alice Springs, Mr Bernie Kilgariff.

“Mr Kilgariff said: ‘A precedent has been set with the construction of cement bridges over the Hugh, Palmer and Finke Rivers on the South Road which have withstood heavy flooding” (Centralian Advocate, 3/01/74).

“A firm of town planning consultants looking at a future plan for Alice Springs is considering if a bridge for motor traffic is required across the Todd River. The Minister for the Northern Territory, Dr Rex Patterson, said this in answer to a question from NT Federal Member, Mr Sam Calder” (ibid).

By the time these reports were published, Alice Springs was already experiencing severe disruption to transport services due to widespread rain but during January it got far worse: “Rain records tumbled this week as Alice Springs township recorded more than five inches to bring the January total to 303mm (more than 12 inches), easily beating the 1877 January record of 282mm and giving the town more than its annual average of 252mm.

“Four RAAF Hercules aircraft with another due today, have been keeping Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in food essentials.

“At least 300 people are stranded on the South Road (mainly at the Finke and Palmer Rivers) and airdrops of food have been made to them by the Department of the NT. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs has been making airdrops to outlying settlements and the Department of the NT has made airdrops to isolated stations.

“The domestic airlines have been carrying as much freight as possible [but] have not been able to carry the maximum amount of freight [due to] carrying extra fuel so as not to diminish dwindling supplies of aviation gas.

“In Alice Springs nobody is going hungry but the airlifts are supplying only about one-third of the town’s requirements and supermarkets are out of a good number of lines. In Tennant Creek the situation has been described as ‘very bad’ with food stocks running low” (Centralian Advocate, 31/01/74).

Rail freight was blocked at the Finke River until mid-March; meanwhile, it was offloaded onto trucks that made perilous journeys on the unsealed South Road – often impassable – that sharply increased freight costs, forcing the Commonwealth to subsidize road transport to minimise impact on the local economy.

The power station ran on fuel oil to supply electricity to Alice Springs, which was railed up in oil tankers; but none could get past the Finke River for several weeks, eventually leading to power restrictions with scheduled blackouts rolled out daily for five zones across town in mid-March.

All of this disruption seriously impacted the town with a population then of only 12,700 residents.

It was to continue periodically throughout 1974, which became the wettest year on record for Alice Springs – as it also remains for Australia as a whole, literally the high-water mark of an exceptionally strong La Niña period from 1973 to ’76.

The weather achieved what politics had failed to do – construction of the Tarcoola to Alice Springs rail link commenced the next year and was completed in late 1980; similarly, planning for a new bridge across the Todd River was speeded up and (despite savage budget cuts in the mid 1970s) the Stott Terrace Bridge was opened to traffic in 1978.

The sealing of the south Stuart Highway from Alice Springs to the South Australian border also commenced in 1975.

This was setting no precedent – the drowning deaths of Chris Kuhn and Josiah Dunne after being swept off the Wills Terrace Causeway in March 1955 led to the construction of the Wills Terrace footbridge crossing the Todd River in 1957, following a decade of lobbying as the Eastside suburb grew after WW2.

An “anvil head” looms over the towering cumulonimbus cloud of an approaching storm west of Alice Springs.

This was also during an extended La Niña period from 1954 to ’57, which saw widespread flooding in parts of eastern Australia.

Another La Niña period around the turn of the century provoked extensive flooding in Central Australia, once again leading to isolation of Alice Springs for short periods in 2000 and 2001 as the old “cement bridges over the Hugh, Palmer and Finke Rivers on the South Road” now proved inadequate to cope with higher river levels.

This prompted the replacement of these old river crossings with new, substantially higher bridges by the middle of the decade.

It’s interesting to note the Commonwealth usually responded to major flood events in the Centre with infrastructure upgrades at times when it was in control or had jurisdiction.

The same can’t be said for Alice Springs since NT self-government, as evidenced by major floods in 1983 and 1988 which prompted discussion and designs for another bridge over the Todd River (to replace the notorious Taffy Pick Crossing) or for flood mitigation dams in the river catchment – nothing of any significance has proceeded.

So what does 1974 teach us?

It’s most noteworthy that major improvements to all-weather infrastructure and building codes are in response to preceding events – it’s all reactionary.

However, it’s extremely rare for anything to be done pro-actively, in anticipation of major weather disruptions which are occurring on unprecedented frequency and scale around the world, influenced by unmitigated climate change.

We have had inklings of what the future may have in store for us.

Transcontinental rail services have already been disrupted several times due to massive floods that simply couldn’t be planned for, based on prior weather records and knowledge. The same goes for the national highway network.

It’s unlikely that Darwin will be as severely impacted by even a category 5 cyclone now as it was by Cyclone Tracy 50 years ago.

However, right now the hottest sea surface temperatures in the world span the northern coastline of Australia, which is typical of a La Niña but there’s a catch – the weather bureau states the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) system is neutral and is forecast to remain so until well into next year.

Another major climate driver for Australian weather – the Indian Ocean Dipole – is also neutral.

We’re entering a phase of climate change where latent energy levels in the sea are matching what used to occur at the height of ocean current patterns – it’s the “new normal”.

The record high sea surface temperatures across Australia’s north lead to much higher rates of evaporation and convection which has contributed to recent oppressive humidity over much of the country triggering widespread storms and heavy rainfall.

Global atmospheric warming is continuing to rise inexorably and is close to, if not level pegging, with the 1.5C threshold of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

For every one degree of warming, the atmosphere can hold an additional 7% of moisture, but that is belatedly realised as a minimum figure.

Condensation of water vapour releases energy, in turn increasing the atmosphere’s capacity in localised areas to hold more moisture from 14% to 21%.

This is what drives the increasing phenomenon of super-charged thunderstorms that unleash deluges of unprecedented fury in many places around the world.

That’s the danger we face across the NT and, with our over-reliance on vulnerable rail and road transportation services to provide the overwhelming bulk of our supplies for daily living, we are at increasing risk of experiencing the severe disruption and destruction of the major weather events of 1974 on a far greater scale.

PHOTO at top: A Connair Heron plane airdrops food supplies to Docker River during the major floods of early 1974. It was a Connair Heron sheltered at Darwin Airport that provided the first radio communications after Cyclone Tracy informing Australia that Darwin was destroyed. Photo: David Hewitt, courtesy of Central Australian Aviation Museum.

Youth crime: More meetings

Erwin Chlanda
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7
Youth crime: More meetings

By ERWIN CHLANDA

To get a handle on the town’s catastrophic crime wave the NT Government is putting its money on more police, which for years has failed to get under control what can fairly be described as a bunch of naughty kids, and secondly, on the Federal Government, over which the NT has no control.

This is despite some clever moves proposed to Canberra by the NT, such as making welfare payments on days when take-away booze is not sold and royalties are paid in bush communities, not in Alice Springs.

Chief Minister and Police Minister Lia Finocchiaro and her Police Commissioner rushed into town after the bashing of a two months old baby by an alleged juvenile home invader.

The Alice Springs News spoke with MLA for Namatjira Bill Yan about issues emerging from these and other latest developments.

NEWS: Should there be more curfews?

YAN: It’s up to the police to enact them. It can only do so, under the Police Administration Legislation Amendment Act 2024, “if a situation arises where a curfew is the responsible course of action”.

It can remain in place only for a maximum of three days, “with the option to extend to a maximum of seven days if approved by the Minister for Police” – Ms Finocchiaro.

The trigger is also whether “public disorder” is taking place, which means “a series of riots or civil disturbances, whether at a single location or at different locations, that gives rise to a serious risk to public safety”.

Mr Yan says all this makes a curfew an awkward measure.

Will support from interstate police forces be sought?

“Everything is on the table,” says Mr Yan. “There is an agreement for support between the commissioners of states and territories including – I think  the Federal Police.

“The Commissioner is aware of that. But he says at the moment he has the resources to deal with what is going on in Alice Springs.”

The Holtze Youth Detention Centre is for young people from across the Northern Territory who are remanded or sentenced to detention.

Is being 1500 km away in Darwin not contrary to the commonly held view that close contact with the family is important for rehabilitation?

“I’ll be up front, and this is really sad,” says Mr Yan.

“A lot of these kids who end up in youth detention, very very rarely do they receive visits from their families. It’s the exception rather than the rule, which is unfortunate.

“Built on a therapeutic model, I believe, Holtze has the ability to deliver programs far better up there than it would have been in here in Central Australia.

“The family very rarely go and visit them, which is very sad,” say Mr Yan, who has a solid background of the issues as the General Manager of the Alice Springs Correctional Centre before entering politics.

He says video links to bush communities are used frequently to bring incarcerated kids together with their parents.

A similar problem exists when offending kids are apprehended by police, and possibly charged, but no “responsible adult” can be found to return them to.

“All too often police spend hours and hours wandering around trying to find an allegedly responsible adult to look after that child,” says Mr Yan.

The answer: Hand balling the problem to the Department of Children and Families under the Circuit Breaker program, providing a safe place for that child over night and in daytime making contact with the families, checking “why the child was out on the streets and not being cared for”.

This frees up police resources, while begging this question: Could the government run a home for kids providing accommodation, food, school attendance, homework, sport, entertainment, coupled with cast-iron dusk to dawn curfew – doors locked? Could that be a way of using police assets preventing crimes instead of investigating them?

“Certain parts of our community would probably support that but it comes down to resources,” says Mr Yan.

“I don’t think the facility you’re talking about really exists in Central Australia at the moment. The services to run it would be difficult. That’s something for the future.”

Talking about assets, is the old police station in Parsons Street empty and if so, for how long has that been the case?

“I believe it has been used for a lot of different things, as a shelter, for example,” says Mr Yan.

“Some parts are still being used by the police. I’ve looked at that facility for all sorts of ideas.

“Outside it looks nice but there are issues inside … electrical and plumbing.”

That’s where a home for kids could go, couldn’t it?

“Yes, you could put it there. There are probably some other assets floating around that could be considered.

“When I was with Corrections I looked at that for all sorts of different things. It will be on my radar at some stage.”

It’s understood that there are some 15 police constables, highly armed, positioned at bottle shops. Should the responsibility for lawful trading in alcohol not sit with the traders instead of the taxpayers?

YAN: “We know that having a police officer in uniform at a bottle shop makes a marked difference in what happens.

“When we took them off, seven or eight years ago, there we all sorts of anti-social issues.

“Most retailers also have security guards. Police are making sure people going into bottle shops are not from a prescribed area.”

The substance of Ms Finocchiaro’s visit was thin: “After setting in place two highly visible and targeted policing campaigns, and meeting with the heads of every government agency about on-the-ground action, I participated in the nightly patrollers’ meeting, spoke with police drone pilots in action, and visited supported bail accommodation,” she said in a media release.

“Over the past two days we’ve identified several critical areas that require Federal Government attention: Centrelink payments to be made on current takeaway alcohol-free days only; reintroduce compulsory work or training programs with fortnightly reporting obligations for Centrelink recipients; conduct a performance audit of federally funded programs; insure royalty distributions are made in communities, not in Alice Springs; extend CASA exemption for Alice Springs Police drone pilots to improve drone capability; implement 100% income management for parents of youth offenders; accept the Northern Territory Government’s referral to the Federal Government for parents who neglect their children, enabling additional income management.”

PHOTO at top: Member for Namatjira Bill Yan (3rd from right) and from left, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Member for Braitling Joshua Burgoyne, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, Mr Yan, Acting Police Commissioner Martin Dole and Assistant Commissioner Peter Kennon. (Supplied.)

 

UPDATE 19/12/24

Minister for Corrections Gerard Maley said in a media release prisoner numbers have climbed to 2,497.

The government’s plan to deal with this includes: Capacity for 200 male prisoners at Berrimah by March; repurposing of the Alice Springs youth detention facility into a women’s prison; 130 beds for male prisoners will become available at Alice Springs Correctional Centre once the 96-bed modular sector is operational and the female sector is relocated; developing two new work camps in Darwin (150 beds) and Katherine (50 beds); construction of a new 150-bed multi-classification women’s prison at Holtze by September 2028; new youth justice boot camp and bail facilities in Katherine and Tennant Creek; Alice Springs Paperbark facility repurposed for up to 16-bed youth boot camp and bail facility.

The international dimension of a local traffic offence

Kieran Finnane
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3
The international dimension of a local traffic offence

By KIERAN FINNANE

There’s no question that they did it: on 27 November last year, in the middle of Hatt Road, two people, Carmen Robinson and Alexandra (Tommy) Walker, locked themselves onto a barrel filled with concrete, blocking traffic on the way into the Pine Gap military base.

Supported by some 30 others, they made their action public, posting to social media and contacting professional media, providing a media release, spokespeople and photographs. The Alice Springs News posted its initial report while the pair were still locked on.

They were doing this, a spokesperson said, to draw attention to Israel’s assault on Gaza, in which 20,000 people had lost their lives in the past six weeks – that is, since Israel began their military response to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, in which close to 1200 people died and 248 hostages were taken, mostly civilians in both cases.

The media release quoted Arrernte writer Declan Furber Gillick as saying, “Palestinians are being bombed relentlessly by a genocidal apartheid regime that uses military intelligence gathered [by Pine Gap] on Arrernte Country.”

It took four firefighters several hours to cut the two protesters free from the barrel, while six police officers attended to “negotiate” with them, before creating diversions to allow traffic to proceed to the base.

The pair were charged with “summary traffic offences”, three counts each, but have contested the charges. The case has since been making its way through the court process.

The date of the protest action was important: 27 November was the end date for the initial temporary ceasefire negotiated between Israel and Hamas. Fighting was likely to resume the next day. As it transpired the truce was extended for a further two days, then another, but it ended then, on December 1, when negotiations collapsed and fighting resumed, with 20 more Palestinians reported to have died in Israeli air raids responding to Hamas rocket launches.

In the time that it has taken the case against the two protesters to reach court, a further 24,000 people or more are reported to have died in Gaza as a direct result of fighting. More than two-thirds of the total deaths have been of women and children. The estimates of indirect deaths are orders of magnitude greater.

In that time too, South Africa has brought a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza strip. After hearings last January, the court concluded that the allegation is plausible and ordered Israel to prevent any such acts, although it stopped short of ordering it to suspend military operations.

Multiple member states of the UN have since applied to join South Africa in the case. A final judgement could take years.

(Separately the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as the Hamas leader, Mohammed Deif, possibly already dead, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Against the Israelis, the focus of the charges is on depriving Gazans of food and other resources “indispensable to their survival”.)

So, how do these legal proceedings in the international domain have bearing on a “summary traffic offences” hearing concerning two humble protesters in central Australia?

At right: Tommy Walker and Carmen Robinson outside the court last Wednesday.

It’s because the Criminal Code provides them with a possible defence, that is that they committed their offence in order to prevent the commission of another offence, specifically the crime of genocide, in which, they will argue, Australia is complicit by virtue of its role in Pine Gap.

To make this argument they intend to call an expert witness, Professor Richard Tanter, who researches intelligence and strategic questions.

Put very simply, the complicity in genocide would go to, as Prof Tanter has written, “Australian involvement through the provision of military intelligence to Israel through Australia’s apparently unrestricted institutional and technological integration into United States-auspiced global signals intelligence networks.”

Pine Gap is a central component of those networks.

Prof Tanter was on standby to elaborate in the Alice Springs Local Court last Wednesday, when the case was listed to be heard, starting at 9.30am.

Because of other matters involving people in custody, it was well after 2.30pm when the protesters’ legal representative, John Lawrence SC, outlined how his clients intend to proceed.

Local Court Judge Dr Anthony Hopkins had said he wasn’t really clear on what was to be argued, yet he was ready with at least one of the relevant authorities:

“And how are you proposing,” he asked, “to get around authorities such as the Crown and Law and others, 2007, NTSC 45, in relation to these … sorts of incidents where the Court has said you can’t stray into matters of policy and decisions with respect to international law?”

The case he was referring to involved Bryan Law and fellow activists Donna Mulhearn, Jim Dowling and Adele Goldie, who broke into Pine Gap in December 2005, a “slightly different setting,” as Dr Hopkins said, but with very similar motivations, although then it was in relation to the war in Iraq. (You can read about what happened in that case in an article by lawyer Russell Goldflam here and in my 2020 book, Peace Crimes: Pine Gap, national security and dissent.)

“I understand those authorities and they don’t ban us from running this defence,” replied Mr Lawrence (pictured with Tommy Walker on the courthouse lawns).

It would depend on the way the Court views the relevant sections of the relevant Acts, including S 27 of the Criminal Code concerning justification, as well as the status of the Genocide Convention and “the Commonwealth Crimes Act which brings into Australian law the crime of genocide”.

“We’ll be relying on recent events which have led Israel into the dock in the International Court of Justice by virtue of South Africa alleging this very crime. So, what we will be saying is that the law does state that Australia could be charged with this offence …

“[T]here’s an [ICJ] order in place which says that prima facie there’s a possible case that Israel is committing genocide, which arguably means that Australia is once again aiding and abetting.”

That is what Prof Tanter’s evidence will go to, if the Court finds it is admissible.

“The upshot is,” responded Dr Hopkins, “that you say your clients are entitled, because Australia was acting in concert in some way by providing intelligence to Israel which is engaged in genocide, that your clients are entitled to prevent people from going to Pine Gap.”

Not surprisingly, he concluded that the matter “is going to require significant detailed argument” and that wasn’t going to be possible in the remaining hours of Wednesday.

It was accepted by the parties that it would likely need a two-day hearing. The calendar was investigated and, such is the workload of the Lower Court in Alice Springs, the earliest dates found for two consecutive days were September 23 and 24, 2025.

One can only hope that progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza will proceed more quickly.

Meanwhile, police have withdrawn for each defendant the charges of “fail to cease to loiter” and “obstruct the public use of a road”, leaving one count each of “cause traffic hazard or obstruction.”

Youth crime kept in the shadow

Erwin Chlanda
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1
Youth crime kept in the shadow

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The public isn’t going to learn much from official channels about the bashing – alleged – with a blunt weapon of a two months old infant, inflicting serious head injuries.

Because the accused are under 18 we will not learn their names.

In March 2020 the Labor government introduced legislation following 23 recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children meaning “that Youth Court proceedings will now be closed to the public,” according to the Local Court website.

“A genuine representative of the news media” is permitted to be present during the proceedings but their reporting is massively restricted: They cannot name the venue of the Court in which the proceeding is heard; the identity of any witness; the names of any relative of the accused person or any other person having the care of the person.

It would be an offence, in the case of an Aboriginal person, to identify a member of the person’s community, the name or address of any place of residence of the person, the name or address of any place of education, training or employment attended by the person, or the locality in which the place is situated.

The known facts in this case are limited to the media release by the police on December 11 which included that at around 2.30pm, the accused unlawfully entered a residence on Bokhara Street, with one adult female and four children inside.

“The female victim was holding her two-month-old infant when one of the offenders threatened and assaulted her with a blunt weapon, while the second offender searched the premises.

“The youths allegedly stole the victim’s handbag and vehicle keys before fleeing the scene on foot.

“A short time later, the youths were located on Lyndavale Drive, where one of the offenders was arrested and the other fled in a vehicle.

“After a short vehicle pursuit, the second offender was apprehended.

“The infant sustained a serious head injury and is being flown to Adelaide for further treatment.”

The police later reported that the baby is in a stable condition.

From the police reports we know the accused are male and aged 16 and 17. They are charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, unlawfully cause serious harm, aggravated assault and theft.

Meanwhile Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said in a media release this afternoon her government has identified “several critical areas that require Federal Government attention”:

Centrelink payments to be made on current takeaway alcohol-free days only; reintroduce compulsory work or training programs with fortnightly reporting obligations for Centrelink recipients; conduct a performance audit of federally funded programs; ensure royalty distributions are made in communities, not in Alice Springs; extend CASA exemption for Alice Springs Police Drone Pilots to improve drone capability; implement 100% income management for parents of youth offenders; accept the Northern Territory Government’s referral to the Federal Government for parents who neglect their children, enabling additional income management.

Lowering legal age to 10 meaningless: Lambley

Erwin Chlanda
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6
Lowering legal age to 10 meaningless: Lambley

By ERWIN CHLANDA

If you got all excited at your last Eastside BBQ about the new CLP Government lowering the legal age of criminal responsibility from 12 years to 10 years you could have saved your breath.

As Robyn Lambley’s informative newsletter points out, children under the age of 14 in the NT are protected by doli incapax (“incapable of wrong”).

It presumes that a child between 10 and 14 does not have the capacity to differentiate between right and wrong.

The presumption requires the police prosecution to prove that a youth offender has the capacity to understand right from wrong and is therefore responsible for the crime they are alleged to have committed, says the Independent MLA for Araluen and the new Speaker.

“Due to the large volume of youth offenders coming through the NT courts the police prosecution do not have the resources to disprove doli incapax for all cases. This is why invariably we see young offenders routinely ‘getting off’ without consequences.

“There are very few examples of the NT police prosecution successfully disproving doli incapax – only one to my knowledge.

“It has been put to me that it should be the role of the defence to prove doli incapax rather than the onus placed entirely on the police prosecution to prove against doli incapax.

“This is why we see the same kids continuing to reoffend again and again. They are protected by doli incapax.”

Finke Desert Race court action stopped

Erwin Chlanda
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0
Finke Desert Race court action stopped

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Action against Finke Desert Race Inc by the NT Motor Accident Commission over the death of a spectator has been stopped.

A Notice of Discontinuance has been filed on November 18. The case had been before the Supreme Court under the file number 2024/02067/SC.

A spokesman for the commission says the terns of any settlement will not be disclosed.

Canberra man Nigel Harris, 60, a keen amateur photographer, died from multiple blunt-force injuries when a competing trophy truck, its steering broken when hitting two bumps, crashed into spectators during the 2021 Finke Desert Race.

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage earlier this year found protection of spectators from significant known risks were “entirely inadequate”.

Both Motorsport Australia and the Finke committee, aware of the “extreme” danger to spectators for years, had done “little to nothing” to mitigate the risks, the ABC reported from Judge Armitage’s enquiry.

The race organisation did not respond to calls from the Alice Springs News seeking comment.

PHOTO from the Supreme Court shows Mr Harris a moment before he was hit.

Six storeys, and vested interest questions

Erwin Chlanda
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5
Six storeys, and vested interest questions

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The new government has inherited a conundrum from its Labor predecessor which made a deal for 72 units with the latest intending residential developers of the Melanka block.

The project depends on the Planning Minister lifting the height limit from three storeys to six.

The question may arise whether the Minister, in making his decision, is acting as a representative of the people of Alice Springs or to protect a deal between his government and major commercial interests. This could taint the process by vested interest suspicions.

Of course, the same problem would have been faced by the ALP’s Minister.

Through no fault of his, all this has now landed in the lap of the new Minister, Josh Burgoyne.

It’s an issue of great interest to Town Council Member Marli Banks (pictured).

She is campaigning for keeping the height limit where it is and invites the public to support a petition.

“By establishing clear regulations government can effectively encourage private sector investment,” says Cr Banks.

“Well designed policies can stimulate confidence among investors, leading to sustainable economic development.”

It is clear that Mr Burgoyne, who was not available for comment today, and his government will need to come to grips with this problem: Will he be seen as acting in the interest of the public, or to protect a deal with the huge Sitzler construction company and interests linked to the powerful Aboriginal Centrecorp.

The block in Todd Street just outside the CBD has a chequered history: In 2014 an eight-story complex had received consent but failed to proceed.

Cr Banks says in a flyer the developer “aims to construct large tower blocks intended to accommodate Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) workers.

“This project not only undermines community well-being, but also violates our town’s building regulations. Specifically, it disregards the limit of three stories for residential developments, instead seeking approval for buildings that are twice the allowed height.

“Alice Springs has always been a low-rise town. These high-rise buildings are not in line with the character of the town, threatening the unique atmosphere that makes Alice Springs special.

“It’s a model that relies on government support to stay viable, benefiting only a few private interests while the community bears the impact. There’s no mention in the plans about fostering long-term personal investment in the town, focusing instead on accommodations that serve transient workers​,” says Cr Banks.

“The entire process has lacked transparency, and the community feels shut out. Decisions that directly affect our daily lives, the town’s character, and local services have been made without meaningful consultation or public input. Residents are left feeling unheard and excluded.”

PHOTO at top: Drawing of the eight storey complex approved 10 years ago but failed to go ahead.

South of the Gap: gallery fight goes on

Kieran Finnane
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3
South of the Gap: gallery fight goes on

By KIERAN FINNANE

Grassroots opposition to the location of the Territory government’s art gallery project anywhere within the Anzac Hill precinct continues.

The scaled-down version of the project proposed by the new CLP Government scarcely rated a mention at Thursday evening’s South of the Gap rally.

Whether it’s a three-storey building squeezed into the carpark on Wills Terrace opposite the pub, or the former government’s elaborate $7m design for the site further north along the river, it’s not welcome in this area, say a group of Arrernte Traditional Owners and supporters from the community.

Their “South of the Gap” slogan suggests an alternative location, but their focus is chiefy on protecting the women’s sacred site in the vicinity of the hill, where they held their last rally.

On Thursday they rallied at the courthouse lawns. Behind them, the multi-storey edifice of the Supreme Court (above, centre rear) drew a number of scornful references.

It was seen as likely comparable to the CLP’s proposed three-storey structure on a cramped site – not the kind of building they want in this town, especially when the money could go to actually helping people, young people in particular.

The CLP’s preservation of Anzac Oval was welcomed. It’s a community facility with a long history, acknowledged Traditional Owner Faron Peckham, “the first green oval in the Northern Territory.”

Otherwise, what politicians have or have not said about the gallery is of little concern to them, said Mr Peckham (below).

“For us, it’s about our community, about this Country, and more importantly it’s about our sacred sites.”

His conception of community is broad.

Mparntwe is a place where “many cultures meet, where we all leave our footprints” but this a responsibility as well as a privilege.

“These lands are shared, sacred and alive with history,” he said.

“If we listen and see beyond our world views, we can share each other’s views.

“By coming together as a community, we can care for this place – this Mparntwe, this Alice Springs …

“When we look after the land, the land looks after us. The Country does not discriminate, only people do.”

Taking up this responsibility holds a great promise, he argued:

“Let us imagine what we could achieve if we came together, bringing all our perspectives and differences to build a stronger community for the future.”

He tried to convey what sacred sites means to Arrernte people:

“These sites are not just stories of the past, they are the essence of who we are today and guide us into the future.

“[They] are not simply places. They are custodians of knowledge, spirituality and life itself.”

The site in question being a women’s site, he then handed over to his mother Elaine Peckham and his aunty Doris Stuart, among the custodians of this Country who “have been criticised, devalued and disrespected by not even being asked what they think.”

Mrs Stuart, in particular, has been loud and clear on her opposition to siting of the gallery in the Anzac Hill precinct.  The former government did its best to isolate her; the current government did not even make mention of Traditional Owners when they made their recent announcement. For the CLP it was more about the rugby oval than a cultural project of supposed national significance.

On Thursday she was not isolated. Her “granny” Ngarla Kunoth-Monks was MC for the event. The Liddle family were there in good number, and some of them spoke.

Among brief comments from Barbara Satour (nee Liddle) was a reflection of the kind of community Mr Peckham had alluded to: she was glad to see her neighbours there, smiling at a row of non-Aboriginal people smiling back, who have made their home here – “chosen to belong,” as Mr Peckham would put it.

Mrs Stuart said what she has said so often:

“We’re here to make sure that women’s site is protected from other stories. We don’t want those stories put on top of what we’ve grown up with, what we get our connection from …

“That gallery has to go, wherever, not here!”

Mrs Peckham spoke of the struggle and pain of standing up to government plans, whether it’s the Intervention or a high-rise building on a sacred site.

“We don’t want any more of that, enough is enough,” she said.

Still, she is “not going to lie down”.

“I walk the streets of Mparntwe Alice Springs with my head held high and proud of who I am.”

She is proud too of the passing of knowledge and strength “from generation to generation” as evidenced in her son Faron’s speech.

Yvonne Driscoll and Edan Baxter are among those who work with Mr Peckham on this South of the Gap organising.

Ms Driscoll was at the fore of the push to save Anzac Oval but in the course of that campaign was won over to the South of the Gap cause. Even though the oval has now been saved, she won’t be giving up the fight, she said.

There will be other actions organised, but meanwhile Mr Baxter urged all present to talk about the issues with family and friends, and to raise them with politicians, both Territory and Federal, especially now that MHR for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour has foreshadowed a possible intervention by the Federal Government which is stumping up $80m for the gallery.

Photo at top: From left Faron Peckham, Elaine Peckham, Doris Stuart, Ngarla Kunoth-Monks

Tourism started as a do-it-yourself venture

Erwin Chlanda
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Tourism started as a do-it-yourself venture

I first travelled to Alice Springs on Sunday 3rd November 1955, arriving on TAA flight TN576 which left Adelaide at 6.40pm on the Saturday, with stops at Leigh Creek and Oodnadatta.

I arrived 12.20am and slept the remainder of the night at the residence of Mrs Jenkins at the corner of Parsons Street and Railway Terrace opposite the Post Office.

I awoke at sunrise and from my window witnessed the wonderful colourful effect that the rays of the sun had on the MacDonnell Ranges including the majestic Mount Gillen.

I was instantly affected by the beauty of the area.

Keith Castle, now aged 93, was one of the most influential figures in The Centre’s budding tourism industry. Editor ERWIN CHLANDA picked some gems from his 164 page memoir that is full of detail, dates, commercial information, but especially about the stories of people who devoted their lives to developing the region’s visitor industry.

They are only a handful of men and women but they all had skin in the game, big time, building accommodation, sometimes with their own hands, starting coach firms and developing tours: Stan Cawood, Bert and Kate Gardiner, Doug and Gil Green, Jack and Jim Cotterill, Bryan Bowman, Ian Conway, Harry and Joy Taylor, Bernie Kilgariff, Daisy and son Ly Underdown, Barry Bucholtz, Geoff Beames, just to mention some.

They turned Ross River, King’s Canyon, Ayers Rock, Simpson’s Gap, Palm Valley, Glen Helen into destinations.

Snippets from Mr Castle’s account illustrate the tenacity and resourcefulness of the industry’s founders.

The word government is hardly ever mentioned in his account, and promotion wasn’t in the hands of Darwin-based bureaucrats who, from current experience, are incapable of keeping the industry from freefall.

Instead, early operators parleyed TAA, one of Australia’s major domestic airlines from its inception in 1946 until its merger with QANTAS in 1992, into giving them a few free seats to take their pitch to the state capitals.

From June 21 into July 1962, [my wife] Shirley and I undertook tours with the Central Australian Tours Association (CATA): Seven days Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon staying at Ayers Rock Chalet and Wallara Ranch. Four days Western MacDonnell Ranges staying at Glen Helen Chalet. Four day Ross River Tour staying at Ross River Homestead. The day tours of Alice Springs town and Standley Chasm / Simpsons Gap.

We experienced what the operators had to deal with in this vast area with poor roads, in chalets where they had to provide their own water supplies, sewer and drainage facilities and electricity.

Late 1950s: Initially it was a group of four tour operators who provided chalet style accommodation “out bush” from Alice Springs and a hotel and a guest house in Alice Springs.

They commenced this enterprise as an unofficial loose group that became an incorporated body in January 1961 as CATA and then a Limited Company in late 1962.

The new company then decided to operate tours to Ayers Rock in the summer of 1957/1958. Several galvanised tin sheds which had been used for staff accommodation at the back of the Hotel Alice Springs were taken to Ayers Rock.

Lance Rust with several workers constructed from those sheds what was to become the Ayers Rock Chalet.

1958: Shortly after the first Rock tours started heavy rains washed away the road through Mount Quinn homestead and the route was changed to travel via Erldunda.

The first tour of each week was by road to Ayers Rock and returning by air and the second tour each week being by air to Ayers Rock and returning by road.

Connellan Airways, the local airline, provided the air travel for both those tours, flying by the “scenic route” along the MacDonnell Ranges over Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Gorge, Ormiston Gorge, Glen Helen Gorge, Finke River, Hermannsburg Mission, Lake Amadeus then to Ayers Rock.

The first manager of the Ayers Rock Chalet was Howard Rust. In1960 the shareholding in the company changed, when Jack and Elsie Cotterill decided to commence operating a tour to King’s Canyon. They sold their shareholding in Alice Springs Tours to Stanley Walter (Stan) Cawood.

Stan was the owner of Cawood Transport, which carried goods from the rail head at Alice Springs to Tennant Creek, Mt Isa, Katherine and Darwin.

1959: Harry Bloomfield the owner of Loves Creek cattle station invited the two Green brothers to use the abandoned homestead for their base.

Recognising the beauty of the area and its potential as a tourist destination they built timber cabins next to the remains of the Old Loves Creek homestead. They had a timber mill, used earlier for rail sleepers sold to the Commonwealth.

They built the first cabins from red gum timber of the area, and also rebuilt and renovated the old homestead providing a dining room, kitchen, bar and lounge areas.

A swimming pool was to be provided for their guests using a squatter’s tank near the homestead. Initially five cabins were built, including two single beds with en-suite shower and toilet facilities in each.

Standley Chasm

Very soon it was necessary to increase the number of cabins from five to ten in 1960. Members of the cattle industry fraternity were approached to assist with the new tourist venture as the availability of finance from banks and other sources was very limited.

Firstly the Clough family assisted them. When credit tightened in the cattle industry they had to reclaim their investments and Bryan Bowman of Coniston cattle station came to the rescue and assisted them to expand their tours. Bowman had already become involved in the tourist industry by assisting Bert Gardiner start Trailway Tours.

At the same time Harry Bloomfield agreed to relinquish his lease on the Loves Creek Cattle Station for the purpose of allowing the Green Brothers to apply for a 40 acre Special Purpose Lease to build a tourist resort – now Ross River – within the Loves Creek Cattle station.

In the early 50s Trailway Tours was formed by Bert and Kate Gardiner. They had arrived in Alice Springs and set up the Legion Taxi service and like many others could see the potential of a tour operation in the area.

Bert showed interest in the Western MacDonnell Ranges and particularly Glen Helen Gorge, and started tours to that area in 1954.

An approach was made to Bowman with the idea of renovating the deserted Glen Helen homestead to provide rooms for passengers, plus kitchen and lounge facilities. Bowman agreed and so became involved in that tourist venture, becoming a great supporter in the early formation and operation CATA.

Bert Gardiner started operating tours to the area on a four day basis. The first day was travelling to Glen Helen calling at Ellery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine George, and the Ochre Pit.

1980 Albion Denning

The second day’s activities began with viewing sunrise on nearby Mount Sonder in the west, then later a full day trip to Ormiston George and Ormiston Pound.

The third day was exploring Glen Helen Gorge and nearby gorges in the area including Redbank. Around 1960 or 1961 a road was constructed through Glen Helen Gorge alongside the Finke River, but the old river had other ideas, and the road was washed away in the next flood.

In 1959 Bert asked Reg Rechner of TAA for concessional airfares to enable him to travel to the capital cities to promote his tours to Glen Helen George and Central Australia. TAA agreed to provide concessional travel and as a result, tour operators from Alice Springs started calling on tourist bureaux and travel agencies particularly in South Australia and Victoria about tours in the winter months, May to September.

Convinced that the area had a huge potential, Jack and Elsie Cotterill decided to go it alone and operate tours to Kings Canyon.

They sold their shares in Alice Springs Tours to Stan Cawood, whose wife Ethell was the daughter of Daisy Underdown and the sister of Lycergus, known by all as Ly.

No land was available near the canyon, so after discussions with Aboriginal pastoralist Arthur Liddle, they completed an arrangement with him to build the tourist chalet on Angas Downs station.

Unfortunately the area with a suitable supply of water nearest to Kings Canyon was some 60 miles away from the canyon at Yowra Bore. It later became Wallara Ranch Motel.

A new “road” allowed the operation of their four-wheel drive coach to Kings Canyon in reasonable conditions when the weather was dry.

The story of the Elkira Court Motel starts in 1952 when Harry and Joy Taylor visited Alice Springs as tourists and were so moved by the beauty of the area that they vowed to return.

They did that in 1954 and at that time purchased a colonial style house in Bath Street owned by Claude Cashman.

On return to Victoria they left the house in the care of the ES&A Bank manager, Bill Mullins who, after his retirement from the bank, became the manager of the Oasis Motel, owned by Bernie Kilgariff.

Serpentine Gorge

Having taken up residence the Taylors renovated the house to become a guest house, increasing the number of rooms by building motel units.

Harry, the builder, tried to purchase a tip-truck in Alice Springs but was unable to find one at a reasonable price. He went to Adelaide and purchased one and returned up the South Road (the unsealed south Stuart Highway) loaded with materials.

To make the concrete blocks he obtained a license to mine sand from the Todd River and gravel from Gillen Creek near the base of Mount Gillen. By 1957 Elkira’s total capacity was 22 rooms.

The Hotel Alice Springs on the south-east corner of Gregory Terrace and Hartley Street was built by the Underdown family. It started operating as a hotel in 1932, having obtained a hotel license from the Northern Territory Administration.

The licensee for many years was Mrs Daisy Underdown. After her death it was taken over by son Ly.

In late 1947 the hotel provided accommodation and meals to the TAA air-crews for their overnight stays. They were accommodated in some of the earliest, and perhaps the first air-conditioned rooms in Central Australia.

The hotel was extended to a second floor in the early 1950s. Ly was the builder and made the materials at his cement brick works on the south-east bank of the Todd River near Heavitree Gap.

By the early 1950s Central Australia and Ayers Rock were becoming known as a tourist destination by many Australians. In September 1950 Len Tuit took a party of 22 school-boys and 11 masters from the rail at Finke to Ayers Rock and later that year escorted a group from Melbourne University to Ayers Rock.

In 1951 Eddie Connellan, having regularly diverted some of his cattle station mail runs to fly over Ayers Rock, applied for landing rights there.

1955: The Commonwealth Railways operated the passenger train “The Ghan” (pictured as it was in the 1930s) from Port Augusta to Alice Springs, leaving Port Augusta on a Thursday arriving in Alice Springs sometime between 11.30 am and 4.30 pm “or later” on a Saturday. It then left on its return journey to Port Augusta on Sundays at 11.00 am.

Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) had flights to and from Adelaide six days a week, and to Darwin from Alice Springs four days a week.

In 1957, on a request from Len Tuit, Merv Andrews from Curtin Springs station drilled for water at Ayers Rock. In 1957 he found a supply and this stopped the need of carrying water in jerry cans from Curtin Springs to Ayers Rock on his tours.

To promote the tours and increase loadings Len began employing a “hospitality officer” who joined the Ghan at Finke to advise the passengers about tours and accommodation.

In 1958 Pioneer Tours joined forces with Len Tuit. The new operation conducted tours for some time as Pioneer-Tuit Tours. Pioneer Tours later purchased Tuit’s Coach Services tours and organization, including Mount Gillen Hotel and began expanding their Central Australian operations by building a Chalet at Serpentine Gorge and expanding and upgrading Mount Gillen Hotel and the tent camp at Ayers Rock, and introduced more modern coaches.

The Alice Springs Chamber of Commerce stated in 1960 that Central Australia had embarked on “what, undoubtedly will be her greatest season ever. From it could emerge undeniable proof that she has within her grasp a great national industry which, with proper development and encouragement, could outstrip cattle and mining as the Territory’s major money earner”.

On April 15, 1961 the new airline terminal and travel agency built by Ly Underdown was officially opened by Mr J (Jock) Nelson MHR, member for the Northern Territory in the Australian Parliament: “The potential value of the tourist industry to the Northern Territory is estimated at four million pounds a year.

This potential will make tourism as valuable as the pastoral industry – however to achieve this goal close co-operation is needed between the Government and private enterprise. By forming CATA, private enterprise has shown its interest, and it is up to the Government to expand such essential services as roads and water, and assist in the development of the various reserves and tourist attractions.”

Ian Conway with two elders on Dreamtime Tour.

1958: The Oasis Motel on Gap Road was owned by a group of local people. The prime organiser was Bernie Kilgariff whose family owned the land, and had operated a chicken farm there. He cleared the land at the northern end of the block and commenced laying foundations in 1959 for seven units and shortly later another three units.

Somewhat like the building of the Elkira units, the sand for bricks was obtained from the bed of the Todd River, and gravel from a creek near Flynns Grave.

Sandy, an Aboriginal man, was employed by Bernie to make the bricks. A loan of £3,000 was obtained from the ANZ Bank to enable construction to start. Sitzler brothers were the builders. In 1963 the Kilgariff family became the sole owners of the property.

[Bernard Francis Kilgariff AM (1923 to 2010) was one of the founders of the Country Liberal Party and served as a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly which included a stint as Deputy Majority Leader. He was elected to the Australian Senate in 1975, and initially sat with the National Country Party until 1979, before sitting with the Liberal Party for the rest of his Federal political career in 1987.]

1964: CATA’s standing among Travel Agents became prominent: Central Australia is now accepted as a Tourist Destination in the industry. There is an estimated 20% yearly increase in visitors to the area. Tourists are usually in the 45 to 60 year age bracket. Facilities provided by CATA are acknowledged as good in the industry. Promotion of Central Australia in general and CATA in particular needs improvement. Both Sydney and Melbourne promotions are lacking.

Between 1961 and 1989 Central Australian Tours Association Pty Ltd and its subsidiary CATA Tours Pty Ltd, both trading and and being promoted as CATA, had started as a group of small local bus operators who built and provided their own chalet accommodation, and two Alice Springs motels.

They became a major tour operator in Central Australia and the Northern Territory, extending into both Northern Western Australia and North Queensland. The company continued to operate after many other operators had ceased to exist.

These included Tuit Tours, Pioneer-Tuit Tours, Pioneer Tours, Ansett Pioneer Tours, Redline Coaches, Sampson’s All Australian Tours, Legion Trailway Tours, Pioneer Trailway Tours and Deluxe Coaches who operated as competitors within the Northern Territory

On December 1, 1989, all of CATA’s operation were absorbed into AAT-Kings Tours.

IMAGE at top: Mt Sonder and Glen Helen homestead, by Albert Namatjira.

Visitor centre location: Getting it right this time?

Erwin Chlanda
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Visitor centre location: Getting it right this time?

Opinion by ALEX NELSON

A month ago, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, along with local ministers Bill Yan and Joshua Burgoyne, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alice Springs Town Council to deliver a range of “critical projects”.

A major announcement was the granting of nearly $15m to the town council (itself contributing $5m) for the construction of a new public library, in turn converting the existing building at the Civic Centre to become the base for Tourism Central Australia (TCA) and Visitor Information Centre costing $4.8m.

This decision, on the face of it, makes good sense.

TCA Chief Executive Officer, Danial Rochford, is quoted as being delighted, although quite recently TCA proposed the visitors centre should be at the base of Anzac Hill, next to Hungry Jack’s, and on the site some years ago of the Shell franchise.

Most locals and tourists would be likely to agree: That location is on the Stuart Highway and visitors seeking information would not have to cross a busy road from where they are parking.

Mr Rochford now states the new location would alleviate the major problem of lack of parking at the current site, and place it in close proximity to the Greyhound bus parking bays across the road in Gregory Terrace (for which TCA is the exclusive agent in Alice Springs) and to the caravan and bus park on the river side of Leichhardt Terrace directly opposite TCA’s imminent new home.

What’s missing from all the hoopla over this great decision is that the TCA is moving back next door to where it was once located (as the Central Australian Tourism Industry Association) in a building converted for that purpose in Gregory Terrace just over a quarter century ago.

(The ownership of the former Visitor Information Centre was simultaneously transferred from the NT Government to the town council last month, too).

Jalistan House, new visitor centre and TCA office, August 2013.

Not only that, but it’s in the same general vicinity for a Visitor Centre recommended by the landmark Tourism Plan for Central Australia study (the “HKF Report”) published in 1969.

All of this maintains the peculiar fly-in-a-bottle shifts of tourism bureau and visitor centre locations in Alice Springs since the 1960s, especially in the vicinity of the Parsons Street and Todd Mall/street intersection in the CBD.

This history was outlined in my article published in 2013, marking the occasion of the TCA’s new base in Jalistan House on the corner of Todd Mall and Parsons Street.

In keeping with this pattern, Tourism NT (a Division of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality) is located diagonally opposite on the upper level of Alice Plaza, directly above where a shop front for the NT Government Tourist Bureau was opened in the brand-new plaza in 1987!

It’s worth looking at the original recommendation for a Visitor Centre on Colacag Park (now the Civic Centre) in the HKF Report of 1969.

The report states: “Alice Springs is the logical location for a major visitor centre facility because of its position as both the destination point for visitors from afar and the departure point for travel to places of interest in The Centre.

“The Visitor Centre should provide all the visitors’ information needs and will be the starting point for a vacation in The Centre and such a facility will become a destination area in itself. The Visitor Centre will contain the Northern Territory Tourist Bureau, an outback museum, theatre, art and craft gallery, library, amphitheatre, landscaped grounds, ample parking and public toilets.

“The key to the success of the Visitor Centre will be its information and interpretive functions – the Tourist Bureau and the Outback Museum.

“The Tourist Bureau will supply travel information and the museum will provide the visitor an opportunity to develop an understanding of The Centre and its people.

“The Visitor Centre, especially the Tourist Bureau, museum and satellite information centres, should have a multi-lingual capability. The appeal of this area is worldwide and provision for the non-English speaking visitor must be made.” (Visitor Plan for Alice, HKF Report, 1969).

The accompanying photo depicted the then empty corner of Colacag Park at the intersection of Todd Street and Gregory Terrace – this was a decade before the construction of the Alice Springs Town Council complex.

This corner is now the Gathering Garden, opened in 2009 – some 40 years later – commemorating the varied history of today’s Civic Centre block.

Two date palms are prominent in the middle of Colacag Park – they’re still there, over twice as high, in the lawns of the Civic Centre.

They were planted in 1916 by Walter Smith (the “Man from Arltunga”, whose biography was published by the late Dick Kimber in 1986) in the extensive gardens of Afghan cameleer Charlie Sadadeen – the last surviving remnant of the site’s early settled history.

Also visible to the photo’s left edge is a small building, at the time just over a decade old, which was officially opened by the Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck MP, in 1958.

This was officially the “Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Welfare Centre”, more commonly called the Infant Welfare Clinic: “It will be recalled that on the occasion of the Royal visit, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, expressed a wish that any memento of the visit should take the form of a fund to be devoted to the welfare of the mothers and children of Australia [this was the Queen’s visit to Australia in 1954].

“From funds raised by a local committee from Alice Springs, together with a contribution by the Commonwealth Government, the Memorial Welfare Centre building was completed and the Minister has consented to unveil a plaque commemorating the occasion at a ceremony which will take place at 8pm, on April 23, 1958” (Centralian Advocate, 18/04/58).

Jalistan House, the new TCA office in June 2013 during north Todd St reconstruction – one of the many.

The official opening occurred in the middle of a political crisis, as every elected member of the NT Legislative Council had resigned en masse in protest at the lack of constitutional development of the NT.

The revolt was led by the Member for Alice Springs, Neil Hargrave, who along with other prominent local leaders staged a noisy protest meeting of some 200 residents on that corner when Hasluck was doing the honours for the new clinic.

Now long forgotten, this episode prompted significant reforms in the early 1960s – and opened the way for Bernie Kilgariff’s long political career.

The Infant Welfare Clinic operated for many years (I was one of its clients!) but was eventually superseded by other services and closed.

In the mid 1990s, the Central Australian Tourism Industry Association was looking for new digs and set its sights on the old clinic in Gregory Terrace.

Prominent member Libby Prell explained the process in a letter to the editor: “CATIA approached the Minister for Lands in November 1995, expressing an interest in the vacant building as a possible Visitor Information Centre and CATIA office.

“A full submission was subsequently prepared. In late 1996, an offer was made of a Crown Lease on the block”.

In an extraordinary echo of the infant clinic’s original funding, Libby Prell’s letter continued: “CATIA is self-funding $260,000 on the building alterations and extensions, with an additional $260,000 being a Federal Tourism Regional Development Grant. A total of $520,000 will be spent on the building.

“Tangentyere Design has created a building which will be endemic to Central Australia, which is contemporary and inspirational and has integrity and not be ostentatious.

“To that end the building will be colour-rendered in its entirety, will have a feature ’tilting’ sandstone wall on the west and north aspects.

“Landscaping is an integral part of the project. CATIA and Tangentyere Design have always had a focus that the building is a public utility and seen to be part of the family of Town Council buildings” (Centralian Advocate, 4/11/97).

Construction work had already commenced in September 1997: “Located in front of the Town Council chambers on Gregory Terrace, the building was designed by Tangentyere Design and is being built by Probuild.

Public library, Gregory Tce view, August 2013.

“The NT Government has leased the land and buildings to Central Australian Tourism on a peppercorn lease for up to 20 years” (Centralian Advocate, 12/09/97).

Simultaneously, the town council was considering new plans to its major upgrading of Leichhardt Terrace already underway north of Gregory Terrace: “The NT Government has agreed to give an extra $80,000 toward the plan to include the section of Leichhardt Terrace between Gregory and Stott Terraces in the reconstruction. If adopted, it will take the bill of the total Leichhardt Terrace reconstruction to $800,000.

“The plan allows for a passenger drop-off zone for up to five buses next to the council grounds [Gregory Terrace].

“Across the road next to the Todd River, there is space for coach parking … it is hoped this will take the clutter of traffic, currently a daily occurrence in Gregory Terrace, around the corner into Leichhardt Terrace where there is more space.

“And it would not remove tourists from the Todd Mall retail area or the new CATIA building on Gregory Terrace.

“Council’s Director of Planning, Eugene Barry, said all relevant NT Government Departments on the Urban Beautification Steering Committee had agreed to the proposition” (Centralian Advocate, 14/11/97).

Thus the scene was set during 1998 – the new CATIA Visitor Information Centre and tour bus parking bays in Gregory Terrace, and coach and caravan parking across Leichhardt Terrace opposite the public library.

Yet, well within the 20-year period of a peppercorn rent for the reconstructed building in Gregory Terrace, Tourism Central Australia abandoned the lease in favour of moving into Jalistan House in 2013.

This building, previously long occupied by Australian Airlines and QANTAS, had been empty for several years (a restaurant briefly operated there).

Since 2013, the previous custom-rebuilt Visitor Information Centre in Gregory Terrace (at left) has in turn languished as an empty building, often targeted by vandals.

The TCA’s move to Jalistan House coincided with another major town council road building project, this time the re-opening of the north end of Todd Mall to traffic and reconstruction of part of Parsons Street in 2012-13, costing $5m, in a vain attempt to revitalise the north end of the town centre.

The TCA clearly shot itself in the foot with this move – not only paying rent in new premises several years earlier than it needed to but also isolated from easy access to vehicular traffic.

So now, over a decade later, a bit of common sense has prevailed with the TCA, town council and the NT Government returning back to the future with the imminent relocation of the Tourism Information Centre returning to the vicinity of where it was first proposed to go 56 years ago.

PHOTO at top: Colacag Park, today’s Civic Centre site, at the intersection of Todd Street and Gregory Terrace, in 1969. That was a decade before the construction of the Alice Springs Town Council complex on that site. This corner is now the Gathering Garden, opened in 2009.

The first 100 days: Cracking down on dumpers

Erwin Chlanda
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The first 100 days: Cracking down on dumpers

Cracking down on illegal dumping in Alice Springs is among the initiatives introduced by the CLP Government during its first 100 days, according to a media announcement.

Reducing Crime package – Declan’s Law, ram raids, post and boat, nuisance public drinking, minimum sentencing for assaults on workers.

Increased police presence – More officers in uniform and on the streets.

Territory Coordinator – Reforming our economy by making the Territory a more competitive place to invest.

HomeGrown Territory grants – Up to $50,000 to build a new home and $10,000 to buy an existing home for First Home buyers.

Payroll tax – Removing payroll tax for small businesses with less than $2.5m turnover.

Free swimming lessons – For all primary school students in years 1 to 6.

ATSIAGA Master Plan – Saved ANZAC Oval and progress the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery.

School Attendance Officers – To get kids to school and hold parents accountable.

MVR changes – Frozen registration fees, one-year free driver’s licences, 3-year trailer registration.

Corrections Master Plan – Fixing Labor’s Corrections crisis and getting prisoners out of watch houses.

Meningococcal B vaccine rollout.

New infrastructure projects in Alice Springs – $27m for sport, lifestyle, cultural, tourism and community infrastructure.

Re-established Asian Relations portfolio – Signed MOU with Indonesia to strengthen collaboration on critical mineral and strategic material supply chains.

Machinery of Government changes – For an agile public service focussed on reducing crime, rebuilding the coming and restoring our lifestyle.

Pharmacy reforms – increasing the services available at the chemist for cheaper and quicker access to healthcare.

Expanded hunting reserves – Increased areas for hunting with consistent bag limits.

Security screens for all bus drivers.

Solar battery scheme – Up to $12,000 grants.

Fines and Penalties – Passed new laws to recover millions in unpaid fines.

Legal Aid – Fixed longstanding funding issues by providing an extra $5.2m to continue legal services for quicker access to justice for victims.

Minimum floor price – Introduced legislation to remove minimum unit price for alcohol.

Approvals Fast Track Taskforce – Reforming regulatory processes and reducing approvals timeframes.

Contributed.

Booze floor price ends, fight starts

Erwin Chlanda
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Booze floor price ends, fight starts

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The new buzzword “minoritarian governing” describes minorities getting their way by making a lot of noise or grasping media attention, disproportionate to their place in the community.

Right now it’s firing up the pseudo debate about the alcohol floor price, a measure assuming that people will drink less if they have to pay more, which the new CLP government is knocking on the head.

The government says the Minimum Unit Price (MUP) of $1.30 per standard drink, introduced by Labor in 2018, has not been working.

The government quotes statistics while opponents to the change do not. They refer to the “devastating consequences of alcohol harms in our communities”.

Hospitality Minister Marie-Clare Boothby said in a media release: “The alcohol floor price is a blunt, ineffective tool that fails to address the complexity of alcohol-related harm in the NT.

“Alcohol-related assaults have increased by 38% in the past eight years under Labor.

“People aren’t drinking less; they have changed what they drink, from wine boxes to stronger spirits in glass bottles – which then can be used as weapons.”

The minister says although wholesale data found a reduction in cask wine sales, there is a direct increase of 17% in consumption of hard spirits and 36% of mixed spirits.

But promoters of the floor price claim there is strong community opposition to its abolition, quoting a letter from the Foundation from Alcohol Research and Education (FARE). It is signed by a little more than 200 people, mostly staff of NGOs, medical professionals and academics.

The Alice Springs People’s Alcohol Action Coalition’s spokesperson John Boffa is quoted: “We know that at this time of year violence escalates, and services are under even more pressure.

“We need to be focusing on preventing harm in any way we can – which is why the floor price on alcohol is so important. It’s proven to be effective in reducing rates of violence.”

But FARE provided a Menzies School of Health Research 2023 study struggling to support these claims. It quotes studies from Scotland, Canada, Wales – commonly regarded as irrelevant to the NT.

The study says in part:

• Central Australian studies demonstrated reductions in ICU admissions and emergency department attendances but the impact of MUP cannot be separated from the impact of other measures introduced at the same time.

• An NT report concluded that it was “unlikely that the MUP materially impacted the use of alternative substances”. Two reports noted the lack of data available to investigate this in detail.

• Two reports found significant declines in the NT overall, but the impact of other interventions cannot be separated outside of the Darwin region as MUP was part of a package of reforms.

There appeared to be no convincing contradiction to the government assertions, nor to the tongue-in-cheek survey “with a limited sample size” by Professor Rolf Gerritsen.

The NT Liquor Commission declined to comment. It even conceals who is sitting on it: Clicking on “Members” on its website leads nowhere.

 

UPDATE Nov 29, 7.50am

Historian Alex Nelson provided the names of the members of the Liquor Commission which he says are published on its website.

The names are: Chairperson Russell Goldflam, deputy chairperson Jodi Truman,
Greg Shanahan – Acting Deputy Chairperson, Prof Phillip Carson, Elizabeth Stephenson, Bernard Dwyer, Katrina Fong Lim, Denys Stedman, Rachael Shanahan and Ebony Abbott-McCormack.

The Alice Springs News tried several times to use the link to the members’ names on commission’s website but did not succeed. Two readers, Vicki Gillick and David Carpenter, also got through (see blow). It’s a mystery!

DIY welfare group puts numbers to its proud record

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DIY welfare group puts numbers to its proud record

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council is a bit of a mouthful, so just call them NPY and be amazed at its achievements since 1980, spreading across 350,000 square kilometres in the south-west of the NT, the Top End of SA and a big patch of eastern WA.

Over the decades they won a years long battle for alcohol control on their patch, supported their Arrernte sisters fighting a dam in Alice Springs, danced at the Olympic Games, initiated the introduction of cross border justice administration and saved countless lives by being part of the “un-sniffable” low octane fuel campaign.

As the airwaves are full of talking from politicians, activists and coroners, mostly about dollar figures with lots of zeros, Alice Springs based NPY is putting real numbers to its accomplishments in 2024.

4160 hours of Ngangkari healing in hospitals and community: We employed 45 ngangkari and Anangu mental health advocates to support community health and wellbeing, developed 9 new bi-lingual mental health resources and delivered Uti Kulintjaku activities in 11 NPY communities.

581 women supported by the domestic and family violence service: We responded to 5428 calls to our emergency number resulting in 6158 episodes of care to Anangu women experiencing domestic & family violence.

42,370 attendances at youth activities: We delivered 6307 hrs of youth recreation activity to keep young people active, engaged and reaching for the stars.

240 Anangu with a disability supported with their NDIS plan advocacy, NDID appeals and access to social events: 280 Anangu elders were cared for with social support, specialist equipment, respite and transport and 134 carers were supported to give the best care they can to family.

6263 episodes of care given to children and families keeping them healthy and safe: 155 nutrition workshops were delivered to 966 people and we advocated for parents impacted by the Child Protection System 498 times.

451 Tjanpi artists received an income from the sale of their artworks: $438,761 worth of artwork were sold, 13 national exhibitions were presented and 309 artists received skills development workshops in 11 remote communities.

In the year ending June 30, 2023 NPY received $20.8m in grants and $2.1m in other operating receipts.

PHOTO AT TOP: Tjanpi artist Noreen Bronson with woven sculpture. Artists earned close to half a million dollars. Small images: goods for sale. All illustrations from NPY.

Economy to boom, but no answer for domestic violence

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Economy to boom, but no answer for domestic violence

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The Territory economy is picking up and next year it will go gangbusters, according to CDU Adjunct Professor Rolf Gerritsen (portrait at right).

“In the last ABS figures we are the fastest growing economy in Australia, albeit off a low base. Mining projects such as Nolans Bore rare earth (pictured above) and around Tennant Creek are coming on stream.

“The only people who are having difficulties are retail. Online shopping certainly has an effect on it.

“The constraints on the Alice Springs economy are structural – skill shortages. Any business could at least employ another person.

“You can’t find a tradesman in the pub during the day. That’s for sure,” says Prof Gerritsen.

“We need more housing in Central Australia. I don’t know if the extension of Kilgariff (at right) is going to solve that problem.

“Perhaps we need apartments attracting young trades persons and then they decide they want to stay here and move into a house.”

On the downside, hiring more social workers isn’t likely to fix the problems at which government spending of $180m over five years is targeted.

“Domestic Violence is a very serious problem but I suspect that’s what will happen.

“Social workers are useful once the violence has been committed but seem to be less useful to prevent the violence in the first place.

“The police could be more proactive but you know as well as I do, the police are called to an incident, such as someone beating up his missus. The missus agrees to press charges against him but when they get to court she refuses to proceed.

“The police hate domestic violence because it’s a crime where penalties cannot necessarily be enforced.”

Commenting on both major parties agreeing to the funding: “It was me-too policy making on the run during the election campaign” says the Alice-based CDU professor overseeing his final two doctoral students pre-retirement.

According to a media statement Minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence Robyn Cahill will provide a ministerial report on the issue of domestic and family violence.

“The CLP Government will comprehensively review [yesterday’s] Coronial recommendations into the tragic deaths of four Aboriginal women at the hands of their partners,” says Ms Cahill in the release.

“This inquest began 17 months ago, and it is critical we do not rush our response and take the time to work through it and engage with stakeholders.

Judge Elisabeth Armitage who conducted the coronial inquests into the deaths of Miss Yunupiŋu, Ngeygo Ragurrk, Kumarn Rubuntja and Kumanjayi Haywood, handed down 35 recommendations.

The Aboriginal women were killed by their domestic partners. The NT has the highest rate of domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) and the highest imprisonment rate in Australia.

“As an immediate response to preventing domestic violence, the ‘Reducing Crime’ package we introduced in the first sittings of Parliament have already been assented into law, which includes a presumption against bail for serious violent offenders.”

The Fines and Penalties (Recovery) Amendment (Validation) Bill 2024, described by Leader of Government Business Steve Edgington as a significant legislative priority, isn’t given much of a chance by Prof Gerritsen.

He expects a great proportion of the debtors would have left the Territory.

And as for the rest? “Stick them in gaol? I presume these are mostly traffic fines.”

Prof Gerritsen, while walking his dogs on the eastern bank of the Todd past Spencer Hill each morning, has opportunity for an alcohol survey “with a limited sample size”.

It is “where people camp over night and get on the piss”.

Mr Edington says in the statement about the minimum floor price which will be axed: “It has not delivered tangible benefits because it has driven people to higher content alcohol products such as spirits, and that is why we are getting rid of it.”

Prof Gerritsen says in his morning walks “I see a Whiskey or a Bourbon bottle every day, I see beer cans nearly every day. I did note a Bacardi bottle the other day and I thought, there’s some sophisticated drinking here.”

Prof Gerritsen says every so often he also finds goonbags – casks – an indication that smuggling of prohibited alcohol from Darwin or Port Augusta is taking place.

As for the drinkers Mr Edington suggests he has the answer: “We’ve already passed public nuisance drinking laws, which gives our police stronger powers to fine, charge, and arrest offenders in prohibited areas while ensuring those individuals are issued a seven-day Banned Drinker Order.”

Prof Gerritsen says the relocation of the art gallery is “a sop to the business owners in the top end of the mall so you can look up the mall and see the gallery at the end of it”.

He says the building should have been put in the Desert Knowledge Precinct: “Art is one aspect of Indigenous culture.

“There are already galleries in the town. They call them art shops.”

“The precinct allows you to accommodate a suite of tourist opportunities, showing them how Aboriginal people used the country. Having cultural events.

“That would be a world class attraction.”

The coronial report’s 35 recommendations include creating a Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Interagency Coordination and Reform Office (DFSV-ICRO); whole-of-government coordination mechanism; peak body; workforce planning; interpreter service; alcohol intervention strategy involving victim survivors (including children) as well as perpetrators; multi-agency protection service; police command specialist; culturally appropriate court; trauma informed, mediation and peacekeeping for family and community violence; men’s prison-based behaviour programs and counselling; DFSV training for clubs and pubs.

Gallery on half the Anzac oval carpark

Erwin Chlanda
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Gallery on half the Anzac oval carpark

UPDATED ERWIN CHLANDA reports

The Aboriginal art gallery, now known as ATSIAGA, will be placed on about half of the present Anzac Oval car park in Wills Terrace.

ATSIAGA stands for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery of Australia, suggesting the plan still has ambitions for national status.

It will be surrounded by “current and additional” car parking at the western side, the existing Anzac Oval, and a small open space adjoining the Over 50 premises.

There will be additional car parking where the old high school was demolished, to the north of the oval.

This was announced by Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro this morning.

“We have listened to the people of Alice Springs,” she says in a media announcement.

However there was no mention of the assertive campaign by traditional custodians who want the gallery to be built south of The Gap.

Ms Finocchiaro announced that design and scale of the gallery will be revised to a three-storey 4,000sqm building to ensure it fits within the wider Masterplan revealed this morning.

“This will be delivered to a budget of $149 million.

“The CLP will reinstate Anzac Oval as a rugby field with restoration works to commence and be complete in time for the rugby season in February 2025.”

PLAN AT TOP: The words “Anzac Hill” were added by the Alice Springs News to the government-supplied image.

UPDATED November 23, 2024 10am

The Alice Springs News understands that the revised scope and scale of the gallery appropriately reflects what realistically can be delivered within the allocated budget of $149m. The amount set aside for the initially planned 7000sqm was $150m.

We understand the NT construction company Sitzler are currently completing Stage 1 of the managing contractor contract and have been assisting with the current Master Plan and associated investigative works.

Sitzler was in July awarded the tender to construct the gallery.

Any future tenders are expected to be announced as the project progresses.

Bringing health care to The Rock

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Bringing health care to The Rock

She calls it “the best commute in the world,” 30 minutes from Yulara through the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, past The Rock to Mutitjulu.

That’s where the former Sydney sider is the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) registrar.

At age 15 Sophie Collins took part in a cultural exchange program between her urban high school and the community. She became immersed in the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural traditions of the Anangu.

“It was my first time leaving the city,” she recalls. “I remember sitting around the fire, watching the women make damper, sharing their stories so generously. It stayed with me.”

After studying medicine at the University of Newcastle she took placements in Aboriginal community-controlled clinics in Newcastle and Darwin before deciding on internship in Alice Springs, the nearest hospital to Mutitjulu. She undertook her Advanced Skills Training in Emergency Medicine.  

“Working in the hospital, especially in the emergency department, I was constantly witnessing the end result of chronic diseases,” Sophie says.

“For me this really underlined the importance of high-quality primary healthcare.”  

In addition to her interest in preventative medicine, Sophie says she is particularly passionate about addressing health inequities through “culturally safe, community-led care.   

“It’s really important to empower communities to improve their own health outcomes,” she says.

“Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Services like Central Australian Aboriginal Congress play an essential role.

“It’s a privilege to work for a strong Aboriginal organisation with a proud history of advocacy and activism.”  

Working in Mutitjulu, a community of about 400 people, does come with challenges. The clinic’s resources are limited. Blood tests are sent as far as Perth for analysis, and results can take days to return.

Sophie is undergoing ultrasound training to improve diagnostic capabilities locally, as most patients have to travel almost 500km to Alice Springs to get an x-ray.

“One of the things I love most is the ability for people to just drop in without an appointment,” she says. “It’s all about building relationships, understanding who’s connected to who, and creating a sense of trust. 

“There is a lot of opportunistic care, where an Aunty might bring a niece, and we end up having a conversation about both their health concerns and needs. 

“The slower pace in Mutitjulu allows for more meaningful interactions and I enjoy having a good yarn with the people who come to the clinic. 

“It really is a lot of fun, and everyone living and working here has a great sense of humour and warmth.” 

In her free time, Sophie enjoys the natural beauty of the region.

“I love spending time in the National Park, walking around Uluru, watching sunsets and moonrises.”

She is particularly proud of improving her Pitjantjatjara language skills, including at a recent two-week summer school learning from Anangu tutors.  

“It’s been a 14-year journey from my first visit as a student to now.

“I’m really grateful that ACRRM and Congress have made it possible for me to return and contribute to healthcare in this community. “It is amazing work, and I love it.”  

Contributed by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.

Nothing to see here

Erwin Chlanda
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Nothing to see here

UPDATED  ERWIN CHLANDA reports

A way of dealing with youth crime has finally been found: Pretending it doesn’t exist.

“Around 7pm on Monday 14 October, the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received reports of a group of youths allegedly throwing rocks at a group of people near Meyers Hill in Alice Springs. The offenders fled the scene prior to police arrival.”

The Alice Springs News received this statement from the police this morning, a month and five days after the alleged attack and only after we had made numerous requests for information.

There is no mention of the events in the online archive of police media releases. We asked the police this morning whether they have published the events and if not, why not. We will update this report if and when we get a reply.

We pressed for information about the issue because we consider it to be in the extreme public interest.

Why? Information we received is that the alleged victims were participants in the Masters Games, guests in our town and likely to share their frightening experience with their friends around the country and the games movement generally.

It’s the kind of offence that is sending the tourism industry to the bottom.

We understand all or most of the visitors were hit that evening and at least one was taken to the hospital.

The crime scene is a prime tourist spot, accessible from the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens and a short walk up the hill from the coffee shop there.

We asked the Gardens management for information but received none.

The NT Major Events Company, which organises the games, emailed yesterday: “As the incident did not occur at an Alice Springs Masters Games venue, we are not in a position to comment.”

Tourism Central Australia had not been notified about the alleged attack.

NOTE: The police statement today included this request: “Investigations are ongoing and police urge anyone with information to call 131 444 and quote NTP24000103598.”

IMAGE: Google Earth.

 

UPDATE 6.15pm

Brett Lewis, Police Media Liaison Officer, provided this statement this afternoon:

“Unidentified offenders have allegedly thrown rocks at a group walking in the area, resulting in two women being conveyed to hospital for assessment.

“We are unable to confirm further details relating to the victims for privacy reasons.

“In regards to release of the information:

A full list of reportable crime incidents by month in Alice Springs is contained here.

If information falls within one or more of the following categories, it can be considered for public release:

• Timely, significant events of likely public interest;

• Requirement for public assistance or witnesses where members in charge believe there is a real likelihood media can assist with this part of their investigation;

• Serious incidents such as robbery, serious assault, fatal motor vehicle crashes;

• Proactive, positive PFES stories of likely public interest;

• Strategic priorities with key educational messages such as road safety – drink drivers caught;

• Significant arrests, charges and court dates; and

• Public safety concerns.

The Media Unit will endeavour to provide a response to all requests for information from media. Such responses may be limited to an explanation of why further information cannot be disclosed at the time of the request itself.

[ED – “A full list of reportable crime incidents by month” contains the number of incidents, not their details.]

Sunshine asset on the slide, slowly

Erwin Chlanda
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Sunshine asset on the slide, slowly

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Looking up into the sky and seeing yet another lot of clouds may raise the spectre of Alice losing its place as the nation’s sunniest place.

We have 235.6 clear days, ahead of Port Headland with 232.4 and Coober Pedy 223.2.

But is it all coming to an end? Looking back as far as 1990 the stats suggest something is happening.

The Bureau of Metereology (BOM) logs the amount of sunlight that shines on the Alice Springs airport.

It’s called “global solar exposure” which is the total amount of solar energy falling on a horizontal surface, measured in megajoules per square metre.

Don’t let your eyes glazes over. Think of MJm2s as potatoes and just compare the numbers.

The average over all the 28 years is 21.8, according to BOM.

Between 2020 and 2023 the respective annual averages were 21.5, 21.6, 20.8 and 21.4, a drop of sunshine of 1.4%, 1%, 4.6% and 1.2%.

The “all years” January figure is 26.9. Except for 2021 (27.3) in all other recent five years we were having less sunshine – 26.2, 25.1, 23.7 and 26 this year.

We were doing better in the winter. The “all years” July number is 15.8 while we were getting more than that in three of the five Julys since 2020.

It’s worth keeping an eye on the sky if the NT wants to pursue its enormous opportunities as a solar power provider.

PHOTO: This morning near the airport.

Pokies gamblers in NT casinos blew more than $80m in 2023/24

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Pokies gamblers in NT casinos blew more than $80m in 2023/24

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Poker machine gamblers in the two NT casinos lost more than $80m in the 2023/24 financial year, the exact figure being $80,089,252.

A break-down between the Darwin Mindil Beach and the Alice Springs Lasseter casinos was not available, but as of June 30, 2024 the former had 627 gaming machines and there were 420 in Alice.

At the same time there were four “community gaming venues” in Central Australia operating a total of 150 machines.

The combined losses in these Alice Springs venues were nearly $15m in 2023/24, namely $14,825,228. 

There is no cap on the number of gaming machines operating in NT casinos.

This information comes from a Department of Tourism and Hospitality spokesperson in response to questions from the Alice Springs News.

The issue of poker machines moved into the forefront of public debate when the News revealed that Mayor Matt Paterson, without consent from the council, wrote to the Commonwealth Bank “in support of Iris Capital and its continued investment into our town”.

Iris Capital owns the Lasseter casino.

The council has referred the issue to ICAC for the investigation of the letter allegedly leaked.

And now, a movie about The Centre

Erwin Chlanda
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And now, a movie about The Centre

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The makers of the movie Finding Miss Almond, which is set mostly in Alice Springs, is seeking funding from Screen Territory under the Production Attraction Incentive Program which invested $1.3m in the Netflix series Territory whose location is the Top End.

Producer Mark Smith says: “I will ensure as many dollars as possible are spent in The Centre.”

He is launching today a 26-minute documentary about the film’s subject, the history of the now famous group of Aboriginal boys, mostly from The Centre, who were sent to Adelaide for further education at St Francis House under the care of Isabel Almond and Percy Smith, the founding Anglican rector of Alice Springs in 1933.

Sixty-six boys were at St Francis House over its life from 1946 to 1960, many of them achieving national careers in politics, administration and sport.

John Moriarty, the first Indigenous socceroo, is known for his Qantas Aboriginal flying art series.

Historian and academic Gordon Briscoe was the first Indigenous person to stand for Parliament and to achieve a PhD at the Australian National University.

Charles Perkins was a passionate civil rights activist and Commonwealth Department Secretary. Vincent Copley played for Fitzroy in the VFL.

Others were three-time Port Adelaide Football Club premiership player Richie Bray, sprinter and Port Adelaide footballer Ken Hampton, 200 game Central Districts SANFL footballer Sonny Morey, Jim Foster who played rugby in England and Wally McArthur who also played rugby in England after he missed out on Olympic selection, on racist grounds.

Seven of the St Francis boys have been recognised by Queen Elizabeth II with the Order of Australia.

Finding Miss Almond is being developed in partnership with Los Angeles and Adelaide based movie director Mark Webber who has had success at international film festivals, including Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah. He also has his own special connection to Australia, as he is married to actress Teresa Palmer, who is from Adelaide.

Mr Webber’s recent acting work includes the Netflix action blockbuster Trigger Warning, released in June, in which he stars alongside Jessica Alba.

PHOTO: Footballer Richie Bray was one of the St Francis House high achievers from The Centre who make up the story of Finding Miss Almond.

 

Getting killed in the Territory: Netflix series

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Getting killed in the Territory: Netflix series

By ERWIN CHLANDA

In the opening sequence we’re told by the central character, played by Anna Torv: “Everything up here is trying to kill you.”

Not long after we see an already injured man getting mauled to death by a pack of feral dogs.

Subsequently, there is a funeral for him at which, incredibly, business haggling is going on with the dead man’s family, an uninvited competitor turns up, drunk, and a brawl breaks out.

That’s the start of the Netflix series Territory into which the NT Government has sunk $1.3m of taxpayers’ money and on the back of which our tourism promoters want to boost the industry, currently running at half its normal speed.

“The opening scene of Territory, depicting the wildness and unforgiving beauty of the NT outback, is likely to intrigue rather than deter potential visitors,” explains the government in a statement yesterday, after a request for comment from the Alice Springs News.

“It reinforces the NT as a place of raw adventure and natural wonder. This is exactly what draws adventure tourists who want a unique destination filled with dramatic landscapes and untamed nature.”

The elite of the Territory’s cattle raising community is being portrayed as semi-articulate, swearing, brawling, drinking rednecks, hating each other. Does the industry propose to put visitors in touch with people like that?

“The show’s portrayal of the NT pastoral community is an independent, creative choice made by the filmmakers,” says the statement.

“The NT Government had no input or influence on the script or character depictions, as all film content is entirely the filmmakers’ responsibility. What audiences see is fictionalised for dramatic impact.”

Neither the government nor Tourism Central Australia will say whether they consulted with the NT Cattlemen’s Association before putting public money into the production.

The News has invited the association to comment.

“Territory joins a proud legacy of NT filmed productions like Jedda, Crocodile Dundee, Top End Wedding, and The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, to name a few,” says the statement.

“These films have long inspired global audiences to visit the NT, and now with Netflix’s reach, Territory provides an extraordinary platform to showcase our landscapes and culture worldwide, inviting more people than ever to explore the NT.”

The production resulted “in a direct, audited spend of $6,885,521 into the NT economy over the 10 week filming period,” says the statement.

“This supported local jobs, services, and businesses, demonstrating how such projects can deliver economic benefits while highlighting NT’s unique landscapes.”

The government is not commenting on the fact that the locations are entirely in the Top End – none are in The Centre.

Travel Weekly comments: “For those captivated by the visuals, the show also serves as an inadvertent tourism ad.

“Locations like Bullo River Station, Bamurru Plains and Finniss River Lodge, which feature heavily in the series, offer luxury outback experiences that may tempt many viewers to visit.

“Territory is more than a TV show. It’s an invitation to experience the Northern Territory’s raw beauty firsthand.”

The series is available worldwide on Netflix to over 238 million paid members in over 190 countries. It will be interesting to examine whether it attracts visitors, or keeps them away.

PHOTO at top is not part of the showreel.

Anzac Oval and the ill-fated art gallery: Nothing needed to be changed.

Erwin Chlanda
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Anzac Oval and the ill-fated art gallery: Nothing needed to be changed.

OPINION by ALEX NELSON

Exactly 68 years ago, on Saturday, 17 November 1956, Prince Philip was being shown the sights around Alice Springs.

The Duke of Edinburgh was taking a leisurely trip through the Northern Territory, spending two nights in The Alice, on his way to Melbourne to officially open the 1956 Olympic Games.

He had been to the top of Anzac Hill to view the town, then taken for a grand tour through the streets of the Alice’s first suburb, what we now call the Old Eastside.

The Duke returned to the town centre, taking a hard right opposite the corner of Todd Street and Wills Terrace, which at the time was the main entrance to the Alice Springs Recreational Reserve – better known since the 1960s as Anzac Oval.

While proceeding around the still new oval, there was an impromptu stop as Prince Philip got out to greet a crowd of delighted children who had assembled to catch a glimpse of the Duke in the passing motorcade.

This classic moment was caught on camera (from left: Sandra Mitchell, Elaine Stephens, Valerie Tuncks, Maisie Webb; at rear Thelma Burrows, and Judith Litchfield).

However, greeting the kids wasn’t the reason why Prince Philip was driven around the oval. He was on his way to visit the (still new) Alice Springs Higher Primary School at the top end of the sports field.

What was so special about that school?

The answer lies with a teacher holding a unique distinction in the Alice’s history.

She’s the confident woman in the accompanying photo, Mary “Molly” Healy, the godmother holding a newborn baby after his baptism in mid 1963.

A decade earlier, as Miss Molly Ferguson, she was the first permanent teacher appointed to the School of the Air.

Begun in 1951, the first in the world, the School of the Air was initially based at the public school in Hartley Street under founding teacher Adelaide Miethke.

Molly Ferguson took over as team leader in 1953 and was the sole teacher in 1954 when she oversaw the relocation of the School of the Air to the just completed Alice Springs Higher Primary School at the north end of the Recreation Reserve.

The new site included a purpose-built studio and viewing area, quickly becoming a tourist attraction for the town.

The School of the Air was world-renowned, and that’s the reason for Prince Philip’s visit to the school building at Anzac Oval in 1956.

The School of the Air remained there until 1968 when it moved to the Royal Flying Doctor base in Stuart Terrace, and finally to its current site in the new suburb of Braitling in 1976.

Wherever the School of the Air was located, it is a popular tourist attraction.

In March 1983, of course, it was visited by royalty again – this time by Prince Charles and Princess Diana; and again in March 2000, when Queen Elizabeth returned to the Alice.

In 1961, the Alice Springs Higher Primary School was changed to become the Alice Springs High School, the town’s first secondary school.

After 1972, the campus became the Community College of Central Australia and finally reverted to being a secondary school again in 1986, renamed the Anzac Hill High School, until it closed at the end of 2009.

Notwithstanding the old school buildings remained in very good condition and were of major heritage value to Alice Springs, the Gunner Labor government demolished the campus in late 2019 to make way as its preferred site for the National Aboriginal Art Gallery (now ATSIAGA).

The demolition alone cost the taxpayer in excess of $2.5m, and for what exactly?

Yet another Labor-induced blank space in the middle of town, just like the former Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre that used to exist opposite the Civic Centre (winning national and international awards in the late 1990s) but demolished in 2004, for example.

Why couldn’t the old school have been repurposed, at least in part for the return of the School of the Air, just as it had been based there from 1954 to 1968?

It would have been a much simpler, quicker, far less costly and controversial option than the ill-fated national indigenous art gallery that now looks uncertain it will proceed at all.

And we would already have tourists streaming to the north end of the town’s centre because of it.

Unfortunately, there is a long track record of profoundly ill-conceived and managed major projects in Alice Springs – a veritable herd of white elephants that cost the NT dearly – and the ATSIAGA is just the latest iteration of a very sorry saga.

To the extent that Alice Springs manages to muddle along, recent history shows it’s not because of many (not all) of our community’s leaders but rather in spite of them.

I lament the incessant idiocy of too many people in control of our public affairs who clearly should not have been.

However, 61 years after that infant’s photo was taken held in the arms of Molly Healy, I continue to persevere in the hope that eventually we will start to get things right for Alice Springs and The Centre.

Council takes leaking of Mayor letter to ICAC

Erwin Chlanda
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Council takes leaking of Mayor letter to ICAC

UPDATED ERWIN CHLANDA reports

The town council held a secret meeting at 5pm yesterday to discuss a letter from Mayor Matt Paterson to the Commonwealth Bank, asking it to support the major owner of poker machines in Alice Springs, Iris Capital.

The Alice Springs News published an exclusive report about that letter last Friday.

The report contained two images of the letter and it is reproduced in full today (at right). The council yesterday decided to keep the leaked letter “in confidential”.

The News is not disclosing the source of the letter and no source was revealed at the meeting.

The News understands the council decided to make a complaint to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC).

Discussion centred around making an example of people not respecting the council’s often excessive reliance on confidentiality, and that the source may have been an elected member, a council staff or someone outside the council.

Former Deputy Mayor Eli Melky (pictured) said today: “The key element is trust and when confidentiality is breached then trust is breached. That leads to a difficult work environment.”

The News expects to receive information from the government about the number of pokies in the Iris-owned casino and how much a year people are losing on pokies in Alice Springs.

There is much debate about the impact of poker machines on the community of Alice Springs, including a comment by RAINER CHLANDA.

Yellow rabbit faces challenge

Erwin Chlanda
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Yellow rabbit faces challenge

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The silly yellow rabbit at one end of the lane between the Supreme Court building and the post office now has competition at the other.

This creation, similar in height but vastly more impressive and thought provoking, appeared over the weekend, bolted to the ground.

Its components are car parts and some can be moved.

It’s somewhat reminiscent of Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly paintings except they are celebrating a bush ranger while this one, a seeming Robocop, honours our police – or does it?

UPDATE November 14.

A council spokesman said today: “As it was erected on Council land without a permit, it has been designated for removal. I am not sure on the timeline.”

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