Issue 18

It was a consummate performance: the perfect bureaucrat, eyes glued to the screen, ignoring all around her, a little discreet typing, lots of competent nodding, agreement, questions, plans.  Business shirt, straight skirt, stockinged legs, low-heeled pumps.  Desk, phone, computer. Right in the middle of Todd Mall. Passers-by were non-plussed, amused, intrigued, KIERAN FINNANE among them.

The oil and gas company Blue Energy Limited has entered into an agreement for exploration in an area roughly the size of England, north-west of Tennant Creek (see map). Chairman John Ellice-Flint says the company will be exploring for "conventional and unconventional oil and gas", the former appearing in sandstone and limestone, the latter in shale. The controversial fracking is sometimes used to recover unconventional oil but he says horizontal drilling will be the preferred method. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Territory’s Container Deposit Scheme has cleared the final hurdle following the Federal Executive Council’s decision to grant national recognition yesterday, writes  Peter Chandler, Environment Minister.

If you're getting all excited about the September 7 election – don't. That, in a nutshell, is the advice of the CDU's Alice Springs based Professorial Research Fellow Rolf Gerritsen (pictured): "Nothing much will change" no matter who forms government in Canberra, nor who gets elected as the Member for Lingiari. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Outback Way is included in the Coalition’s Northern Australia Policy and the Outback Highway Development Council outlines how the east-west route through Alice Springs can be kept open for business for road trains for $11m a year, prior to the start of the sealing project in 2016/17, writes the council's chairman, Patrick Hill.

Councillor Chansey Paech has asked council to provide police with information about skating in northern Todd Mall, where skate-able street furniture has been provided. As we reported last week bike riding and skating are not prohibited in this part of the mall, a street open to traffic, but remain banned in the pedestrian southern end of the mall.

SEE UPDATE AUG 13.

Once a year a small remote town north-west of Alice Springs is the place to meet the top crop of young men in the nation's desert centre. But their glory is brief: when the Yuendumu Sports weekend is over they go back to the depressing idleness to which Australia consigns them, languishing on the dole or being under-employed. The photo above shows the team from Cockatoo Creek 50 kms north-east of Yuendumu. According to captain Elijah Jones, only one player has a job – in aged care. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

The laid-back, slow, lazy mood in the outback town of Yuendumu can snap into one of high drama and heart-wrenching emotion in the blink of an eye. Today, the 50th anniversary of the Yuendumu Sports, was such a day. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) is calling for miners to respect the law and honour their agreements, following the historic prosecution of  OM Manganese Ltd for the desecration of an Aboriginal sacred site, writes AAPA CEO Dr Ben Scambary. The company was today fined $150,000 in the Darwin Magistrates’ Court for one count of desecration to, and one count of damaging, the ‘Two Women Sitting Down’ sacred site at Bootu Creek manganese mine on Banka Banka station, 170km north of Tennant Creek.

Pictured: The site damage seen from the Eastern rim of the Masai pit looking across to the collapsed bull nose which includes the registered sacred site. Photo courtesy AAPA.  

A tele medicine system bringing revolutionary clot busting treatment to stroke victims in regional hospitals such as Alice Springs is being developed. For "eligible" sufferers thrombolysis is very effective "and the evidence supports its use. It's our only proven acute stroke therapy," says Chris Levi (pictured), Professor in Neurology in the University of Newcastle. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Federal Labor’s decision to appoint an Inspector-General for Animal Welfare and Live Exports is meant to appeal to Labor’s left but will just add another layer of unnecessary red tape for Northern Territory cattle producers, writes Nigel Scullion, Country Liberals Senator for the NT.