Not only for the inlanders
What an interesting Saturday night that was. I tend to avoid hope or idealism when parliamentary democracy is involved, but for the first time in many years, politics have become interesting — and maybe even promising. Just for once, political football is over. Suddenly, if only for a little while, it no longer matters if [...]
We’re on to it.
Believe it or not folks, but I had no idea Mark Egan had been commissioned to build a statue of john McDouall Stuart in Alice Springs when I posted my suggestion on Monday night. I wrote my post after wandering among the statues in Adelaide, and put it up the night before the Advocate came [...]
Unexplored corners
Last night’s Four Corners episode on the death of Donny Ryder and the subsequent trial and imprisonment of the five young Alice Springs men responsible for his death was riveting and moving television. In gathering interviews with “the right people” and with surprising access to police interviews, Liz Jackson did an excellent job. She avoided [...]
Stuart needs a second home
Whenever I am in Adelaide — which is frequently in recent years — I drop in on John McDouall Stuart, perched on his pedestal in Victoria Square. Across the road in another part of the square is his former captain, Sturt, gazing somewhat theatrically out to the desert with his hand cocked on his forehead, [...]
Two towns called Alice Springs
This essay by former Centralian Advocate editor Glen Morrison won the 2010 Charles University Essay award in the NT Literary Awards. “The Alice” (as the town … is affectionately known), is … the gateway to Australia’s heart and soul. You can hear the ‘heartbeats’ as you visit Uluru (Ayers Rock), take an Aboriginal culture tour, [...]
A sprawl like Alice?
Alice Springs looks set to become inland Australia’s capital of sprawl as the Government rushes forward with plans to develop the site of the former Arid Zone Research Instititute. The new suburb, to be called Kilgariff after the late Bernie Kilgariff, who died last month, will be a mind-boggling 10km from the town centre and [...]
Missing the message
There’s been an element of the show trial about the recently concluded case of Kwementye Ryder’s manslaughter. The bulk of the coverage by local and interstate media has focussed on whether the attack on Kwementyeye Ryder was racially motivated – understandably in some ways, because the issue was explored at some length by Chief Justice [...]
Tilting at sunmills
Alice Springs’ next tourist attraction may be an airconditioning unit, if the NT Government gets its way. The unit is large, widely considered ugly in its design and requires the destruction of a beautiful garden in Alice Springs’ cultural HQ in order to be built. It will block views of a rocky outcrop that some [...]
Dammed if we do, damned if we don’t?
With just two years left of a twelve year ban on the construction of a dam on the Todd River, is it time to reopen negotiations over flood mitigation in Alice Springs? In the current edition of the Alice Springs News, Erwin Chlanda presents a disturbing scenario of what might have happened if a storm [...]
Planning, lemming style?
On Monday night (8 February) the town council gave an ambivalent “thumbs up” to residential development at the AZRI site south of Heavitree Gap. Only one alderman (Jane Clark) voted against approving the Territory Government proposal to develop the former site of the Arid Zone Research Institute, while Sandy Taylor abstained from the vote. One [...]
It seems like a good idea at the time.
Opinion by Dave Richards This could be a watershed year for Alice Springs: how it looks, how it feels, and where it’s going. Decisions will be made that will influence both the way people live here, and the face we show the world. Advocates of eased building height restrictions have said planning for the future [...]
Feral thinking on camels
Federal Opposition agriculture spokesman John Cobb’s suggestion that killing every one of our camels would be a major step to reducing Australia’s greenhouses was worth an airing.
Not because it makes sense, but because it evokes so powerfully the mire of second-rate thinking that global confusion about global warming has led us into.
Alice Springs, AUSTRALIA