The Spring of the Independents
Congratulations to Julia Gillard and the Australian Labor Party, but more congratulations to the three independents from regional Australia for their unexpected but timely moment of ascendancy — and the sense of responsibility they have shown to all Australians by their considered actions. I am celebrating the rise of the independents with another walk to [...]
The imperative to say No
While yesterday’s awful events at the Under 17 football grand final have predictably attracted national attention, Friday’s march against violence in Alice Springs was disappointingly overlooked by the media. It was indeed “historic” as Alice Springs police commander Anne-Marie Murphy described it. As Sunday’s brawl illustrates, the challenge facing the marchers is huge. While domestic [...]
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen Slava wrote to her in his best English: “I’m thinking of you every day. Sorry to hear you were ill, I thought that in desert it’s always hot. Hope you have some warm things to wear. Take care of yourself please. My dear Wanderer, don’t frighten me by saying that [...]
Men march against violence
More than a hundred men and boys wearing bright yellow T-shirts that said “Stop the violence” brought cross-town traffic in Alice Springs to a standstill today in a public rally against domestic violence. Most of the participants were Aboriginal, but the Alice Springs men’s health service that organised the march had invited all males in [...]
Wildflower poisoning was for “public safety”.
The Alice Springs Town Council has admitted poisoning stretches of brilliantly coloured wildflowers on the verge of a prominent Alice Springs street, claiming the spraying was in the interests of ‘public safety”. Yesterday I contacted the Council after a report from horticulturist Chris Brock that Council workers were spraying swathes of swainsona (a wildflower that [...]
Now go further, says alcohol action group
The Alice Springs-based People’s Alcohol Action Group has backed new NT Government laws which would enable courts to ban “problem drinkers” from buying or drinking alcohol for up to a year. But PAAC called for the Government to take further steps to reduce alcohol related problems in the Territory by introducing a volumetric tax on [...]
Killing wildflowers: is that a joke?
From reader and horticulturalist Chris Brock comes an astonishing report this morning. Noticed the carpets of swainsonia that have suddenly appeared this month to grace our footpaths? In response to a recent post, Chris says: ”If you want to see wildflowers – go no further than Memorial Drive in Gillen next to the School – [...]
Alice Springs: recognising the hybrid reality
By Craig San Roque (This is an extract from a draft in preparation for publication offered as some background on Alice Springs for the Australian Association of Group Therapists conference held on August 14/15 2010) In the space of a remembered lifetime Central Australia has been completely altered. A little more than 100 years ago [...]
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen Udjerlah stayed in the Upside Down Country to discover how the flower of her red rock passion would blossom. Beautifully it bloomed in the strangest of ways; it was as if Udjerlah was under some kind of enchantment. For the first three months of her affair with Muthabadah, the Aboriginal [...]
‘A camel is having sex with my car.’
Liz Martin’s My Territory, My Life, My Story, launched today by Alice Springs Mayor Damien Ryan at the Road Transport Hall Fame, is brimming with entertaining and sometimes amazing anecdotes, one of which Alice Online is pleased to publish today with Liz’s permission. Liz’s memoirs, uncommonly rich in remembered detail, are ” a journey … [...]
Did that dingo really bark?
By Meg Mooney We were camped at the beginning of a little gorge, up Birthday Creek from Stuarts Pass, our way blocked for the night by a deep pool. I looked upstream into the darkness between walls of rock and thought I saw eyes at the height of a human reflect from my torch. My [...]
Head for the hills
More rain this week – but, no, the weather we’ve been having lately is not strange. There is no particular season for rain in the Centre. This I discovered when I first came here in the seventies. It was the beginning of March, and from Brisbane I asked my new boss, Bob Watt, if the [...]
Alice Springs, AUSTRALIA