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 [...]
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 – [...]
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 [...]
Honouring the mongrel
In a post a couple of days ago Craig San Roque described Alice Springs as a “mongrel town”, a description that I suspect holds a mixture of affection and exasperation for him. The term came up again in Craig’s memorable introduction to a congress of the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists held in Alice Springs [...]
Giving it shtick
I still haven’t explained why I am running an Alice Springs website from Adelaide. I know this. The reason is I am still researching the background to my explanation. It’s coming. In the meantime I have caught up with another great act in Rundle Mall. Like the Adelaide Sax Pack, he was happy for me [...]
Buying back the grog
Alice Springs was once notorious for having the highest number of liquor licences per head of population in Australia – but, after decades of pressure, it looks like the situation is about to go into reverse. Social groups and churches have long been calling for the NT Government to buy back some of the town’s [...]
Dog Ear Café: How the Mt Theo Program beat the curse of petrol sniffing.
This week Alice Online will publish short excerpts from Dog Ear Cafe by Andrew Stojanovksi, which is to have its Central Australian launch at Witchetty’s in the Araluen Art Centre on 5th August at 3pm. You can get the book there and then, or at Dymocks bookstore. All Andrew’s author royalties go to the Mt [...]
Goldenberg on Moss
“This is not going to be a meek or polite book. Nor is it ever disrespectful. It is the book that only an intimate outsider, one licensed to see and to show and to tell, might write. Only Rod Moss could do this.” So spoke Howard Goldenberg, doctor and author of Raft, in a talk he [...]
Where’s Mr Stuart?
Taken from John McDouall Stuart’s journals on his journey through the Centre 150 years ago On the first day of June Stuart and his men encountered a pleasant surprise in the form of “splendid large gum creek or river” on their course through the Davenport Range. The creek was more than 200 metres or “ten [...]
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, [...]
Budgies back in town
By Meg Mooney After the summer rains and all the grass that’s grown since then, walking on the plains and low hills behind Kilgariff Crescent is like walking in a wonderful outdoor aviary. You hear the ‘queel, queel’ of cockatiels, small grey cockatoos with white ‘shoulders’, as they zoom overheard singly or in groups of [...]
Alice Springs, AUSTRALIA