Barry Abbott © ABC

This morning the announcements were made for the Northern Territory Australian of the year Awards. Wallce Rockhole elder and stockman, Barry Abbott, has been honoured as Senior Territorian of the Year for 2011.

From the Australian of the Year Awards website:

Barry Abbott is an Arrente stockman who has had remarkable success rehabilitating young male trouble makers and substance abusers of the outback. Barry established the Ilpurla Aboriginal Association a treatment outstation in a remote south-west corner of Central Australia in the seventies, and estimates that he has looked after about 300 boys over the years, some for as long as 12 months at a time. Drug abuse and petrol sniffing in particular are the main reasons young men end up at Barry’s station. A stockman by trade, Barry gives the boys the opportunity to become part of a working cattle station. They start work at day break and learn new skills like saddlery, vehicle and stock maintenance and break in horses. He instils in them a strong work ethic, discipline and a sense of pride and self-worth. Unlike other treatment centres, Barry accepts boys from anywhere, usually at the request of the Alice Springs courts, some arriving at his station still handcuffed. Barry is one of the hard men – uncompromising in his demands – but he also takes on the hard cases, the ones considered to be hopeless; boys who the doctors say could die at any time, and proves them wrong.

Other winners announced were Djapirri Mununggirritj as NT Local Hero, Kalinda Griffiths as NT Young Australian of the Year, and linguist Professor Michael Christie took out the NT Australian of the Year award for his work on Yolngu languages.

Source: Centrefarm

The ABC recently reported about how a not-for-profit group, Centrefarm, is establishing a scheme to encourage Australians to offset their carbon emissions on Indigenous land. Earlier this year a not-for-profit company, the Aboriginal Carbon Fund, was set up to buy and sell carbon credits generated on Aboriginal lands by Aboriginal people in Australia. Centrefarm is calling on the government to establish laws that recognise Aboriginal ownership of the carbon, thus securing any economic benefits derived from its storage. They have also been calling for the establishment of a domestic carbon market. More information, as well as reports on the Aboriginal Carbon Fund and outback carbon storage, can be found on Centrefarm’s website.

Water cascades down Kantju Gorge at Uluru after heavy rainfall (Source: ABC)

Uluru revealed a rarely seen side this week. Visitors will have noted the seemingly infinite grooves carved into the rock surface from millennia of erosion caused by wind and water. According to Tjukurpa – the worldview of Indigenous people from the area – many of the formations on Uluru were created by ancestral beings and forms part of Creation.

Yesterday The ABC reported an unusual spectacle: all these grooves have transformed into waterfalls after heavy rains, turning Uluru a shade of white.

The ABC spoke to Tim Rogers of the cultural centre who said the waterfalls were likely to last for a few days yet. A good time to visit?

In other news from Uluru, the Alice Springs News is saying that the sale of the Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara looks like it will finally go ahead, with a consortium of Indigenous communities from the area reported as the buyers. Despite having a monopoly on what is considered one of the most iconic tourist destinations of Australia, the Ayers Rock Resort has struggled to remain profitable in recent years. Whether this consortium can turn around the fortunes of the resort whilst also delivering benefits to the community stakeholders is likely going to be a key concern. However, as the Alice Springs News reports, the greater involvement of the local community may bring about improvements. Many tourists often leave Uluru disappointed at not having been able to experience the local Indigenous culture through local Indigenous people. Along with likely upgrades to the facilities, the face of Yulara and Uluru may change permanently if this sale goes ahead. – Bernard Leckning.

Click the image to view a slideshow of photos by kids at the Gap Youth Centre (Source: National Museum of Australia)

The recent Araluen by-election sparked a mini-controversy when the then CLP candidate and now elected member, Robyn Lambley, came out during the campaign calling for a youth curfew. Jennifer Standish-White, CEO of Gap Youth Centre, slammed the idea at the time, saying “curfews criminalised young people’s behaviour when they were out at night”. She would rather see greater investment in diversionary programs like those run by her organisation that help to keep kids off the street and point them towards a more positive future. However, Gap Youth Centre has more recently announced that its youth diversion program may have to end next year unless more funding is made available. The issue of youth anti-social behaviour in Alice Springs, it seems, is now at a crossroads.

The timing of the announcement coincides with the upcoming National Water Week which starts on Sunday the 17th of October and goes through to Saturday the 23rd of October. The NT Government’s Water Wise website has plenty of information about water use and management in the Territory. Here are a couple of of interesting water facts:

Alice Springs water sources (Source: NRETA)

• Around 80% of Alice Springs’ water is supplied from the Roe Creek borefield, about 15km out of town, which draws its water from the Amadeus basin (click the image above for a larger view of the water sources surrounding Alice Springs).
• Groundwater is being extracted from the Roe Creek borefield faster than it is being recharged: the water levels in the borefield have dropped from 90 to 150m below the surface since pumping commenced in 1964.
• Alice Springs residents are amongst the highest water users in Australia (with Darwin not far behind) (see the image below).

(Source: NRETA)

At the moment the NT Water Wise site includes a program of events planned for Alice Springs during National Water Week, kicking off with a launch in the Todd Mall on Sunday during the markets. Most of the other events will be taking place at the Alice Springs Library. ALEC is also advertising a Public Forum on Water, to take place on Monday the 18th of October at 5.30pm in the Andy McNeil Room at the Alice Springs Town Council.^*

* Please note the dates on the ALEC website are incorrect. – Bernard Leckning

The Honourable Justice Trevor John Riley

About a month into the job, new Northern Territory Chief Justice Riley does not appear to be shying away from important issues.

During his first visit to Alice Springs as Chief Justice, The Hon. Justice Riley has taken the opportunity to express his concerns about the state of the law courts in Alice Springs suggesting that a bulldozer should be taken to the building. Such is the state of the law courts that Riley believes court lists in Alice Springs will “blow out” and “unacceptable delays in the delivery of justice will follow.”

Riley was also quoted as being opposed to longer jail terms for alcohol abusers, showing his support for preventative measures. This, however, comes amid calls for tougher sentencing, especially for alcohol-fuelled violent crimes. A July NT News Readers Poll found 84 per cent of respondents thought the courts were too lenient and only 14 out of 965 respondents, or just over 0.01% of respondents, thought the courts were too tough. Just over 80 per cent of respondents supported a return to the tough and controversial mandatory sentencing and three-strike rules that had been adopted by the Territory in 1997 and dumped in 2001.

The Dwarf Desert Spike-rush (Eleocharis papillosa) © NRETAS

The dwarf desert spike-rush is a wetlands sedge-like plant found in the Central Desert region of the Northern Territory. It is currently listed as a vulnerable species by the Federal Government. However, the ABC is reporting that a NRETAS botanist, Angus Duguid, has found a new population in the wild at Ringwood Swamp about 100km east of Alice Springs. The dwarf desert spike-rush, he goes on to say, can lie dormant for years until good enough rains bring it back to life.

The shy but dangerous Eastern Brown Snake, native to central Australia and the East Coast.

Alice Springs and its surrounds are known to be home to a great diversity of reptiles. You usually don’t need to spend long in the centre before you have a close encounter of the scaly kind.

However, according to this ABC report, the recent rains may have improved your chances of running into our reptilian neighbours in town, especially the deadly Eastern Brown Snake (pictured left). According to an earlier report from 2008, this seems partly because the rain increases the number of insects and frogs that the snakes are attracted to.

Authorities in SA arrive with emergency bedding (ABC News: Jason Om)

By Bernard Leckning

We’ve been following the coverage of disturbances at Yuendumu (over here and here).

The latest news is that some 100 people from Yuendumu who had fled to Alice Springs have now been moved to Adelaide.

This ABC report highlights how, apart from creating strain on welfare services in Adelaide and political tension between the South Australia and Northern Territory governments, there is also the lingering question of how the dispute will be resolved or whether it will be.

At the moment it is still unknown who organised and funded the move.

But, the NT government has denounced the action, claiming it has hampered police efforts. Given what police said earlier to the ABC it can be assumed that the police efforts the NT government is speaking of today are those aimed at facilitating mediation.

Given the latest events, it is well worth reading Dave Price’s essay on Alice Online from late 2009 in which he is critical of recognising customary law.

Whether or not you agree with him, the essay contains insightful observations about traditional law today and its relationship to the sorts of disputes that have recently affected Yuendumu. Not only does it contextualise what has been happening recently but it raises important questions about what can and should be done – questions which had only recently been taken up by the anti-violence rally.

The lawyers  say juries do not reflect the community because they lack proper indigenous representation.

On Tuesday, Jon Tippett QC raised questions about jury selection processes based on criminal history checks.

Today, the defence lawyers have questioned whether or not enough is done to ensure Indigenous people receive their jury notices considering mail delivery to many Indigenous people can be unreliable.