Dave has been stamping (and treading lightly when appropriate) around the Centre since 1978 when he came here because it wasn't Queensland. Since then he's worked for every newspaper in town and some out of town, including The Australian, The National Times, The Age and The Sunday Mail in Brisbane.
Dave also had a stint writing feature articles about "cross-cultural chaos" in the now-defunct HQ Magazine. In the nineties Dave got writer's block and branched out into radio, originally working in the newsroom of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association and then for twelve years as a producer for ABC Local Radio. Somewhere in the middle of that stint, Dave decided a website about Alice Springs was a great idea, and is still harping on it. He left the ABC in 2007.
Jakamara Nelson, who died last month, was six years older than the community in which he spent most of his 80 years: Yuendumu. The story of his life reflects the huge changes to people and policies that have taken place in Central Australia in those eight decades. I was fortunate to meet this influential Warlpiri man a few times in his later life, when he shared with me parts of his life story. It began at the pastoral station of Mount Doreen, where Jakamara’s father was a sheep herder. He wou...Read more
By Jacinta Nampijinpa Price Our political leaders don’t live in the bush, they live in cities. Heads of Aboriginal organisations don’t live in the bush, they live in cities. Policymakers don’t live in the bush, they live in cities. Those with the loudest voices pushing to change the date of Australia Day — or for a voice to parliament — don’t live in the bush, they live in the cities. The cities are where the activists and their credulous supporters live among some of Australia’s m...Read more
An Alice Springs business operator has described a town under siege from uncontrolled petty crime after one of the town’s landmark cafes was trashed last weekend. Lisa Perry was on her way to Alice Springs to spend a fortnight working with her staff at the Royal Flying Doctor Service Cafe when she received a call from the manager of the cafe informing her of the damage, which she estimated to be between $15000 and $20000. Vandals had broken into the heritage-listed site, thrown enamel paint ov...Read more
(Supplied by NT Police) Additional police resources will be present in the Alice Springs CBD area on a rolling 24 hour period following a spate of unlawful entries in Alice Springs at the weekend. From 6am Friday 22 January to 6am this morning, police received reports of 25 unlawful entries on businesses and residential properties. Fifteen of these unlawful entries occurred at business in the Alice Springs central business district, where offenders targeted cash and food, and five of the busines...Read more
In the first part of this interview, Peter Latz talked about how increased carbon dioxide has been a boon for the Central Australian desert — while stressing his belief that we need to take action to reduce world-wide carbon dioxide levels. It’s a view that recognises the complexity of interacting systems, one that doesn’t get a lot of airing by media that prefer to keep it simple and usually focus on the negative. But a conversation with Peter is likely to be full of reminders...Read more
For eighty years, botanist and author Peter Latz has been watching the world change from his back yard, through the prism of his beloved arid zone plants and their ecosystems. It’s a split-level back yard. At the macro level, we’re talking about pretty much the entirety of Central Australia, an area the size of France, as he likes to put it. At the micro level, it’s a twenty acre block on Roe Creek, 15 km from the town of Alice Springs. Here Latz made his home nearly 40 years ago, and has ...Read more
Source: NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services Northern Territory Police are calling for two people who were in the area prior to a woman’s death in Alice Springs last week to come forward. Detectives from the Alice Springs Criminal Investigation Branch have released images from CCTV in which a man and a woman can be seen in the area out the front of the Alice Springs Hospital Emergency entrance on Thursday January 7 around 9:23pm. Detective Sergeant Glenn Bolger said police were calling for p...Read more
The NT Government has approved a proposed copper mine 380km from near Alice Springs. The government says the Jervois Base Metal Project could create 350 jobs. The mine would include on-site processing and production of a copper concentrate and lead-zinc concentrate, according to a media release from Mining minister Nicole Manison. But it appears prospective miner KGL, which has been investigating the site since 2011, is still looking for financial backers for the project. KGL Chairman Denis Wood...Read more
We were a bit slow getting a tree ready for Christmas this year. Was it just our family that had trouble cultivating an appropriately festive spirit? I was walking to the supermarket a few blocks away on Christmas Eve and a jogging woman smiled at me and wished me MERRY CHRISTMAS. Taken aback, I managed to mumble something friendly back at her, although I was too surprised to yield a suitable Yuletide rejoinder. A few metres down the street I witnessed an exchange that seemed more in tune wi...Read more
This week’s sudden closure of the walking trail up Mount Gillen by NT Parks and Wildlife appears at first sight to be both clumsy and cavalier, although given the fact that it took seven years of deliberation, may have been neither. Just a day or two earlier, the same government department, in co-ordination with traditional owners, had announced the opening of a new walking/cycling track between Emily Gap and Jessie Gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges. It was promoted by the Central Land Cou...Read more
Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife will close the popular climb of Mt Gillen after consulting with traditional custodians of the site, with climbers reportedly facing fines of up to $31,000. From today, people wishing to make the climb, which runs from Flynn’s Grave, will be required to get a permit from the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority, but from 20th March 2021, the path will be fenced off. Parks and Wildlife’s Chris Day told ABC Radio today the walk had never been “officialâ€...Read more
A man has apparently died of thirst in 43 degree heat after his car became bogged on a sandy track near a popular Central Australian waterhole. A helicopter search located the dead man not far from his vehicle, eight km from Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park, 140 kilometres west of Alice Springs. The body is believed to be that of 37-year-old Korean, Yun-Seob Shin, who had told friends he was going camping on Thursday and expected to be back for work at a local cafe on Saturday, Polic...Read more
