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
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
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
Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt is considering shifting funding and responsibility for remote Aboriginal housing in Central Australia and other parts of the Northern Territory to the land councils. At a meeting attended by Land Council delegates from all over the NT, Mr Wyatt said he was disappointed with the lack of progress made by the Northern Territory Government in providing housing on remote communities. He said it was “unacceptable” that so many indigenous Australians in...Read more
The shamozzle caused by a sudden influx of arrivals in Alice Springs from Adelaide this week exposed the problems involved in quarantining people in “medi-hotels”, according to a leading figure in the NT’s hospitality industry. Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce said Australian governments might have to consider either military-run facilities or keeping staff of “medi-hotels” on site to prevent them mixing with the broader community in case they had COVID-19. Chaos erupted on Tuesday as tra...Read more
