By: Hal Duell

Hal Duell — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:58:53 +0000

“a little bit drunk” “half shot” “full drunk”
Why do I love this town? Why would I feel like a refugee if I had to live anywhere else?
Think about it. Is there another jurisdiction anywhere in the world where the three categories of alcohol impairment quoted above could be used in a court of law?
And used not just by those in the dock whether there as witnesses, accused or defendants, but also used by their lawyers.
QCs no less.
A journalist covering this story in the national press stated that while Yuendumu is sometimes home to as many as 1000 residents, when the wet season sets in, many go to Adelaide.
“a little bit drunk” “half shot” “full drunk” and a wet season in Yuendumu.
Seriously, I do simply love this shit.
What really happened out at the Little Sisters camp?
From the sounds of it, not much.
From the sounds of it, just another night-time in a town like Alice.

By: Russell Guy

Russell Guy — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 07:12:27 +0000

This story has been up for five hours and nobody has posted anything. I’m feeling suitably morose, which is a soulful kind of feeling, so I’m gonna dip my thumbnail in tar.
As you say, Erwin, these days it takes minutes for the press to scoop a story online and I’ve read this story twice over the last few hours. I thought I’d record my initial feeling at reading it, while I’m up for it. I found it nauseating, a polite way of saying that it churned my guts.
I’ve been advised by a good friend to “pick my battles” and I’ve been committed to fighting for alcohol reform in Alice, mostly in these pages, these last six months, but the more I read, the more I see, the more I hear, the less I believe in Australia’s future, much less that of Alice Springs.
I heard today that from Katherine north, some caravan parks are chockers at $60 per night for a powered site, $48 unpowered. Where I work, I charged a Swiss couple with two young boys $24 total for a powered site last night, but I digress from the alcohol-related story about life in Alice.
One of our major poets, Banjo Patterson, wrote in 1889 “And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street … and the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me as they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste, with their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy, for townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.”
I sometimes wonder what Banjo would think if he could sit and view Alice Springs these days with those who have the dubious time to carry 30 can VB packs around the streets and I’m not saying it’s entirely their choice either, when the take-away outlets open at 2pm weekdays, 10am Saturdays and noon on what used to be a Christian nation’s Sabbath.
Yesterday, I was talking with an elderly chap who once worked on Kurundi Station, now retired to Adelaide. When I said “I bet you notice some changes,” he looked quite ashen, dropped his head and made excuses to leave. I was far too upbeat, but his grand daughter caught my eye with complete understanding.
Little Sisters’ town camp has been peppered with Jurrah-type incidents for the past thirty years of my experience and from working in it during the 1980s, I knew many of its residents who have been killed by grog-related violence there, or by crossing the road.
Recently, I heard of an intoxicated woman holding up her hand to stop the Ghan in its tracks there. I find that poetic and pathetic and symbolic of the soul of Australia in the 21st century.

By: Daz

Daz — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 05:05:01 +0000

Sad isn’t it. Even sadder still – the fact that most, if not all who live here, know this is not an isolated incident. If it was not for one of the participants being an AFL player we may not of even heard about it.

Comments on: Half shot or full drunk?

By: Hal Duell

By: Russell Guy

By: Daz