If Not Now, When? 1987, 98 x 242cm, Collection of Obiri, Darwin.

By ROD MOSS

Chapter 2 of his series about his life in Alice Springs as an artist, writer and teacher.

I remember about that time a handful of Torres Strait Islanders visiting school. They painted up and danced before our assembly.

The town's embracing of the family struck by tragedy came to its culmination at a sunset vigil yesterday to say farewell to Kumanjayi Little Baby, dead at just five years old. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

New satellite images released by NASA showing Australia’s Red Centre turning green should not be mistaken for good news.

COMMENT by ALEX NELSON

The Federal government has axed funding for the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project with current construction underway scheduled to terminate about halfway at Parkes in regional NSW.

This isn't the first time, of course, that a major national rail project ceased halfway during construction – the original transcontinental rail link between Adelaide and Darwin stopped at Alice Springs in August 1929.

To some extent, contemporary circumstances eerily echo that moment almost a century ago when the world was on the precipice of monumental change.

... but town remembers Kumanjayi Little Baby

It remains unclear when Jefferson Lewis (pictured), accused of murdering five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby, will appear in court and enter a plea. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

PHOTO: Earlier troubles with the animal shelter, in August 2024.

Letter to the Editor from RALPH FOLDS

The Alice Springs Town Council is set to unleash a tsunami of unwanted stray cats and dogs on our town. The reason lies in its cost-recovery business model for the Animal Shelter, where adoption fees have risen to three or four times those charged by the now-defunct charitable shelter. The Alice Springs News has invited the council to comment.

Lots of rain brought us an abundance of life, from tiny creatures multiplying to grasses spreading out over huge regions. Writer and photographer MIKE GILLAM finds stories in a caterpillar on a twig or a small patch of ground where beetles bury dung. But nature's power also subjects us to cyclonic floods and infernos when burgeoning flora turns into wildfire fuel.

Alice Springs artist, author and teacher ROD MOSS, winner in 2011 of the Prime Minister’s award for non fiction, during his more than 40 years in The Centre has shown that black and white can plumb the depths of joy and pain together. This is the first of his nine-part series.

Past wars veterans are honoured but media are still reluctant to call a spade a spade in the coverage of today's Iran conflict. COMMENT by ERWIN CHLANDA.

The shortages caused by attacks on Iran by Israel and the US have massively increased interest in the Territory’s huge gas reserves as well as several minerals. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.