Gallery: Whistle stop or gate to The Centre’s soul
“Visitors are welcome to our gallery where you can purchase paintings and learn more about the history of Papunya and its artists.” This message is on the Papunya Tjupi website and Yuendumu’s Warlukurlangu Artists have a similar one. Meanwhile the plodding preparations continue for the bombastically named National Aboriginal Arts Gallery (NAAG) in Alice Springs.
No-cost electricity can solve grid problems
Providing zero or low-cost energy during the solar peak is a way of dealing with stability problems in the Alice Springs electricity grid, says Anthony Seipolt of Cadency Consulting, an international expert on renewable power. The Alice Springs News asked him to comment on the two-year $12.5m Future Grid research project...
The cost of owing money
The current Budget Mid Year Report raises the question: How can the NT have a debt of more than nine billion dollars and still boast a balanced Budget? ... Prof Gerritsen takes a wry view about Budget electoral cycles.
Making bore water fit for dialysis
Making scarce and impure bore water in The Centre’s outback fit for use in medical dialysis has earned Alice local Michael C Smith a Distinguished Alumni Award from Flinders University in Adelaide. “I’m proud that one of my designs is working today in Kiwirrkurra, Australia’s most remote Aboriginal community,” says Dr Smith.
Firebugs, lightning burn 15,000 square kilometres
There were a number of deliberate ignitions, mainly on roadsides, however over the past week the majority of fires are the result of lightning strikes, according to Chief Fire Control Officer Tony Fuller. “On Friday we had at least 14 new fires as a result of lightning,” he says.
Big water bombers still on the ground
Big water bombers still cannot be used in Alice Springs which is again surrounded by wildfires ... Preparations for the use of large fire bombers … are locked in a Catch 22 situation: The NT is part of a national system for the use of such aircraft but “they are ineffective given the location”: Tony Fuller, of Bushfires NT.
101 homes unaccounted for
How much does it cost to build a three-bedroom home ... That makes it $214,500 per house, around $1500 a square meter. So, when the NT Government forks out $30m of taxpayer’s money, awarding a three year period contract to a local company (Pedersen NT, in this case) then we can expect to get 139 homes, with a bit left over, right? Wrong.
Where self-help is a way of life
Trevor Shiell ... The community approached the [Fijian] government and got a negative response because the government had no money. Dreketi was a subsistence area of the country, so they decided to build a junior secondary school themselves ... Within a year they had a junior secondary school for 320 kids. No help from government, thank you, and they took pride and ownership of it.
A puzzle in the night sky
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will not comment on multiple observations by several people of a brightly lit object in the controlled airspace of Alice Springs, over a period of several months ... The sightings are always to the east of Alice Springs, at various heights in the night sky and usually still visible when all the stars are already gone from view at dawn.
Voice – yes or no? Two days to go.
... by head of population, we have about 10 times the nation’s Indigenous population, several Indigenous languages are alive and well, and Aboriginal people have freehold possession of half the “state’s” land. Our two Senators are Aboriginal but on opposite sides. The NT was the birthplace of the Uluru Statement from the Heart ... the Alice Springs News major pieces on the Voice collected here reflect the passions and conflicts of this controversial period in our public life.
