Erwin Chlanda, Alice Springs News

Gamblers playing the pokies in Alice Springs clubs and pubs lost almost $14m in 2022-23. This doesn’t include the poker machines in Lasseters Casino whose data “cannot be provided due to commercial-in-confidence,” according to the  Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade. That is clearly a huge multiple of the disclosed figure.

Young car joyriders likened the adrenalin rush from car theft to the effects of drug or alcohol use. Some noted, yet often disregarded, fears of death or injury as the result of a car accident. And the prospect of gaining, or losing, a job is a stronger motivator than incarceration for joyriders.

Dr M K Turner OAM, a woman with profound influence in the complex society of Central Australia, and respected and loved by it, was laid to rest in a state funeral ... More than 1000 mourners were at the Old Telegraph Station, Atherreyurre by its Arrernte name, to hear the eulogy presented by family members Jenny Kroker and Janet Turner ...

It’s enough to make your heart beat faster: Dollars and visitor numbers graphs shooting skywards, heading for $5.3 billion (yes – with a “b”) in earnings from 2.7 million visitors. Wow. Before your blood pressure too goes through the roof, note that the numbers are demand targets, as operators were told by the Department of Tourism last week, in an update of what’s snappily called the T2030 Strategy.

Water bombing, which is on stand-by around the clock in the Adelaide Hills during summer, “could have a role” in protecting Alice suburbs. Planned burning should be extended in The Centre’s national parks. And controlling buffel is critical for reducing the risk of fire around Alice Springs. That’s the view of Dr Rohan Fisher, CDU’s Northern Institute fire researcher. Instead what Alice Springs had over the weekend was a planned burn that got out of hand, started possibly at the wrong time, causing an inferno that destroyed 25,000 hectares, in and near the West MacDonnells National Park, and threatening the edge of the town.

NT Minister Chansey Paech has not responded to a question, put to him three times yesterday by the  Alice Springs News, whether his government is buying the land of the former  St Mary’s  Children’s Village just south of The Gap ... This has caused distress to some former residents as well as concern over the future of the  chapel  on the site.

“SUB blends the body, sound, objects and lighting to imagine a future world where humans have burrowed underground to live. “It is an incredible work for incredible times, speculating on the future of a world transforming before our eyes.”

Adrian Tomlinson. Fire is one of the terrible consequences of buffel, the invasive grass many call a weed, and which is declared as such in neighbouring South Australia ... Yet the NT Government seems to be responding to this emergency without great strategy, judging by answers given to Araluen’s independent MLA Robyn Lambley, who put questions in Parliament suggested by the Alice Springs News.

The Chief Minister is clearly taking no account of the difference between  the impact on the society of DV – which is horrendous but usually happens in a private space, and needs targeted measures – and  the crime that happens mostly in public locations, much of it committed by children: its reporting in national media – factual and fabricated – has led to a drop in the town’s vital tourism business by about 50 per cent.

Preliminary crowd figures for the Alice Springs  Show  were 19,000 over the two days ... Brendan Fogarty, a trade exhibitor over several years, says it was quieter than usually but better than last year ... “A few enquiries, a few sales, not a bad weekend,” says Mr Fogarty. “There’s always someone to have a talk to.”