Youth

The location of the facility in Alice Springs for children at risk, which between its opening on November 27 last year and January 10 has been used by just five youngsters, is a secret. So is its cost.

Rod Moss. Bernadine Johnson, Ricky Ryder, Aureole Perkins, Therese Johnson and Arthur Webb are wandering in search of the purple-flowered plant  awele awele, the bush tomato. Looking for bush tucker was a weekend pursuit. How gratifying to see these activities continuing apace in the formal structure provided by Children’s Ground/  Ampe-kenhe Ahelh.

Emily Sherwood has restricted verbal capacity, and so it was even more heartbreaking to hear that she too was set upon by three teens recently. Emily uses a gopher and was heading home from the Memo Club about 10.30pm last week when the shit-bag trio set upon her, trying to grab her bag off her shoulder, almost choking her in the process and pulling her from the vehicle.

He got out bed, into the wheelchair and threw a towel over his lap. As he peered out the window he heard a "godawful" yelp and witnessed the girls kicking poor Max in the guts. Wanting to protect his beloved companion, Greg raced outside to confront three teenagers, who all appeared to be girls. They started throwing chairs, rocks and concrete pieces at him, before roughly tipping him out of his wheelchair.

Cambooya siblings Kyrna and Tomas Crump represented Queensland in the National Cricket Inclusion Championships. Kyrna is the first female to represent the State in the cricketers with an intellectual disability team and was the female competing in that division. Tom is the youngest to be picked, at the age of 14.

Nadia Mills came to teach at Central School last year, and this year she accepted the position of Principal ... Nadia has been teaching Aboriginal kids all her life ... her first teaching position was in an Aboriginal community called Alekarenge, 400 km north of Alice Springs. 'I love teaching bush Aboriginal kids. They're so resilient, creative and engaged.'

Miss Melissa has joined the teaching staff at St. Therese’s, where she is teaching Kurrika class ... Since coming out here Melissa has also indulged in one of her passions, photography ... She said they could not believe the colour and beauty of the local natural environment, especially the river.

"There are enough organisations that are funded to make sure that kids are safe. Unfortunately there is a hole in the delivery, kids are falling through the cracks. We have so many service providers in Alice Springs. There is no level of accountability. There are service providers that are not getting audited to deliver what they are getting funded to do": Alice Springs Mayor, Matt Paterson.

The Kwoorabup Nature School has for the past 10 years explored options to expand and believes the best is to use the neighbouring Denmark Lions Club lease area. The school is WA’s first Nature School and has experienced a 70 per cent growth in 18 months.

Claire from Allora P-10 State School has set three new swim records in the Pool. At the School’s recent Annual Interhouse Swimming Carnival Claire won the Open 50m Freestyle, Open 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly.

The recommendation to reinstate alcohol bans in Alice Springs town camps and outback home lands was described as “finally some commonsense” by the Independent MLA for Araluen, Robyn Lambley. But she says Dorrelle Anderson, who made the recommendation, should now go back to her work and “sort out child protection, the most critical problem in Central Australia” and “keep off the streets” children causing trouble.

Out now!

A team of Australian Pony Club riders have been having the time of their lives in New Zealand after being selected to be part of this year’s Inter Pacific Exchange. The four riders – Ashleigh Bennett of Young NSW, Bridget Mouat of Riddells Creek Victoria, Georgia Elias of Launceston, Tasmania and Georgia Goss of Eastern Hills WA – competed in two events while overseas, as well as fitting in a lot of sight-seeing across the 18 days of their trip.

Teachers and students headed back to school on Tuesday after the six-week break to start the new school year. Plenty of nerves and excitement as students look forward to seeing friends and getting to know new teachers ... One big change this year that has been welcomed by staff and parents, is the introduction of the mobile phone ban.

This year Maldon PS has welcomed 16 preps to our school. This is the highest number of prep enrolments we have had for many years. We have also had some new enrolments across the school, bringing our enrolment number to 84 students.

Large happy crowds turned out for Australia Day at both Naracoorte and Lucindale last week to celebrate local award winners, welcome new Australians citizens and participate in an Australian citizenship affirmation ... Mayor Patrick Ross read a statement from the Federal Member for Barker, Tony Pasin, then introduced guest speaker, Robertson Street Daily Market proprietor, Didar Ali ... “I came to Australia because I ran away from war."

Xavier Wishart spent a week of his school holidays in Hobart – but he didn’t have much time to see the sights – he was there for the Under 17 National Championships of cricket. The championships were held at several locations across Hobart from January 16 to 23 with teams playing six matches.

Students in Rochester will return to their schools this week after being affected by the devastating flooding across Victoria last year. It’s the first time the students at Rochester Primary School and Rochester Secondary School will be able to walk back through the school gates since the flooding left both schools inundated with water.

About 650 breakfasts – cooked and served by volunteers – were consumed at the 2023 Australia Day event in Two Rocks ... Yanchep resident Sharon Conley, who is a member of the Yanchep Netball Club, received the YTRCRA citizen award.

Tennant Creek’s born and bred doctor Sarah Goddard took the top honours in the Local Government 2023 Australia Day Awards for Tennant Creek. Dr Goddard has spent well over a decade reaching her goals to become a doctor and Citizen of the Year Awards adds to her list of growing accolades, winning best Indigenous doctor in Australia late last year in the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) awards.