Thursday, March 23, 2023

Alice Springs News

Established 1994.

Based in Alice Springs, Central Australia.

One of Australia’s oldest online newspapers, online since 1997.

Searchable archive going back to 1998.

Free.
Advertising opportunities.

Website with online news.

Latest articles

Park burns as war on buffel grass hots up

While the Centre is facing what experts say is likely to be the biggest bushfire season in recorded history, the question is not what the NT Government is doing about it, but what it is not. The first blaze is already under way, in the Ormiston Gorge area of the West MacDonnells.

Earlier articles

Closing health gap needs more than booze, crime control

Dr Simon Quilty. Today, National Close the Gap Day, while there is a lot of focus on alcohol, crime and violence in communities such as Alice Springs, it is the long-term, underlying issues that are the real problem here. We are definitely experiencing difficulty in attracting, retaining and housing health professionals right across the NT, addressing this issue in isolation of the greater social disparity only makes the problem worse.

Hand-wringing main response to buffel inferno

Lindsay "Linz" Johanssen. Buffel grass (Cenchrus Ciliaris) is not just invasive. Environment-wise, it is utterly transformative ... Buffel thrives on being burned. Vigorous new growth follows subsequent showers of rain, so recreating (and episodically contributing-to), a new fuel load ... Buffel’s burn / rapid-growth rebuild / ready to burn again fire cycle will, over time, simply kill or destroy everything that is not protected or cannot evacuate ...

Crime control authorities: Answers, please

When it comes to dealing with social and crime problems in Alice Springs, what are the legal obligations of government departments and publicly funded NGOs? How well are they following their mission statements? How much taxpayers’ money do they get and how are they spending it?

Not prepared for savage bushfire threat

A savage bushfire season is imminent after huge La Niña rains, but "arrangements for the mitigation, management and suppression of bushfires" are inadequate. "There is a loss of fire management knowledge, networks and depth of experience which underpin the success of fire programs," says the NT Government’s Alice Springs Regional Bushfire Management Plan 2022/23.

Aboriginal jobs: Time for action, not talk, says Cr Marli Banks

More than a third of the Alice Springs population, some 10,000 people, identify as Indigenous but less than 5% of the Town Council workforce of about 300 is Aboriginal, according to Cr Marli Banks. This makes a mockery of commitments such as the council’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.

Alice Springs News articles

The Alice Springs News is in its 29th year of publication, and with the closure of the Murdoch Centralian Advocate in 2020 we are the only local newspaper in Central Australia.

We are redesigning our editorial focus from daily and brief reports to long form journalism focussing on background, analysis and investigation of our region’s major issues. For this we are assembling a team of writers, some long-term contributors, some new.

Our seven million word online archive goes back to 1998, is fully searchable and available 24/7.
Copies of earlier print editions are available in libraries.

Readers are continuing to send us comments or information for publication (see the right-hand column on our front page).
We are a platform for civilised and fearless debate.

Our previous peak circulation was 22,000 individual readers a month making 90,000 page views.
We’ve published some 26,000 readers’ comments since 2011.

We are one of Australia’s oldest online newspapers. 

We founded the News as a print edition in 1994 as the largest circulation independent newspaper in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Editor Erwin Chlanda and Chief Reporter Kieran Finnane have together 70 years of reporting from and in Central Australia for local, national and international media in television and newspapers.

We strictly comply with the Journalistic Code of Ethics.

If you would like to support our independent journalism – since 1997 online – you can contribute by clicking here …
Become a supporter

Our generous supporters help us to cover our expenses and expand our reporting on topics that matter.
The Alice Springs News is still free, and offers outstanding advertising opportunities.
The publication manager is Media Choice, Alice Springs, Australia.

THE ALICE SPRINGS NEWS IS ALICE SPRINGS OWNED AND OPERATED.

Phone our news office at  0418 890040 or email erwin@alicespringsnews.com.au
Snail mail: PO Box 1613 Alice Springs NT 0871.

Editor: Erwin Chlanda

Our “patch” is an area of a million square kilometres; 30% of the population is Aboriginal.
Like all our followers they read us on their mobile phones and tablets or other devices.

We also have a significant readership interstate and overseas.

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