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Alice Springs
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Alice Springs Council 2025 Elections Open
Early voting for the 2025 Local Government Elections commenced today and will continue over the next two weeks in the lead-up to election day on Saturday 23 August 2025. Early voting centres are now open in Darwin, Casuarina, Palmerston, Coolalinga, Katherine and Alice Springs. All early voting centres will issue ballot papers for all councils. Remote teams are travelling by four-wheel-drive vehicles and aircraft to deliver voting services to some of the Territory’s most remote communities. 13 remote mobile voting teams will visit 93 remote locations across the Northern Territory.Voting services across several days will be available in larger remote…
Shining a light on First Nations stories and culture
Balanggarra and Yolŋu artist Molly Hunt's mission is to show how loved, beautiful and strong Indigenous women are. Her Three Generations of Station Women installation at Parrtjima Festival in Alice Springs aims to do just that. Capturing the attention of thousands of festival goers with the animation and accompanying musical score, composed by Nyikina actor Mark Coles-Smith, it is a tribute to three generations of Aboriginal stockwomen. "This is a story that praises Blak women, that celebrates Blak women that shows they are staunch and have this intergenerational strength and power that's always been there and will always continue," Hunt…
Festival shines light on age old traditions through art
The works of more than 20 First Nations artist will illuminate the night at an Indigenous light festival. Music, comedy, workshops and talks are also om the lineup for the 10th iteration of Parrtjima - A Festival in Light, in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Four new installations will be added to the immersive art offering, including Molly Hunt's Three Generations of Station Women, Bobby West Tjupurrula's Hypnotic Reverberations and Lyall Giles' Transforming Light & Country. Towering poles, created by artists from Alice Springs three estate groups - Antulye, Irlpme and Mparntwe - will welcome visitors to the grounds, standing tall at the…
Defunct jail opens to inmates as prisoner numbers soar
A notorious prison that was only "fit for a bulldozer" is again housing adult prisoners as inmate numbers soar. Fifty adult prisoners have been moved to the defunct Berrimah jail, which was decommissioned in 2012 by then-corrections commissioner Ken Middlebrook, who was recently appointed as an adviser to Corrections Minister Gerard Maley. At the time Mr Middlebrook said the site was "only fit for a bulldozer", but a few years later it became the notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. Mr Maley said work at the facility was accelerated to accommodate growing prisoner numbers since the Country Liberal Party were…
Federal support needed as crime in outback town climbs
Alice Springs is again reeling from a vicious home invasion as police say violent crime is on the rise. Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and Police Commissioner Michael Murphy flew to Alice Springs on Thursday morning after an alleged home invasion left a two-month-old baby with severe head fractures. Police say the home invasion occurred on Wednesday and the infant was airlifted to Royal Adelaide Hospital where she remains in a stable condition. "Since the third of December, there's been a number of serious crimes in Alice Springs, ranging from abduction sexual assaults, home burglaries, home invasions, and stealing…
Environmental lawyers ordered to pay $9m to Santos
An environment litigation group representing Tiwi Islanders who failed to stop a gas pipeline being built through their sea country has been ordered to pay Santos more than $9 million. The Federal Court previously dismissed a challenge launched by Jikilaruwu traditional owner Simon Munkara to the oil and gas company's 262-kilometre Barossa gas export pipeline planned for the Timor Sea. Santos pursued The Environmental Defenders Office for costs over the dispute, with a court order issued on Thursday showing the parties agreed on a sum of $9,042,093.05. EDO chief executive David Morris said the firm would pay Santos. "After careful…
NT:’Extremely unlikely’: no doctors to respond to shooting
Health authorities have defended having no medical staff at a remote community when the "extremely unlikely" fatal police shooting of an Indigenous teenager occurred. Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker bled to death on a police cell floor in Yuendumu after being shot by then-constable Zachary Rolfe during a botched arrest at a home in the Northern Territory community in November 2019. In March 2022, an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted Mr Rolfe of murder. The mortally wounded 19-year-old was taken from his home to the police station, where Constable Rolfe tried to pack his wounds while a veteran nurse, Lorraine Walcott,…
NT:Cop’s lawyer urges caution for coroner on racism claims
Evidence suggesting racism or racist behaviour in the Northern Territory police force when Zachary Rolfe fatally shot Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker is irrelevant to a coronial inquest, the police officers lawyers say. In March 2022 an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted then-constable Mr Rolfe of murder after he shot 19-year-old Mr Walker at close range in a botched arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu. In a closing submission to Judge Elisabeth Armitage, Mr Rolfe's lawyer Luke Officer, told the court all evidence regarding racism or racist behaviour was irrelevant to the cause of death under the NT Coroner's Act.…
‘Tell the truth’: Indigenous family’s plea for justice
For two years the cry from Kumanjayi Walker's family has been simple: "tell the truth". When an inquest into his death began on September 5, 2022 family members created a sign with those three words that sat on the lawns opposite Alice Springs Local Court. It was a concept they felt had eluded a criminal trial. In March 2022 an NT Supreme Court jury acquitted then-constable Zachary Rolfe of murder after he shot 19-year-old Mr Walker at close range in a botched arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu. Brown family counsel Gerard Mullins KC, who represents parts of Kumanjayi…
NT:’Fascination with violence’: ex-cop’s ego questioned
A former police officer's ego and propensity for violence against Aboriginal men have been blamed for the shooting death of teen Kumanjayi Walker, an inquest has been told. The loved Warlpiri-Luritja son is remembered as a child with neuro-disability, whose death was "tragic and avoidable" according to NT Police. Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC has delivered a two-hour closing submission in the long-running inquest into the shooting death of 19-year-old Mr Walker by then-constable Zachary Rolfe in the remote community of Yuendumu, three hours northwest of Alice Springs. An NT Supreme Court jury found he acted in self-defence and in…