Damned if you do, damned if you don't........

A recent ABC News story about the alcohol issues faced in a couple of the Aboriginal Community's around Katherine and the positive influence the Baptist Church is having on the people there in changing attitudes and lives.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-26/alcohol-access-in-the-north-tanami/4393304?section=nt

Crocodile Attacks

It's not uncommon to see Croc News stories featuring on the front pages of the NT News and Katherine Times or on ABC here.  They seem to be forever trapping massive saltwater crocs in the rivers around here and relocating them. People in the NT are known to be very Croc Wise when it comes to such matters and it is generally the tourists who seem to get killed.  However in the last month there has been two Aboriginal kids taken here which is incredibly sad and unusual.

Boy feared dead after NT croc attack

Updated Sun Dec 2, 2012 1:26am ABC NEWS

 

Northern Territory Police are searching for a boy who has been taken by a crocodile near the town of Nhulunbuy, about 650 kilometres east of Darwin.

Officers say the 12-year-old boy was attacked while swimming on Saturday with a group of people at Port Bradshaw.
Police say the adults in the group tried to save the boy by spearing the animal, but the crocodile dragged the child out into deeper water.
Officers were at the scene of the attack on Saturday and were helping sea rangers search into the night for the boy and the crocodile.
"This is a tragic circumstance for the child's family and friends and highlights the dangers of swimming in waterways in the Top End," Superintendent Michael White said.
The attack comes little more than two weeks after a seven-year-old girl was killed by a crocodile at Gumarrirnbang outstation in the Top End.
Last month, human remains were found inside a crocodile shot in the area.
It prompted a warning from the NT Government on the threat crocodiles pose to swimmers in the Top End.

Sign on the waters edge when we went fishing.

Brutus from Jumping Crocodiles Boat Tour - Scary stuff!!

I brought a new car

I have had two people post this above Freud picture to my facebook page in less than a month. Not sure what that's about but I guess for some reason they thought of me. One of those people being my husband......go figure!! :)

Below is my new car that I had to buy over here after the last one died on route to Darwin last holidays.  A great start to the holidays!! Nothing like being stranded in the outback to make sure that next time, you're in a Toyota with the BEST air-con systems, and that small detail REALLY matters here. Yeah, so it's a Yaris and the impact will be massive if I hit a kangaroo or cattle beast on the Highway at 130 kms (yes, that is the speed limit), but I will be careful to drive only in the daytime. I use to stop and steer at dead kangaroos on the road until I realised just how much they featured as road kill here, then the novelty soon wore off. 

It's November already. Time has flown by so quickly. New Zealand is in daylight savings and so now we are 3 1/2 hours behind them. There is never daylight savings here and the day always rises at 6am and sets at 7pm all year around. I do kind of miss not being able to enjoy an evening walk on a beach without the fear of being eaten by a crocodile. I can't wait for some beach and BBQ time in NZ over the next school holidays :)

Reports of increased drunkenness in NT

That was the title of an ABC News story on Fri Oct 19 2012. The new government here is looking at building two "prison farms" (their words), in order to force mandatory alcohol rehabilitation on people who have alcohol abuse issues. Not sure what the process for referral would be (I'm guessing the government don't know at this stage either), but at some point each person will have to come before the Courts as it is to be mandated by them.

These "prison farms" don't actually exist as yet and they haven't even started to built them but it hasn't stopped the government from lifting the banned drinking register which I blogged about previously.  Alcohol abuse in the aboriginal population is such a HUGE issue here and as one police sergeant, who has lived his whole life in the NT told me, "It's all been tried before, twice over and nothing works."

This ABC News audio clip is worth listening to as it is talking about the issues here in Katherine and has the people talking from the communities around here that I largely see through the watch house here.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-19/reports-of-increased-drunkenness-in-nt/4323818?section=nt


After I wrote this blog, the NT government announced how the above will work once these prison farms are built:

Rehab push to get chronic drinkers off streets

By Rick Hind

Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:21pm AEDT

       

The Northern Territory Government says mandatory alcohol rehabilitation legislation planned for next year could see hundreds of chronic drinkers taken off the streets.

Attorney-General John Elferink has told Parliament that drinkers who are taken into protective custody three times in three months will be given a court order to stop drinking in public.

If they breach that order they will be put into mandatory rehabilitation facilities for three months.