April, 2010

“There was not one part of [Hardy’s] body that was not bitten” and “…not an ounce of flesh from his knee to his hip on one leg…the deceased had lost part of his scrotum.”

Alice Springs has a proud history of amateur boxing – a lot of it practiced on the street and a long way from anything resembling a boxing ring – but there hasn’t been an organised bout in Alice Springs for many years so many locals were well pleased to see the return of boxing to [...]

One of the beneficiaries of this good season – and a rampant opportunist in good seasons such as we are having right now – are the members of the Order Diptera – the flies. I snapped this pair going hard at it right outside my front door on the weekend.

The flying foxes flew away and circled over the Arafura Swamp, finally settling hanging upside down from trees growing along the banks. They were the first creatures to cut the penises of their young males and the circumcision ceremonies performed on young boys today is accompanied by a repetition of the songs sung by the flying foxes as they initiated the original ceremony.