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Police operations like Thumper in Katherine and other towns of the Top End do not stand unsupported. Thumping is now big business.

A look back at some of the more curious entries in the death records of the Northern Territory from the early years of last century.

That head stockman and my father had a good go in the yard. He wanted to beat my father but my father been too good for him. After my father knocked that bloke out he got a rope and jammed that bloke in the bronco panel – made that head stockman squeal. (laughs) My father and I pulled out from there. Got his swag, put me in the saddle-bags and we went walking towards Larrimah way.

Olga Havnen Almost a year ago I wrote here of the magnitude of Olga Havnen’s job as the replacement for Bob Beadman in the key role of Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Service Delivery: The most challenging part of Havnen’s new job will be to renew the shattered faith and trust in governments as service [...]

The Tjanpi Desert Weavers have a whimsical and very often funny approach to their art and I’m sure more than a bit of that rubbed off on their northern counterparts, where often weaving is more utilitarian.
You can see some of the Tjanpi Weaver’s wonderful work at their website.Yesterday the Tjanpi’s whimsy won over the practical.

Andrew may be gone but won’t be forgotten – there are plans for an annual writers’ retreat in the town and those of us lucky enough to pass through Larrimah from time to time will be be stopping in to share a drink or ten with Andrew – again. And the NT Writers’ Centre is accepting donations for the Writers’ Retreat …

Darwin – or Robertson Barracks – isn’t exactly seen as a comfort post. One comment on a military weblog reckoned that while the Northern Territory might be a great place to conduct large-scale training exercises most of the troops won’t be based at or near Darwin but at Bradshaw an awful long way from Darwin. One commentator described Bradshaw as a “shitty place to be posted”.

Lorna Fencer Napurrurrla was non-conformist, original (and) abandoned conventions, revolutionary, independent, mercurial, unrelenting, tough, funny, flirtatious (and) seriously dedicated, go it alone, irreverent, talented, energetic, confident, irascible, feisty, loud, imperious, cranky and her imperial majesty. She was prolific, chaotic and partial to intellectual stoushes, wicked, impish, forcible and would brook-no-opposition, a dab hand at getting others to do her bidding, tough, overbearing, born-to-rule, with a strong sense of self belief, a strong sense of self worth, bossy, wicked, (with a) rapier sharp wit.She was a loner, eccentric, individualist, over the top fearless, go it alone, against the grain, (and) very, very funny.

The call of the Coucal Pheasant is an iconic sound of summer across the Top End – a bubbling, ventriloqual, quickening and falling “boop, boop, boop” that booms through the thick scrub where these birds are typically found.

Being here this evening, surrounded by her work, is not all of what Sarah is about. At her opening last year I described her in the best of possible ways as a “mongrel dog”. With that description, I was describing her as central Australia’s leading advocate and activist for Aboriginal people with end stage renal disease. I described her as that because, quite simply, she is completely unafraid in her dealings with bureaucrats and politicians in her battles with them. call her that as a token of real affection. The real puzzle is that she is both mongrel dog activist, mother, carer of people within the Western Desert Renal Dialysis family—yet still finds the time to create objects of beauty and wonder.