Nudity, drunk driving & other news from the Alice!

I do love reading Friday’s Centralian Advocate sometimes. It’s a shame the paper isn’t available on-line. The headlines and stories often reflect life in the outback that is, well, peculiar only to the Alice and small town living.

Today’s headline is “Tourists topless on council lawn”. Of course, it’s only a banner headline. One has to turn to page 3 for the juicy details. After all, this is a family town and we can’t have naked bodies on the front page.

So I turn to page 3 and read further sensationalist headlines:

“Topless shocker in CBD” and “Girls bare all on new council lawn”

This is accompanied by a large photograph of three Belgian female tourists currently in town.

They have their clothes well and truly on. Not a bit of nudity.

But what really amazed me was the story itself. And please, bear in mind this shocker of a story in l’il old Alice takes up two thirds of page 3.

Apparently 2 female tourists decided to sunbathe topless on the Civic Centre lawns last week. And their male friend allegedly stripped down to his g-string to enjoy the warm sunny rays.

Council was apparently made aware of the naked breasts and the g-string on their lawn but as there are no council by-laws to stop nudity, nothing could be done.

The Mayor said they hadn’t had any complaints. And she had no intention of introducing any new by-laws preventing nude sunbathing. She’s quoted in the paper as saying “Tourists can pretend it’s Bali and treat Alice so.”

An alderman suggested council should designate a park in the Alice for nude sunbathing. Yes, it was a male alderman. Alderman Stewart is quoted as saying “There are parks in Berlin and Holland that cater to those needs, and at most beaches, so why not here?”

He states it would be a way for people of the Alice to say to our European tourists “we accept and endorse your ways”.

The Mayor pointed out that nude sunbathing has occurred before, at the pool, and after complaints were received the people were told they couldn’t take off their clothes there.

The journalist writing the story then interviewed the fully clothed Belgian female tourists who said anyone can go topless on their beaches but they wouldn’t do it on their government lawns.

Canadian tourists were then interviewed who said “it seemed out of place and didn’t fit with the vibe of Alice Springs”.

The story finished with a comment from the police. Technically it’s an offence to remove your clothes in public and it could be deemed offensive behaviour. But they hadn’t received any complaints about the incident.

With all the fuss every year about tourist numbers and how to attract more tourists to the Alice, perhaps we can market the free-thinking council and promote Alice Springs as a nudist destination?

In other news from the Centralian Advocate today:

Boxer Anthony Mundine was a big hit with the indigenous kids living at the Mount Nancy town camp. Mundine was promoting the no drugs, no grog and eat healthy message.

Mundine then stirred up a few problems when he visited the local prison, telling the inmates, most of whom are indigenous, that “You’re in here because the white government wants you in here.”

Indigenous Affairs Minister, Mal Brough continues to cop flak over his statements to put “Aboriginals on display at the entrance to five star hotels across Australia as a showcase for international tourists”. Just when you think a politician is doing some worthwhile work for the country, Brough goes and stuffs it up. Bad move Mr Brough.

Our paper is often littered with stories of the drink drivers who are caught. It always amazes me the sheer numbers of drunk drivers who are done for driving under the influence or are driving unregistered and unlicensed. We’re only a small town and yet we seem to have an inordinate number of drink drivers.

Today’s paper ran a story about a man who was picked up twice in two days for driving under the influence. He blew six times the legal limit. At his court hearing on Monday the magistrate asked the police prosecutor why the man had been released just one and a half hours after being arrested the first time.

The paper quotes the magistrate as saying “I presume that wasn’t because he’s not Aboriginal. I presume that there’s another, better reason than that. I’d have to say regularly Aboriginal people get held for hours and hours and hours, so why wasn’t this man held?”

The police were not able to answer because they couldn’t find the time the man was released in police records.

The man in question apparently has a history of drunkenness. And as he is not an Australian citizen and works for the secret, secret defence base at Pine Gap, might I venture the theory that his US citizenship and his job got him released early?