Northern development Archives - Page 36 of 38

What is a seed worth?

But the thing about the two ladies is that they weren’t two resident botanists! No, they were just two ladies that happened to know a hell of a lot about plants in the region. And of course what is happening now with all this assimilationist push that is going on – the Intervention, Growth Towns, the Shires – you name it – is that a lot of that knowledge is gradually just fading away. Children are spending less and less time out in the bush with their grandmothers and mothers, learning all this. What grows where and when, what can you eat and what can’t you eat.

By Bob Gosford|2011-02-26T06:29:57+09:30February 26th, 2011|Art, Fun stuff, Indigenous land management, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Religion, Some places I've been, Yuendumu|3 Comments

Truck of the week: the Wave Hill walk-off Bedford “J” series

I’d only just purchased a brand new bloody Valiant Safari and I decided that I prefer to have a truck than a Safari because the coppers were giving me a bad time at the club. A Detective, who later became an Inspector, told me straight out “We aren’t gonna tolerate having a Communist running a place like this. We’ll have you out of here in 12 months.” The writing was on the wall so I swapped over and I bought the Bedford for the reserve price and I’ve had it ever since. We set out early the following morning and managed to get south of the Willeroo turnoff where we camped for the night. The road from Willeroo to Wave Hill was in the process of being rebuilt with a major upgrade under the Federal Government’s National Beef Road development scheme. We crawled along most of the way between 15 and 20 m.p.h.

By Bob Gosford|2013-11-03T06:22:46+09:30February 20th, 2011|Australian politics, Fun stuff, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|9 Comments

Postcards from Balgo – Fire in the Great Sandy Desert

Out here fires can sometimes run for weeks - if not months - and burn-out huge tracts of land - I'll try to keep a watching eye on this fire over the coming weeks - if you have any information on its progress please log in and post a note about its progress.

By Bob Gosford|2010-12-30T13:23:23+09:30December 30th, 2010|Aboriginal & Islander Art, Animals, Art, Dogs, Fun stuff, Northern development, Photography, Some places I've been, The Arts, the Tanami Track, Writing and writers|4 Comments

Guest post: Sky’s the Limit in Broadcasting Australia to the World

Australia Network is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, but operates independent of that official source. It is not a propaganda machine, even if from time to time it seems a little too cosy. That’s often a misreading of the situation: regionally there are issues that deserve far greater exposure than an Australian audience would care to bother with. And therein lies the rub with the tender trap.

By Bob Gosford|2010-12-30T07:09:31+09:30December 30th, 2010|Australian politics, Fun stuff, Northern development, Some places I've been|6 Comments

How to eat a Camel – Peter Warburton

Cut off the foot at the hock and scrape and singe as much hair off as time and appetite will allow. Stick the end into glowing coals. Burn it for some considerable time. Then, strike it smartly with a tomahawk when, if charred, the sole will come off. Place the foot in a bucket and keep it steadily boiling for 36 hours. Then your teeth, if good, will enable you to masticate your long deferred dinner.

By Bob Gosford|2010-11-22T09:52:57+09:30November 22nd, 2010|Animals, Fun stuff, Northern development, Some places I've been, Stupidity|6 Comments

Governments, ownership and control of the Yuendumu 100

"Warlpiri people are not slaves, yet many in ‘mainstream’ society persist in claiming some sort of ‘ownership’ of Aborigines. They arrogantly have opinions as to what Aborigines should or shouldn’t do, and believe they have some sort of right in deciding what is best for them. Warlpiri have no power over their destiny. No say in their future. No say in how they should run their lives." Frank Baarda, Yuendumu 2010

By Bob Gosford|2010-10-15T08:31:06+09:30October 15th, 2010|Australian politics, Crime, Fun stuff, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT local government, NT Police, Some places I've been, Stupidity, The Law, The Northern Myth, The NT Intervention, the Tanami Track, Yuendumu|4 Comments

What do you do when you win 15 grand? Give it away of course…

Chips Mackinolty: "Katherine was isolating in those days. Unless you’d stayed in town for at least two wet seasons people would look at you as an outsider. And if you were crazy enough to do a third wet season they sort of thought, 'Well, he might be a lunatic but at least he is our lunatic.' "

By Bob Gosford|2026-02-25T22:12:09+09:30October 9th, 2010|Aboriginal & Islander Art, Art, Australian politics, Music, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT Police, Some places I've been, Stupidity, The Arts, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers|5 Comments

Breakfast with Hetti Perkins. Part two – life, work, art and more

My dad spent so much time out bush and we barely saw him when we were growing up. He was always out on a community. And you know now when I go to the most remote little community place all kinds of people come up to me and say “Oh Kumanjayi sorry for your dad”. Just yesterday at the Art Fair here in Darwin someone said to me...and my Dad died ten years ago... an older woman came up to me “Oh I'm sorry for your father that Kumanjayi”...it is an immense honour and incredibly humbling when people talk to me about my father as they do.

By Bob Gosford|2010-08-30T13:40:41+09:30August 30th, 2010|Aboriginal & Islander Art, Art, Australian politics, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Arts, The Law, The NT Intervention, Writing and writers|7 Comments

Hats off at the Brunette Downs races and rodeo

One easy way to pick a real ringer - rather than the wanna-be's, usedtobe's or nevercouldbe'sbuttryinghard's - in a crowd is to look for the amount of cow shit stains on his or her hat - if it has a generous spray of shit from brim to brow then they are most likely a real ringer - or stole the hat off one.

By Bob Gosford|2010-06-22T16:57:52+09:30June 22nd, 2010|Animals, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, Some places I've been, The Northern Myth|3 Comments

What’s a river worth? (Re)valuing natural capital as natural assets

Gaining Ground is focussed on the lower Mississippi delta, but strikes me that this approach may have broader application - particularly in an Australian context where we have a seemingly endless struggle trying to work out how we are going to manage major economic and ecological assets like the Murray/Darling river systems.

By Bob Gosford|2010-06-17T05:27:10+09:30June 17th, 2010|Fun stuff, Mississippi, Northern development, Some places I've been|8 Comments