Alice Springs news
Alice Springs news; NewspaperNT
1999-12-15
This publication contains may contain links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.
This publication contains many links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.
English
Community newspspers; Australia, Central; Alice Springs (N.T.); Newspapers
Erwin Chlanda
Alice Springs
v. 6 issue 46
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
Erwin Chlanda
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/231573
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/667017
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: TOURIST ROBBED. Sir,- Can you help us? On November 24 we arrived in Alice Springs at about 5.20pm. We got into a taxi at the airport leaving our video camera on a seat outside. When we returned a few minutes later we were told by a gentleman that he had found our camera and was going to hand it into security when a taxi driver from the Alice Springs Taxi Company said he knew which taxi we had gone in and would return it to us. Of course it was never returned. With the camera were about five recorded films of three weeks of our holiday including our visit to Singapore, Sydney and our tour up to Cairns. My parents are in their seventies and are unlikely to make this trip again and are very distressed that we have no record of our trip. My father had also collected some 20 collector's hat pins from the places we had visited and these were also in the camera case together with a new pair of bifocal spectacles and a pair of binoculars. The films cannot be recorded over again and are of no use to anybody and we would be grateful if you could help us to get them returned to us. The Alice Springs police were given a description of the driver who took our camera and we were told that CIB were investigating the theft, but despite us phoning them several times while we were in still in Australia and faxing them since we arrived home in Great Britain we have had no response from them and do not even know if anything has been done to find our camera and the driver who stole it. Sandra Coutanche, Jersey, Channel Islands, Great Britain [ED - The Alice Springs police did not provide a comment.] Sir,- Your entertainment columnist has provided a first-hand account of life inside and outside the Exeloo, the hightech public toilet which has been the subject of some colourful debates in the Council of late. You're right, Graeme, those New Zealanders (designers and manufacturers of the Exeloo at a cool $75,000 per unit plus on-costs) are bringing everything with them. But the Exeloo won't be coming to the Alice. The Council has closed the lid on that possibility. Your public representatives within the Chamber (the one on Todd Street) have decided to sit on it indefinitely. The Exeloo won't be entering the Central Australian public domain for the foreseeable future. To my mind, it's too expensive, it's an imported product, it uses too much water, power and chemicals, it's a sitting duck for vandals, and it won't last much beyond the first flush sitting out on a slab at the Araluen Park. What's more, the manufacturers point out that the baby change table option is the most susceptible to vandalism, and so Council has been advised not to include it in the unit we may purchase. Given that mothers and children are likely to be a fair proportion of the users, how could we justify such a drain on the public purse when we can't even offer standard services? No, I am prepared to hold on much longer for a more equitable and cheaper way to effect relief in public places. The Council will eventually spend a penny - but the ratepayers won't have to bear such a huge burden. And I hope the profits stay in Australia, maybe even in Alice Springs. Meredith Campbell, Alice Springs RAILWAY BOOM IN QUESTION. Report by ERWIN CHLANDA. Alice Springs business people believe the town's service and entertainment industries will profit from the railway construction but expect the major contracts will go interstate. Members attending last week's Chamber of Commerce Christmas luncheon were resolved to make from the project what they could, but were not clear where exactly the opportunities would be. There was apprehension that Territory bidders would face stiff opposition from the larger firms in South Australia, hungry for work because of their state's prolonged slump. One luncheon guest feared that the Territory, with a massive $160m contribution, may be supporting its southern neighbour's biggest taxpayer-funded "make work" program since the Collins Class submarines. The Alice News spoke to several chamber members:DAVID CLOKE * (accountancy): I am not expecting to get as much as I had hoped when the project was first announced. There's no doubt there will be some indirect spin-offs. The service industries may well benefit. I see not as much scope as I expected for major construction industries in town [now] that the centres [of railway construction] have been moved to Katherine and Tennant Creek. SONJA KERR (Lasseter's Casino, Bizcom): The project will be extremely beneficial to the entertainment side of the hotel industry. All the workers from Tennant Creek down will be