Australian politics Archives - The Northern Myth

Why Labor will win the 2024 NT election: A chat with noted psephologist Doctor Advocatus Diaboli

The NT election will be held tomorrow, 24 August 2024. I now reckon that Eva Lawler’s Australian Labor Party (ALP) will squeak back to office with either a one-seat majority or as a minority government with the support of an Independent. That’s not a reckoning shared by most of those I’ve talked to over the [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-08-23T21:02:58+09:30August 23rd, 2024|Australian politics, Fun stuff, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT local government, Some places I've been, The Northern Myth|0 Comments

Who’ll win the NT election? Fuck knows …

Bob Gosford reports from Darwin As I noted earlier this year, 2024 will be a big year for elections. Yesterday’s issue of the writ kicked off the NT election on Saturday 24 August that will have ramifications for both major parties at a national level – for Labor to retain its electoral dominance; for the [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-08-02T21:30:27+09:30August 2nd, 2024|Australian politics, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT Politics, Some places I've been, The Northern Myth|0 Comments

Darwin’s Lee Point and the NIYBY’s (Not In Your Back Yard)

The recent news – see the grab below – that a group of southern Fly-In-and then later Fly-Out workers were threatening not to return to work in the Northern Territory was met with entirely predictable responses from Territorians. We’ve never really liked being told what to do and how by any “Southerners”, let alone a [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-04-18T12:49:23+09:30April 18th, 2024|Australian politics, Fun stuff, Media, Northern Territory politics, Stupidity, The Northern Myth|0 Comments

“We’re working through those processes … “ Munkara v Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd (No 3)

Part Two: … and a crocodile called Elvis. Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher. Darwin, February 2024 By Bob Gosford In the first part of this seriesI looked at the recent Federal Court decision of Justice Charlesworth in Munkara v Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd (No 3) [2024] (Munkara) and briefly explored the judicial history of principles [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-18T23:35:04+09:30February 18th, 2024|Australian politics, Indigenous land management, Mining and Resources, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT Politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth, Tiwi Islands|Comments Off

Evidence that was “qualitatively and quantitively inadequate.” Munkara v Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd (No 3)

Part One: Why Alderson v Northern Land Council (still) rules after forty years. Tiwi lead applicant Simon Munkara By Bob Gosford After two weeks of hearings in late December, in mid-January 2024 Justice Charlesworth of the Federal Court of Australia delivered her 258-page demolition of the application for a permanent injunction by three Tiwi Island [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-18T22:47:16+09:30February 18th, 2024|Australian politics, Indigenous land management, Mining and Resources, Northern Territory politics, NT Politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth, Tiwi Islands|Comments Off

Brought to book

By Mark Butler* FARRAGO 9 – Waterman: A Picaresque Tale of Old Sydney I HAVE always wanted to write something to live up (or down) to that headline which, throughout my many years as a newspaper subeditor never lost its place as one of the top five banned hackneyed puns, so i hope this makes [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-16T21:44:41+09:30February 16th, 2024|Australian politics, Crime, FARRAGO, Fun stuff, Poetry, Some places I've been, The Arts, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers|Comments Off

The Billion-Dollar bird: What weighs 14 grams, combines ‘novelty, beauty and elegance’ and has derailed Darwin’s billion-dollar housing development?

Part One: The facts mate, and only the facts Novelty in itself has attractions, but when with novelty, beauty and elegance are combined, the attractions are augmented beyond measure ….John Gould, The Birds of Australia, 7 volumes, 1840 to 1848. John Gould was describing the Gouldian Finch, Amadina gouldiae, shortly after his wife and collaborator [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-12T18:51:43+09:30February 8th, 2024|Animals, Australian politics, Birds, Birds and people, Northern Territory politics, NT Politics, The Northern Myth|Comments Off

To Paraguay! Documenting the descendants of the New Australia Colony

FARRAGO 8 – A guest post by Peter Solness, artist, teacher, traveller and sometimes Henry Beaufoy Merlin* impersonator. As a young photographer in the 1980’s the jingoism of Australia Day back then never convinced me. I was looking for stories that would engage more fully with our journey as a nation. At 26 years of age in 1985 [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-03T16:06:48+09:30February 3rd, 2024|Australian politics, FARRAGO, The Northern Myth, Writing and writers|Comments Off

Musical Dispatch from the Front — Thirroul

This Musical Dispatch from the Front is a guest post by my old—in both senses of that word—friend Frank Baarda,* a long-term resident of Yuendumu. For decades we have made our annual trek up and down the Stuart Highway. I recall some memorable road: signs: Ki Ki – Australia’s Pistachio Capital Bordertown – Bob Hawke’s [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-02-26T12:53:35+09:30January 24th, 2024|Australian politics, Books, Fun stuff, Some places I've been, The Northern Myth, the Tanami Track, Yuendumu|Comments Off

First (Australian) cab off the electoral rank for 2024 – the Northern Territory

2024 will be a big year for elections, with some estimates stating that half (really?) the world population will get the opportunity to vote in 2024. Time magazine reckons that 64 countries—and the European Union—will conduct national elections this year with elections in Taiwan, Bangladesh, Russia and Ukraine all must-watch events for a variety of [...]

By Bob Gosford|2024-01-24T18:59:29+09:30January 24th, 2024|Australian politics, Fun stuff, Northern development, Northern Territory politics, NT Politics, Some places I've been, The Law, The Northern Myth|Comments Off