Every Australian small town has a place - or several - outside of town where the local hoons take stolen cars to lay their marks on the road in rubber. Sometimes - if the drivers have skill, a good motor and a nice new set of someone else's tyres - the marks left are almost abstract artworks. Other times, less so.
There are no winners in any of this—a group of women are (rightfully it seems) aggrieved by Walker's (admitted) failures in research and diligence, a respected author has suffered a terrible fall from grace and none of us (well, most of us) will get to read what is/was without doubt a valuable contribution to our shared musical history.
"Oh," I remark and after identifying Emu, Bustard and Black Kite feathers I remark that maybe he needs some colour and should be on the look out for some Red-tailed Black Cockatoo feathers.
Too. Fucking. Hot. I cleared the breathalyser and turned off Lee Point Road. As I drove past, just one hundred metres away from the alcohol and drug testing station, I could see one of the many old mates of Darwin’s Northern Suburbs leaning back in his plastic chair, pulling on a bong. Happy Thursday to you, Old Mate.
Giles’s mood had changed from denial, to anger, to bargaining. He first denied any knowledge of an unfolding coup. Later he raged about the stupidity of it. And in our last conversation, just after midnight, before the phone was hurled from the balcony, he seemed to think there was a way to fight on.
On the outbound run the number of old car bodies littered in the scrub caught my eye so I decided to take a closer look on the way back. Here are just a few.
If you need to ask you don't deserve to know ... or as NC says, "I've lived in this town for thirty years ... and I put new bullets in my gun, chamber after chamber ... oh, my God, oh, my God."
Got a Leak of the Week? Drop me a line below, send me a DM on Twitter to @bgosford or a message at my Facebook page.
The Territory has very few friends “down south”, where we have come to be seen as over-indulged redneck mendicant whingers, sucking endlessly on the public nipple of taxpayer generosity. Suspending NT self-government would be a popular decision in most parts of Australia.
"There is no doubt the Country Liberals have been divided for many, many, many years on a range of different areas, policy and structural and personalities ... What we have seen as a result of last night is a party completely disintegrate in terms of different factions, warring factions." Adam Giles, 3 February 2015.
