Yesterday we were up on Ubirr in Kakadu for the solar eclipse and whilst given the cloud cover and the fact that the best place to be was Cairns stood in our way we still had a very special moment…with Miles out location scouting the day before.

and a 4 am start to the day resulted in a couple of passable frames…

About this time last year a little known bloke named Barack Obama came to visit us in Darwin for a few hours…

he did such a great job that It looks like his bosses have decided to extend his contract for 4 more years…

High 5’s all round….

Thanks to both of you who liked the Alice Springs Goon Sack fence last week enough to request a print…It inspired me to have a search through the GDF archives and dig up this little beauty showing the lengths to which some guy’s will go to get the most use out of their left over Goon Sacks.

I’m not sure if this is an invitation to come in or a warning to stay out of this house on the East Side of “The Alice”, where they take recycling very seriously…almost as seriously as they take their drinking.

I was working in Uluru KataTjuta National Park last week, but the rock was not on the agenda, it never is, I’m usually working in the community behind the rock Mutitjulu or on the way to Docker River on the edge of the Gibson Desert, what it does do is a great job of putting whatever story I’m working on in context because it’s so identifiable, so emblematic, so Iconic…(a word used a total of 8 times by our tour guide from the Sunshine Coast)

The reader is lead to the story by the big red rock and what ever reactions they have to it and plus the the editors always demand a 6 column picture of the thing, it’s not about what it looks like, it’s about how it makes you feel… and a lot of white people form around the world feel something special, after all coming to Australia, especially Central Australia takes effort, a commitment to an idea of the spiritual center of a continent and craving an experience that lives up to what they see in their dreams.

Now I come from a different part of the country and grew up looking at red hills every day so I don’t feel a special need to embrace the “Great Tor” but I can see it’s appeal to the world at large but what really does my head in is the experience of the Traditional Owners ,the residents of Mutitjulu, whose stories and culture work to “SELL” the Uluru experience,

to give that experience authenticity while living in the shadow of it,

in substandard housing, with poor education options and a lack of services that should make a government blush and meanwhile a short drive away from some of the most luxurious accommodation in the country, where you can gaze longingly at the Monolith at sunset while sipping fine wines and nibbling Kangaroo Carpaccio…I had the pleasure on my last trip ( courtesy of NT Tourism) and while I can now empathize with the visitors and their hopes and dreams being intertwined with climbing a rock in the middle of the desert despite the explicit wishes of Traditional Owners

‘Wanya Ulurunya tatintja wiyangku wantima, Please don’t climb Uluru’!

I reckon the powers that be in that part of the world would rather you Minga’s (ants) drive around back to Muti, empty your wallets at the front gate, and go to the Gold Coast!