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sundayterritorian.com.au
Burning issue
Bushranger
SOMEONE out Howard Springs
way wanted to make sure
motorists were fully prepared for
the Mayan apocalypse on Friday.
Fortunately no zombies put in an
appearance.
Ph: 8944 9767 Email: [email protected]
SKELETON STAFF
or, possibly, Germans, judging by the
usual headlines. Can you provide me
with some statistics to settle a bet
here in Stockholm?’’
PENSIONER Roger Miller asked for
his free appointment at Palmerston’s dental clinic — and was given
a date in 24 months time. ‘‘I’ll probably be dead by then,’’ he says.
FALLEN ON HARD TIMES
ALICE Springs councillor Steve
Brown has survived two great dangers. First, he was found ‘‘not guilty’’
by a council ‘‘kangaroo court’’ for
calling the Arid Lands Environment
Centre ‘‘enviro-Nazis’’. And then
he fell 7m off a ladder. The electrician broke a foot and compressed his spine and hips. ‘‘It bloody
hurts,’’ he says.
DEFENDANT’S A HOOLIGAN
A MAN in Darwin Magistrates Court
on Tuesday was named Jason Aaron
Abraham Hooligan — he was charged
with aggravated assault and carrying a weapon.
CROCS’ SWEDE TOOTH
OLIVER Gee from Sweden wrote to
the Sunday Territorian to ask an
interesting question: ‘‘Which type of
tourists do crocs most usually eat?
I have a feeling it might be Swedes
Bushwhacked
I’M IN LOVE WITH ALICE
MORE on Steve Brown: Arid Lands
Environment Centre head Jimmy
Cocking says the councillor’s attack
implied he was ‘‘some kind of blowin Nazi’’. ‘‘I’ve lived in Alice for
five years,’’ he says. ‘‘I realise that
it will never be long enough for
some people, but I love the place.’’
YOUR PLACE OR MINE?
DARWIN Lord Mayor Katrina Fong
Lim and Palmerston Mayor Ian Abbott scheduled a meeting — but Katrina went to Ian’s office and Ian
went to Katrina’s office. They ended
up chatting on the phone.
SHREK’S JURASSIC LARK
SHREK the cranky croc has been put
in a special enclosure called the Jurassic Pond at his new home in a Port
Macquarie zoo. Crocodylus Park
owner Grahame Webb says Jurassic
is an appropriate name because the
number of species ‘‘exploded’’ during
the Jurassic period of Earth’s history.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
FAILED CLP election candidate Rebecca Healy has accused her local
newspaper, the Tennant & District
Times of supporting Labor, even
though the late owner Chris Afianos
was a staunch CLP supporter. She
says the paper, now run by Chris’s
daughter Jasmin, has given Labor
MLA Gerry McCarthy ‘‘free rein to go
on a rant about issues he has no clue
about’’ — NT Government spending
cuts, electricity price hikes, that sort
of thing. But didn’t Rebecca attack
the CLP Government on exactly the
same thing only two weeks ago?
LEFT RIGHT OUT?
LUKE Gosling won’t have it all his
own way when trying to be nominated as the Labor candidate for
Solomon at the next federal election. Some party moderates don’t
like him — partly because he’s close
to left-wing senator Trish Crossin —
and two other people are expected
to nominate.
Perhaps life from another planet has made it to Darwin. Car with the numberplate ALIAN seen getting around town
Oil spills after dredger hit
By ALYSSA BETTS
THERE was drama on the
seas yesterday when an
auxiliary boat punched a hole
in the side of a dredger doing
work for the Inpex project in
Darwin Harbour.
The puncture in the trailing suction hopper dredger —
the Volvox Terranova — caused a fuel spill.
Darwin Port Corporation’s
Melissa Reiter last night said
the company involved — Van
Oord — reported that only
about 40 litres was spilled.
She said it refused the port’s
offers of help to clean it up.
Van Oord was not contactable yesterday. Inpex spokesman James Clothier said immediate action was taken to
contain and clean up the spill.
‘‘The majority of the release
is believed to have been contained on board,’’ he said.
Both boats belong to Van
Oord and the collision happened about 3.30pm.
An industry source told the
Sunday Territorian it could
cost the project hundreds of
thousands of dollars in delays
and fines for failing to meet
dredging targets. They also
said the small amount that
was reported spilled belied
the potential for disaster.
‘‘If it has punctured a fuel
tank, which is designed to
hold hundreds of thousands
of litres of fuel or oil, what
would the consequences have
been if that tank was full or
had have been ripped open
more?’’ they said.
They said the incident sug-
gested there were systematic
problems with the project.
The crash comes less than a
week after another serious
mishap involving dredging
gear for the marine supply
base, a separate project.
A three-year-old boy was
left with life-threatening injuries after the boat he was in
hit the dredging gear at
8.30pm last Sunday.
Mr Clothier said yesterday’s
incident was minor and an investigation was under way.
The Transport Department
oversees the Marine Act.
Spokesman Martin Bennett
last night said Van Oord had
not yet provided a report.
On June 11 when the dredging contract was awarded,
Van Oord announced it was
worth C
=567 million.
Teen flung from
bike takes slide
A TEENAGE girl was
flung from the back of a
motorbike as it travelled
at speed down a Darwin
road.
The 16-year-old was
lucky to escape with
minor injuries after she
fell off the bike and slid
along McMillans Rd in
Marrara, about 7.30pm
on Friday.
Watch Commander
Debbie Gabolinscy said
the bike was travelling
at 75km/h when the
accident happened.
‘‘The driver was
changing lanes and he
leaned one way and the
passenger leaned the
other way,’’ she said.
‘‘Fortunately,
she
only suffered minor
abrasions.’’
Senior
Sergeant
Gabolinscy said the
driver did not do anything wrong.
But she said the accident should serve as a
warning to anyone on a
motorbike ‘‘to have protective gear on’’.
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Marketing and economics student Jemma Sneddon has no concerns about Australia’s finances
THE so-called edge of the fiscal
cliff does not worry NT uni
student Jemma Sneddon.
The 21-year-old part-time
marketing and economics student thinks Australia’s finances
are in good enough shape. She
said: ‘‘I think we’ve got our
feet in a fairly nice position.
We’re pretty set.’’
Her next project is to get
stuck into the stock market.
‘‘I’ve just inherited some
shares so that might encourage
me to do something in that
area,’’ she said.
She also has an objective
view on the whopper power and
www.sundayterritorian.com.au
water price hikes. ‘‘I think it’s a
little bit ridiculous,’’ she said.
‘‘But in the grand scheme of
things, what are you going to
do? In 10 years the company
would be screwed and we’re going to have to pay for it then.’’
When she’s not studying at
Charles Darwin University, she
is working two jobs.
One is administration work
for a data company, and at
weekends she does marketing
work for the Deck Bar.
‘‘I work by myself — so I need
to have people contact and
make friends,’’ she said.
But she says her ideal job
would be copywriting for an
advertising agency.
1055570
By CONOR BYRNE
PUB:
Figures add up perfectly for cluey stunner
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M: 0448 036 492
E: [email protected]
W: anlcontainers.com.au
13 Berrimah Road BERRIMAH
Sunday, December 23, 2012. Sunday Territorian.
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