LOSTNEARFOSSILCREEK: Abbott quadbikes through the Red Centre
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This week Tony Abbott spent the best part of a day and a night stranded in the desert wastelands of Kings Creek Station — five hours drive south-west from Alice Springs and in a region widely regarded as “busted-arse cattle country”. For a few hours Abbott had not a clue where he was, with no fuel, no water, no backup, no grog, no maps, a useless satellite phone and with a bunch of journalists — the last people you’d want to be stranded out here with — for company. As Rudd and Roxon rolled out their hospital reform plan, Abbott has spent the week — he will be back in Canberra today — swanning around central Australia having what looks very much like a holiday, in political terms at least. It’s hard to see what buck Abbott was trying to get a bang out of while he was here. He didn’t make any policy announcements or push any local or national political buttons. Abbott spent Monday annoying some poor blackfellas living under rusty tin in one of the town camps scattered around Alice Springs and blew up a few vapid and ill-informed “thought bubbles” on indigenous affairs policy. Abbott then went out to Ian Conway’s Kings Creek station to ride around on quad bikes, cast his eye over a few feral camels and shorthorn cattle, feed a few crumbs to the selected media chooks and, well, get “lost”. Yesterday was spent talking to some blokes who used to shoot camels. As Paul Toohey notes in today’s Herald Sun, on Tuesday this week Abbott:
Over at the Sydney Morning Herald Abbott at least scores an online front-page link (“Up Fossil Creek without a clue”) with a picture of him eating a grub. Mark Davis reflected:
Abbott and his grub (“tastes like a gritty oyster”) also get a run in The Australian, where the only point of significance that Tom Dusevic can extract from Abbott’s trip is that Abbott “declared”:
Walter Shaw is President of Tangentyere Council that provides services to the town camps in Alice Springs. Shaw told Crikey he didn’t know why Abbott bothered to come to Alice Springs. “Tony Abbott barged into Hoppy’s Camp the other day with a huge media contingent and without invitation or even the courtesy of telling people there that he was coming,” he said. “This was just rude and disrespectful. He should have come and sat down to talk with us about the good work we do here and not just take cheap shots in the media. His comments about conditions in the town camps weren’t based on the facts. “ Crikey couldn’t contact Hubert Pareroultja (his correct name) before going to press but did speak to a friend of his who said that Hubert’s response to the theme that Abbott and the party was “lost” was that it was “bullshit!”. What’s more, Hubert and the other traditional owners identified by the media had foot-walked and ridden that country on camels for decades — and would have known where they were at all times.
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26 Comments
A Quad With No Name (apologies to “America”)
On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were drugs and turds
and rocks and things.
There was sand and hills and rings.
The first thing I met was The Joe with a buzz
and The Julie with no clouds.
The heat was hot
and the Erica was dry
but The Barnaby was full of sound.
I’ve been through the desert
on a Quad with no name
It felt good to look for a brain
In the desert,
you can’t remember your name
’cause there ain’t noone
for to give you no Pyne.
(Barnaby’s bit…)
La la… la lalala la lala la… la.. la.
la la… la lalala la lala la… la.. la.
After two hours in the desert sun
my skin began to turn red.
After three hours in the desert sun
I was looking at a hospital bed.
And the story it told of a promise that flowed
made me sad to think I was dead.
After four hours, I let the quad run free
’cause the desert had turned to sea.
There were drugs and turds
and rocks and things.
There was sand and hills and rings.
The media is a desert
with its life underground
and a perfect disguise above.
Under the city
lies a heart made of ground
but the voters will give no love.
ha ha.
But the big media narrative is that he was lost. They lied but it’s still the story.
Guiseppe de Lampedusa wrote about this phenomenon in a book that changed my life called The Leopard, some argue one of the greatest novels of the 20C. The part about facts being glossed and stretched, and torn and flipped and all manner of perverted manipulations in the eye of the beholder. Until it simply doesn’t exist if ever it were true.
Have they never heard of land literacy? The TO’s would never have got lost. The biggest fact of course in the whole story was that THE MEDIA were lost. But they are implicitly always in control and it wouldn’t do to report that.
Did one of them take a compass - I know I did navigating Melbourne CBD over the holiday break.
The media beat-up of Abbott’s junket turned my stomach, I must admit. And, it’s the Centre, not the Top End. And these areas are “dry” - so no beer (or red wine) for you Mr Abbott. What a waste of time, money, and media attention. Just a bit of political tourism. Yawn.
Lost?? If Abbott expects that cock and bull story to be swallowed he will need to come up with a better scenario than the rubbish that has been published in some media. If he expected it to dampen the Govts Health plan announcement, he was wrong. Then comes the question of honesty? Sounds like the indiginous folk dont wear the story, who better to know? Once again Abotts judgement appears to be at odds with what is expected of a would be PM.
Can this guy be the man that is building support with the great Aussie public for the Liberals?
Is he really the kind of man we need leading Australia - who apparently charges of without a plan, without directions, without a map and without a freaking clue where he was or is going! Apparently did not even take the precaution to have one person in the group trained to use a Sat phone which might well have been the only mode of communication - Just a perfect!
Clearly a prudent adventurer! Just what’s needed.
Maybe he’s generally a no “precuations” kind of guy - and not just because of his catholicism.
He’s preferred to Malcolm? - jeez it’s enough to make you wonder about the voting public!
Thank goodness he’s still just the opposition leader - we still have a chance!
Bob, have you been accompanying the media on any part of this trip or is your article based soleley on second hand rumour and cutting and pasting other news sources?
Roald Amundsen said that adventure was the result of poor planning……
Cybercynic just cracked me up with the poem - no-one has asked what they were going to do with the Pituri when they found it. Maybe Abbott et al were searching for more than a natural high out there?
And thanks to Tom for the reminder that I have to read Guiseppe de Lampedusa’s book.
JBG - The media selection for Abbott’s grubfest out bush was very tight - no photographers etc. And since when was comment on, and necessary reference to, what others have written somehow wrong as you seem to be implying?
Bob … just for you
Ex Policeman’s Peter Dutton, showing his mastery of the health portfolio, writes up Tone’s Big Trip as a response to the the Health Funding Initiative..
Apologies to the Mindless Drug Hoovers ………… (no really that’s their name)
One sunny day Tony was riding his bike and smoking a pitchuri’ cause thats what he likes,
A policeman stopped and and he began to stare and he said,
“Hey Tony what you smokin there?”
Tone said…
“its a pitchuri do you want some policeman,
its a pitchuri do you want a blast,
its a pitchuri do you want some policeman,
or would u prefer me to shove it up your ………………portfolio?”
The Opposition Leader’s manic journey as a modern day Hubert Opperman, Mark Spitz, Tarzan and Crocodile Dundee has a Walter Mitty touch. Of course no one can figure why the guy landed up in Alice Springs - he probably can’t either.
Pitchuri is chewed, not smoked and it comes from about 1500kms NE, in NW Qld.
Unless someone’s been doing a little propagating, there would be none growing within a quad fart of the MM’s excellent day out.
AR, sorry but I am doubtful about your claim of a distribution for Pitchuri as being restricted to N-W Qld.
There are plenty of references to harvesting and use of wild tobacco through the south of the NT and north-eastern SA and there are old records of extensive trade routes (for Pitchuri, ochre etc) from the north-east of SA through Queensland as far as the Gulf coast.
And as for around Alice Springs, the following is from the “Eastern & Central Arrernte Dictionary (IAD, 1994): (1) - Pirterre; Pirtwerre; Pitwerre - a type of wild tobacco. [the Arrernte narrative is too long for present purposes] (2) Ingkwelpe; Ingkwerlpe - A general name fr various types of native tobacco or wild tobacco plant; Pituri, pitchery (Nicotiana spp). [again further Arrernte narrative references follow]
And I recall that perhaps Dick Kimber or someone else more familiar with these things in this part of the world has posited the notion that there has been a form of cultivation of Pitchuri by locals over historical time.
Certainly I am aware that the Pitchuri that grew in certain places and habitats was particularly well-regarded and that ownership and rights to forage were vigorously asserted in relation to those plants and places.
“Can this guy be the man that is building support with the great Aussie public for the Liberals?
Is he really the kind of man we need leading Australia - who apparently charges of without a plan, without directions, without a map and without a freaking clue where he was or is going! Apparently did not even take the precaution to have one person in the group trained to use a Sat phone which might well have been the only mode of communication - Just a perfect!”
Seriously mate. Only someone on the extreme left could somehow relate this story to Abbott being a bad leader. Get a life !
Tone practicing his inner Harold Holt?
And as the gutless Kerry O’Brien now sees fit to support his Catholic mate Abbott, not an interview with him in 2 weeks , it appears the orders have come from on high, the faithful will band together to try and get the holier than thou (on the surface ) Abbott elected and allow the roman church to push its right wing dictates into the corridors of Govt ,as of old. What a feather in the cap for Pell to take to his German master in Rome. Perhaps he and Abbott see themselves as twin saints …YUK!!!!
Incidentally the ABC anti Govt line has now gone down through the ranks to the lowly drive time jocks in the regions. one was heard to explain to his audience this pm, they should be very aware of Rudds agenda to raise taxes ‘accross the board’, whatever that means. Along with the anti Govt line being persued by Radio Nationals Fran Kelly and the entire ABC News Radio lot, there is obviously a direction of, its open slather on the Govt. Amazing, given that Labor has always been a more caring Govt re the ABC.
Rudd has a hard road ahead with almost all the general media now gunning for him and the Govt.
Its time the non catholics in this country realised what is happening.
As a PS to my last entry…tonight a change to the 7-30 reports opening video, 2/3rds showing Abbott… Rudd not to be seen…O’Brien had headlined the programme in a trailer grab pre 7-30 as the lead item the Govts health plan…ok would we see the Health Minister interviewed, perhaps the PM, even spare us the pain, the sad sack Dutton…oh no, what do we get? a 6 minute package showing a couple of health administrators who are unhappy with the Govts overall plan…2 days and the ABC on its premier current affairs programme, has not interviewed either the Minister, the Ministers 2IC, noone from the Govt…..it is plainly evident the ABC has a pact to show Rudd and the Govt up in the worst possible light. OBrien has got his toffee nose Catholic nose out of joint and has run to mother church to embrace the teachings according to a loser seminary dropout and a Bishop who did nothing for years about abusive catholic priests and brothers. He is welcome to that lot.
I particularly enjoyed the shot of the Mad Monk pushing a diabetic Aboriginal woman in a wheelchair whilst harping on about Rudd getting health right when the god bothering bible thumper had 4yrs in the portfolio and did what jesus really did with the loaves and fishes -Sweet F..k All!
David, you’re just as extreme as MPM (whose absence on this blog is noted). It would be real fun to see you and her/him engaging in logical discourse. Why do the extreme Left and Right take life so seriously? C’mon folks, lighten-up…lots of people in the world don’t even know when they’re having their next meal!
Just read Shanahanananananan piece on “…Abbott needs to stay on his toes”.
This suggest that the reason for “Big Trip” to Central Australia was:
A. To find a Native cure for UMMMMing and ARRRRRing
B. To find a Native cure for Barnaby’s Financial Flatulance
C. To keep his part of the Bargain with Murdoch and, as such, replenish the Shanahan/Milne Newspoll interperatives.
@ Tomboy…perhaps you would care to dispute my comments, instead of a not so neat sidestep….
I was telling a friend about this story, and the guides going off to look for this plant etc,
and her reply was, ” what? they went walkabout?”,
which, although no doubt , politically incorrect,
did strike me as
A) funny and
B) unmentioned so far.
Anyway,Rudd would have been curled up in a ball crying his eyes out, if it a happened to him.
I like TA idea about people being able to use the land they “own” , More use than “sorry”.
Bananaprincess mumbled:
Oh grow up would you. This is a blog for mature adults, not Liberal juveniles.
Perhaps you should stick to fantasising about Abbott getting into power and making your kids’ working lives a living hell with ‘Worse Than WorkChoices’.
Yeh, keep the Liberal dream alive, ‘princess’ - for their sake! {irony}
What Cuppa said. Bananaprincess should remember that Kevin Rudd traveled the Kokoda track with Joe Hockey. I don’t know how hard the place is these days, but you probably need better bushcraft skills than those displayed by Abbott.
When abbott texted we are lost, he has just woken up to the fact that, the liberals are lost, and he is the opposition’s leader.
BUM! So he wasn’t lost in Fossil Creek? I thought that was a very appropriate place for the Abbs to ..er, get lost, and stay lost.
Ah well! Such are the fantasies of life. I like the bit about the Pitchthingy though!
Mamagee had a tin with little pots and ladles-, she would ladle various coloured (OMG THAT word again!), ‘ointments’ onto the back of her hand, and lick them off. It always put her in the most affable frame of mind.
She’d finish with a mouthful of Betel nut, which she would chew for a good whiley, and then spit it into the fire, which gave out a loud sizzle of protest! What a sweetie she was…., until the stuff wore off!
I thing it would be a spiffy idea to force feed Abcess some pitchstuff,- he might then have been miraculously found, all laid back and super cool!
Stretch a point.
JBG
Posted Thursday, 4 March 2010 at 2:46 pm
“Bob, have you been accompanying the media on any part of this trip or is your article based soleley on second hand rumour and cutting and pasting other news sources?”
Does this mean that only people who were at a function, gathering, media conference etc can have an opinion, let alone write an article? Our fearless media in action????
In that case, were you there? How do you know that this article is based on “second hand rumour”? Does that mean, that in future you won’t comment on a story unless you’re personally involved?
BANANAPRINCESS - Re Kevin Rudd & joe Hockey walking the Kokoda Track? Sadly, 2 people died last year during this very thing. One was a young woman in her late 30’s with children; the other a 60? yr old male if my memory is correct! Very sad indeed!
Hardly a stroll in the park! Therese Rein & their(Rudd’s) son climbed some amazing mountain a few months ago!
I think Abbott had a damned cheek going to any aboriginal community, after the horrors the Howard govt imposed on them via the military and police invasion and the quarantining of all peoples’ centrelink payments? Haven’t heard him defending the large number of indigenous people protesting re the proposed site for dumping the waste from Lucas Heights(makes up 90% of nuclear waste?)
Pity he isn’t still there, wandering around! How damned stupid! Gee, kids would be better prepared/organised than that? I was damned cranky that a real newsworthy story couldn’t be on the News and 7.30 Report due to time wasted on his antics?