Darwin has been rattled by five earth tremors in the last 18 hours, all of them centred around 650km to our northwest in the Banda Sea. The biggest registered 6.2. I didn't notice any of them.
In other breaking news:
The NorthernTerritory is the most dangerous and least educated place in the country.
Apparently we have the country's highest rate of:
murder
family violence
victims of crime
road death
drink driving
assault
robbery
break-ins
physical assault in public
household crime and
people not wearing a seatbelt.
That should bring the tourists in. That and the crocodile in the Jingili Water Gardens.
Adelaide institution retires
Big news in the Aussie cartooning world. Long-serving Adelaide Advertiser cartoonist Michael Atchison has retired.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23109461-2682,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23109461-2682,00.html
Something I'm looking forward to
One from 2005. This is something else that hasn't happened yet. I wish they'd hurry up about it. I'm still trying to decipher the last report card the apprentice brought home.
In the can
One from a few years back. I could have republished it for today's paper. The Territory's Country Liberal Party has a new leader after Jodeen Carney was rolled by Terry Mills, sort of. After a tied vote (there are only four of them) Carney decided to call it quits, despite claiming she was still the best person for the job. This will be Mills' second go at the opposition leader's gig. He stood down in favour of Denis Burke three years ago after CLP polling suggested they'd be annihilated at the next election. It didn't help. They were annihilated at the next election anyway.
Hooray!
Around 40 000 kids return to school across the Territory today. And not a moment too soon. As much as I enjoy the company of my apprentice, enjoying his company for six whole weeks is more enjoyment than I can handle. Something needs to be done.
Flight plan
A survey of domestic flights in and out of Darwin has revealed most of them are late, which is something I already suspected.
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Turned on
Apart from the obvious problem with having a TV in your bedroom, it is also bad for the feng shui thing too. So I've been told.
Deja vu
No, this is not this week's Tombstone Territory...but it could be. This one's from March 2001. Seems Australia was having a bad week back then too.
Click for a big one. Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
'Alienz' turns 2
ALIENZ has lasted two years! That's a record as far as any comic strips I've created go. The strip appears weekly in Australia's People magazine.
Completely armless
Last week's funny one. Darwin's dangerous dog debate doesn't die down, darnit.
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
A photograph
Kuta Beach, Bali, night before last. Apparently this was the first sunset anybody had seen for months, thanks to bad weather, so I guess it was a photograph worth getting.
Leg up
Following a recent spate of vicious dog attacks in Darwin - mostly on kids - authorities are promising to crack down on 'dangerous' dogs like Pitbulls. It's not something we haven't heard before. This cartoon from 2001 is on exactly the same theme.
Lawn order
Another old favourite. One of the downsides to a Top End wet season is how fast the damned grass grows.
Spots on
Another old one from a decade or so ago. Nothing much has changed in the fashion department around here since.
Birthday suit
It's official! Mrs W and I are reasonably okay at being parents. As of today, we've managed to keep the apprentice alive for six whole years without too many dramas. Except for that radioactive spider bite.Happy birthday, mate.
Extra large floods
It's almost 10 years since the disastrous Australia Day floods devastated the Territory town of Katherine, 300km south of Darwin. To commemorate the anniversary the NT branch of the Australia Day Council is auctioning a mint-condition Katherine Floods Tshirt, designed by yours truly, on ebay.The shirt was signed by performers at The Big Wet benefit concert held in May 1998: Slim Dusty, Neil Murray, Chris Cheney from The Living End, Shane O'Mara from Rebeccas Empire and a host of local acts. All proceeds from the ebay auction will go to the Katherine Town Council to fund an annual secondary school student's prize.
Check it out here. The auction wraps up on January 24.
The Katherine floods have been described as a one-in-five hundred year event. The flow of water at Katherine would have been capable of:
- filling an empty Sydney Harbour in as little as 9 hours
- filling an empty Manton Dam in as little as 15 minutes
- filling 10 Olympic swimming pools in about 1 second
That's a lot of water.
Dog gone
My take on Darwin's now-infamous exploding dog.
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't blow it up.
The truth is way out there
Last week's funny one. Nutty American UFO types have claimed ancient astronauts landed at Uluru in the NT and created the human race while they were there. The ufologists have also claimed three 'triangular' structures in nearby desert may not be natural. Spooky, eh?
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Storm story
Apart from the odd cyclone, the Top End also cops some fairly intense wet season electrical storms. We had one on Saturday night that dumped 242mm of rain on the city. The airport also measured 2034 lightning strikes during the four-hour deluge. Roads were cut, power went out, the airport was shut down, some homes in low-lying areas were flooded and a direct lightning strike at Channel 9 turned a newsreader green:
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Mating season
As you'd imagine, working as a cartoonist in the Territory for the last 20 years has required sinking my teeth into quite a few crocodile cartoons. It's the only way to get ahead.
Off and on
Darwin still seems to be having a few power problems following Cyclone Helen. This old cartoon from 1999 is not based on any actual event or persons. I'd be in big trouble if it was. Heh heh.
Outback hazard
I haven't published a book since 1998, which means I've got ten years worth of material to sort through for the new one. There are thousands of cartoons that won't make the cut, like this one. So I'll post a few of them here instead.
I used to be funnier
One from the late 90s - pre-September 11 - when Afghanistan's ruling Taliban was seen as a slightly loopy regime by the rest of the world, attested to by the fact it insisted all its army recruits grow full beards.
Last week's funny one
Like all newbie federal politicians, recently-elected ALP Member for Solomon Damian Hale will go through a parliamentary training program. The new members will be taught the finer points of parliamentary language and how to behave themselves. No doubt they'll also be shown where the toilets are.
Cartoon copyright © Northern Territory News. Please don't pinch it.
Still here
Cyclone Helen crossed the Territory coast as a category 2 system around 100km south of Darwin around 11 last night. Things got a little blustery around our way from around one in the morning. We lost power at three. The main casualties of the storm appear to have been trees and powerlines, with eight or so of Darwin's main feeder lines getting knocked out at one point or another. The all-clear was given by authorities after eight this morning. Our power was restored just after lunch today, which is a pretty good effort. Above is a pic of a downed tree outside our neighbour's place across the road. There are a few more up and down the street but our garden survived relatively unscathed and we suffered no damage at all, apart from not getting any sleep.
Helen, meanwhile, is now a tropical low southeast of Jabiru, churning east towards the Gulf of Carpentaria and away from us. It could reform once it gets there, and it's expected to keep going and wander off to bother Queensland.
Cyclone warning
A Cyclone Warning is now current for coastal and island communities from Mitchell Plateau in WA to Cape Hotham in the NT, including Darwin.
At 6:30 this morning the misbehaving tropical low was around 380 kilometres west southwest of Darwin and moving north at 10 kilometres per hour. It may develop into a cyclone later this morning. If it does it'll be called Helen. (I read somewhere once that the practice of naming cyclones was started by a QLD weatherman who named them after politicians he didn't like. It'd certainly be more fun if we'd stuck to that.)
Helen, if she develops, is likely to move eastward during today toward the Top End. The latest track map has her crossing the coast north of Daly River Mouth, south of Darwin, as a Category 1 system overnight.
Keep an eye on things here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nt/
11:30am Update: At 9:30 this morning category 1 Cyclone Helen was located in the Timor Sea around 320 kilometres west southwest of Darwin and moving northeast at 16 kilometres per hour. The cyclone is expected to cross the coast between Darwin and Port Keats tonight or early tomorrow. Depending on how long it takes to get here, there's a possibility Helen could kick up into a 2 as it approaches the coast.
In Darwin right now we're experiencing some squally showers and a bit of blowy stuff. We've had one blackout so far. We can probably expect some more. Gale force winds could start reaching us this evening.
We're pretty much set at our place. Our shelter's organised and the apprentice is tied up. Ha ha. Just kidding.
The 11:00am track map:
3:00pm Update: Pretty much just a matter of sitting around waiting to see which way the wind blows now, at least where we're concerned. We've done all the stuff you're supposed to do during a warning - double-check our cyclone kit, secure loose stuff around the yard, pack away outdoor furniture, put the cat in the wheelie bin etc etc.
The latest advice has Helen crossing the coast as a category 2 storm around midnight tonight, if it does what it's supposed to do. It's picked up a little speed over the last couple of hours which is good in a way; the less time it spends over water the less time there is for it to intensify more.
I was kidding about the cat, by the way.
A decent wrap-up of the latest news here: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/top-end-residents-brace-for-flooding-winds/8210
Darwin weather radar at 3:45pm:
Bit of rain about.
5:00pm Update: Cyclone Helen is expected to intensify in the next 6 hours before crossing the NT coast as a category 2 storm between Darwin and Daly River Mouth tonight or early tomorrow morning. Here in Darwin we could be in for gales with gusts upto 100kph from 9 or 10 tonight. Meanwhile, public cyclone shelters across the city will be open for business from 6 o'clock. We'll be sitting it out at home.
8:00pm: Helen is now a category 2 cyclone and is currently steaming east towards the Territory coast. It'll make landfall near Daly River Mouth, to the south of Darwin, in the next few hours. Some coastal communities are already experiencing gale force winds, which will extend north to Darwin a bit later on tonight. The bureau says we'll be putting up with them for six to 12 hours.
Cyclone Helen is now pretty well-defined on the bureau's radar. Go to http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nt/ and click on the Darwin radar link. The 256km loop is the one to watch. 
At 6:30 this morning the misbehaving tropical low was around 380 kilometres west southwest of Darwin and moving north at 10 kilometres per hour. It may develop into a cyclone later this morning. If it does it'll be called Helen. (I read somewhere once that the practice of naming cyclones was started by a QLD weatherman who named them after politicians he didn't like. It'd certainly be more fun if we'd stuck to that.)
Helen, if she develops, is likely to move eastward during today toward the Top End. The latest track map has her crossing the coast north of Daly River Mouth, south of Darwin, as a Category 1 system overnight.
Keep an eye on things here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nt/
11:30am Update: At 9:30 this morning category 1 Cyclone Helen was located in the Timor Sea around 320 kilometres west southwest of Darwin and moving northeast at 16 kilometres per hour. The cyclone is expected to cross the coast between Darwin and Port Keats tonight or early tomorrow. Depending on how long it takes to get here, there's a possibility Helen could kick up into a 2 as it approaches the coast.
In Darwin right now we're experiencing some squally showers and a bit of blowy stuff. We've had one blackout so far. We can probably expect some more. Gale force winds could start reaching us this evening.
We're pretty much set at our place. Our shelter's organised and the apprentice is tied up. Ha ha. Just kidding.
The 11:00am track map:
3:00pm Update: Pretty much just a matter of sitting around waiting to see which way the wind blows now, at least where we're concerned. We've done all the stuff you're supposed to do during a warning - double-check our cyclone kit, secure loose stuff around the yard, pack away outdoor furniture, put the cat in the wheelie bin etc etc.
The latest advice has Helen crossing the coast as a category 2 storm around midnight tonight, if it does what it's supposed to do. It's picked up a little speed over the last couple of hours which is good in a way; the less time it spends over water the less time there is for it to intensify more.
I was kidding about the cat, by the way.
A decent wrap-up of the latest news here: http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/top-end-residents-brace-for-flooding-winds/8210
Darwin weather radar at 3:45pm:
Bit of rain about.
5:00pm Update: Cyclone Helen is expected to intensify in the next 6 hours before crossing the NT coast as a category 2 storm between Darwin and Daly River Mouth tonight or early tomorrow morning. Here in Darwin we could be in for gales with gusts upto 100kph from 9 or 10 tonight. Meanwhile, public cyclone shelters across the city will be open for business from 6 o'clock. We'll be sitting it out at home.
8:00pm: Helen is now a category 2 cyclone and is currently steaming east towards the Territory coast. It'll make landfall near Daly River Mouth, to the south of Darwin, in the next few hours. Some coastal communities are already experiencing gale force winds, which will extend north to Darwin a bit later on tonight. The bureau says we'll be putting up with them for six to 12 hours.
Cyclone Helen is now pretty well-defined on the bureau's radar. Go to http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nt/ and click on the Darwin radar link. The 256km loop is the one to watch.
Hot dogs
Here is a little known but nonetheless completely startling fact about frozen dogs:
An overheating chimney sparked an alert at a Darwin pet crematorium last night. Three fire trucks and a police car investigated a reported 'red glow' coming from the chimney flue. The proprietor later revealed that a frozen dead dog in the furnace was the cause of the overheating chimney, as frozen dogs sometimes explode when cremated!
He was probably named 'Sparky'. Heh heh.
via ABC News Online
Update: The Northern Territory Government is confident it will not have any problems building a housing estate across the road from a crematorium in Darwin where a dead dog exploded on Wednesday night.
Cyclone watch
A misbehaving low pressure system may form into a cyclone southwest of Darwin as early as tonight. All week the bureau has been predicting the system would head east and develop in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Instead it's headed west into the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Oh well.
Anyway, a cyclone warning has been declared for the coast from Daly River Mouth and across the top bit of WA. A cyclone watch has also been declared from Daly River Mouth to Goulburn Island, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands.
Keep an eye on the action here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nt/
Update: The 2pm Cyclone Forecast Track Map issued by the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre Darwin.
The grey area denotes the possible range of tracks. The dark orange area is the Cyclone Warning zone, while the lighter orange bit shows the Cyclone Watch area. The maps are issued every three hours, along with the updated Tropical Cyclone Advice, until the threat has passed. You can find both by following the link above.
Update: From the 5pm advice.
At 3.30 this afternoon the low was 365 kilometres west southwest of Darwin. It is expected to become slow moving, and possibly be upgraded into a cyclone tonight or tomorrow morning. It's then expected to start moving eastward, back toward the Top End.
If the system takes a more northeast track, gales could possibly affect coastal and island communities between Daly River Mouth and Goulburn Island, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands late on Friday or sometime Saturday.
Anyway, a cyclone warning has been declared for the coast from Daly River Mouth and across the top bit of WA. A cyclone watch has also been declared from Daly River Mouth to Goulburn Island, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands.
Keep an eye on the action here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nt/
Update: The 2pm Cyclone Forecast Track Map issued by the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre Darwin.
The grey area denotes the possible range of tracks. The dark orange area is the Cyclone Warning zone, while the lighter orange bit shows the Cyclone Watch area. The maps are issued every three hours, along with the updated Tropical Cyclone Advice, until the threat has passed. You can find both by following the link above.
Update: From the 5pm advice.
At 3.30 this afternoon the low was 365 kilometres west southwest of Darwin. It is expected to become slow moving, and possibly be upgraded into a cyclone tonight or tomorrow morning. It's then expected to start moving eastward, back toward the Top End.
If the system takes a more northeast track, gales could possibly affect coastal and island communities between Daly River Mouth and Goulburn Island, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands late on Friday or sometime Saturday.
Icecup rage
The trouble with having an apprentice who is five is that they often insist on manufacturing their own 'special holiday treats'. Yesterday, for example, he manufactured his very own chocolate cookies. Even the strictest form of adult supervision did not prevent them attaining the final appearance of poos ejected from some miniature marsupial with quite a problem. Plus there is some secret ingredient, possibly glue, that makes them really, really stick to the roof of your mouth when you eat them.
So the apprentice was forced to move on to plan B, which was the manufacture of icecups. This involves red cordial and a plastic cup and a freezer. A simple plan. And icecups are simple to operate. You gently squeeze the base of the plastic cup, popping the ice upwards so you can get at it.
Now anyone who's read this blog for a while will know I'm working on a new book. I have stuff spread out everywhere. The apprentice, bless him, chose to operate an icecup right next to my stuff. He sometimes does not know his own strength, for he applied a little too much pressure to the base of the cup and a large chunk of pink ice shot out, flew across the room and landed with a splat all over some of my best cartoons. They are slightly totally ruined.
So, the making of 'special holiday treats' has henceforth been banned until the apprentice - who is still alive - is in his mid to late 20s. And in future, he will operate his icecups outside. And I don't care if there's a monsoon on or not.
So the apprentice was forced to move on to plan B, which was the manufacture of icecups. This involves red cordial and a plastic cup and a freezer. A simple plan. And icecups are simple to operate. You gently squeeze the base of the plastic cup, popping the ice upwards so you can get at it.
Now anyone who's read this blog for a while will know I'm working on a new book. I have stuff spread out everywhere. The apprentice, bless him, chose to operate an icecup right next to my stuff. He sometimes does not know his own strength, for he applied a little too much pressure to the base of the cup and a large chunk of pink ice shot out, flew across the room and landed with a splat all over some of my best cartoons. They are slightly totally ruined.
So, the making of 'special holiday treats' has henceforth been banned until the apprentice - who is still alive - is in his mid to late 20s. And in future, he will operate his icecups outside. And I don't care if there's a monsoon on or not.
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