Alice Springs

Alice Springs, Alice, The Alice, Mparntwe is the most talked about but least familiar place in Australia. It is a town of extremes and contradictions: searingly hot and bitterly cold, thousands of miles from anywhere, the heart of black Australia and the headquarters of the controversial NT Intervention. It’s seen as a place where blokes are blokes, yet the town has a high lesbian population. It is the gateway to the red centre, but few Australians have been there. Its striking landscape and modern facilities attract those looking for a desert change, yet it is a town where frontier conflicts still hold sway. Eleanor Hogan’s Alice Springs reveals the texture of everyday life in this town through the passage of the local seasons. Her story starts with the heat of uterne mpepe, a time of unrest when the extremes of central Australia are keenly felt. When the milder weather of alhwerrpe urle comes, the backdrop of poverty, substance abuse and violence becomes clearer. Then during alhwerrpe mpepe, the town comes alive with art and culture, but the harsh winter cold reveals deep divisions. Redemption seems possible with the lightness of urlpme–urlpme but then the hot winds of late spring fan the heat of uterne urle. Unflinching but rich with humour and pathos, this powerful book takes us to the mutable but enduring desert town that lies in the interior.