RaeAllen.net

Author: Rae Allen

  • Manbulloo mangoes

    Mangoes

    One of the countries largest mango plantations was established on Manbullo station.

    The plan: to take advantage of an earlier growing season to get mangoes on supermarket shelves before the Queensland crop arrives.

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  • Wildlife on Woolner Station

    Wild buffalo

    While in the Top End I came across a number of cattle properties which were diversifying into tourism.

    One of these was Woolner Station, where the pastoralists were using off-season mustering helicopters as observation platforms.

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  • Pig-nosed turtles returned to wild

    Growing up in the bush I’ve always enjoyed doing stories on wildlife.

    In this case the story was about some unusual pig-nosed turtles, something I had never come across before.

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  • Pope John Paul II vists Alice Springs

    Pope John Paul II in Alice Springs
    Pope John Paul II in Alice Springs

    In 1986 Pope John Paul II visited Australia.

    My colleague Phil Smith got the job of covering the Pope’s visit to Darwin while I was sent to Alice Springs to cover his visit to the Centre.

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  • Kapalga research station, Kakadu

    Kapalga research station, Kakadu

    Kakadu Dunnart

    Along the western border of Kakadu National Park lies Kapalga Station, in 1986, a research facility for the CSIRO.

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  • World heritage listing of Kakadu

    Jumping crocodile – East Alligator

    While the original section of Kakadu National Park had been granted World heritage listing, it didn’t stop the 1986/87 debate over the listing of stage 2 of the park.

    Probably the most famous quote came from then Minister for Mining and Energy, Gareth Evans when he described it as “clapped out buffalo country.

    By the end of 1987 Stage 2 would be listed, and by 1993 stage 3 and therefore the entire park had been listed on the World heritage register.

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  • Bushfire research

    On 16 February 1983, more than 180 fires fanned by winds of up to 110km per hour (68 mph) caused widespread destruction across the states of Victoria and South Australia. According to Wikipedia, the fires were the deadliest in Australian history, until the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

    In Victoria, 47 people died, while in South Australia there were 28 deaths.
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  • Barramundi disease

    While I like my fishing, and in particular barramundi fishing, this was under threat in 1986 with a disease running rampant through top end fish stocks.

    The disease was call red-spot, or more accurately by the scientists, Epizootic ulcerative syndrome, and concern was raised that it may affect both commercial and amateur stocks, as well as the NT tourist industry itself.

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  • Mining in Kakadu National Park

    Jabiluka billabong

    In 1986, the Senate Standing Committee on Natural Resources came to do a personal inspection of Kakadu National Park, with the view to making a recommendation on mining in the park.

    Their recommendation saw the then Federal Cabinet decide mining could go ahead in the controversial stage 3 of Kakadu National Park.

    Gold and platinum deposits could be exploited but uranium was taken off the table.
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  • Litchfield National Park

    While I spent a lot of time in Kakadu National Park, and while Kakadu is the best known park in the Top End, I always had a soft spot for Litchfield National Park.

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