off road from marble bar to jupiters well and onto alice springs

Check the opening times of the community stores

thanks for the photos - the track looks awesome for a motorbike. yes licensed motorbike

"off road motorbike"
Registered, I presume?
A pile of road pics from 2008 heading E-W. A bit old, but it does not change much.

And spend a couple of days at Carawine Gorge
EDIT: pics are a bit shuffled, but you get the idea....
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

You know why it was cheaper………not through the till and straight into the operator’s pocket, it’s well known.

Fuel is very difficult to sell for black money, you cant buy a fuel delivery with cash and there is only so much you can write off to your genset.

Was speaking to a community auditor last year at Timber Creek

Unfortunately it is so common fir community stores to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

He was telling me one store was missing four hundred thousand dollars.

Managers were immediately sacked, police could do nothing until the community laid charged, which the elders refused to do.

So they got away with and and to make things even worse, seeing he had no criminal conversations, got the same job as manages at another Aboriginal community and he was powerless to act.

Makes you sick doesnt it.
Sounds like even the taxation department has their hands tied.

"Unfortunately it is so common fir community stores to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year."

What we need is an Indigenous voice in Parliament - that should fix the problem :)


Happy, safe and without stolen fuel travels

Cheers
Gazz

Gazz

That would have no effect what so ever.

After he found out that the police could take no action without a request from the elders, he went behind his department and spoke personally with the elders.

It seemed to hard for them and had no concept of what four hundred thousand dollars was. He tried to push them then got in the shit from his department.

What was the thing that really topped things off, the previous managers then get another position with a different community, and there was never ant checking with his previous employment.

He said if the public knew the true extent of what was happening, there would be a public outrage, and this was just in the Northern Territory alone and he said it was widespread right across Australian Aboriginal communities.

I also know one EO member here…..will not dob you in Chris, that came across the same situation in a community in WA, the operator wanted cash, even though they had card facilities.

"That would have no effect what so ever."

Stephen - tongue in cheek comment as I know it would not have any effect whatsoever.

Sadly this sort of thing (and much more) goes on all the time around outback Australia and don't get me started on what I've had to deal with over the years running my tour company !

Something needs to be done but a voice in Parliament is not one of them !


Cheers
Gazz

My experience tells me the elders are usually at the head of corruption in communities.
The voice will only lead to more corruption.

I have been to many communities and those running the stores would seem to me to be all crooks ripping of the communities. So many times I have been told their eftpos machine is not working, sometimes I believe them and pay cash, but if I don't believe them I say give me your bank details and I will transfer the money when I can. Have paid cash sometimes when I get something for it, like a shower or access to an area that is not normally open. We all know that sit down money is a very significant part of the problem and The Voice is only likely to make the problem worse. I have met, and even had a few beers with many aboriginal people, they are good people. Corrupt government policy is the problem.

.
Well I wouldn't know directly, but a very reliable friend who worked for many years in Community Welfare told me that the reason the community stores are managed by people from outside of the community is that if community persons managed the store there would likely be somewhat 'generous' handling of the checkouts. And furthermore, the front door would unreliably be locked.
My informant made no reference to dishonest managers.

n.b. The use of the expression "community" is a deliberate alternative.

Aboriginal culture is very noble in that they share everything. This does not fit in with western culture where what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours. Therefore it is impossible for an aboriginal to run a business within there own community. That is why the elders of a community employ an outsider to manage their business. As the elders have no way of auditing the work of these managers, they very often are ripped off. If Canberra was really interested in the welfare of our indigenous cousins they would find a solution to this problem.

thanks AJ - great vision and lots of info there
thank you