I LIVE on the edge of town, neighbours are few and you can sit outside at night and listen to the sounds of Tennant Creek. 

It’s like the sound track of an apocalyptic Hollywood horror movie shot in a war zone. 

The background noise is the frantic barking of starving dogs supported by the roar of unroadworthy cars as they hurtle around the streets. 

Sometimes there is the boom-boom of that American Crap music pronounced with a silent C. 

The highlight is the piercing screams and yells of human rage and suffering. 

Just before morning there is silence as if a wounded nocturnal beast has crawled back into its cave to rest and gather strength for the next night.   

I wonder when we came to accept this nightly chaos as normal and you have to ask – have our Community Leaders and Protectors gone deaf?

– G.D. Egan, Tennant Creek