AustLit

'Even though we have all witnessed the whirl of frenzied media coverage of the Alice Springs crime wave, encountering the newly security-shuttered shop-fronts along the Todd Mall and surrounding business district is a shock. As one local and long-time resident observed, the place now resembles the troubled towns of western New South Wales in the early 1980s. This man, with several decades of commitment to local Aboriginal families, is himself tired of the home invasions. He has reluctantly succumbed to the inevitable and erected a security fence around his house.' (Melinda Hinkson, Jon Altman : Editorial introduction)