The Darwin Golf Club’s resident professional is a man on a mission. Nathan Campfield wants to put his distinctive golf course on the national map and to achieve the recognition from government and the general public “that golf is good for the Territory”.
The AAA PGA professional believes that, to generate the kind of enthusiasm that will make more Territorians take out club memberships and drive greater sponsorship from business, they must place their annual Pro Am tournament on the national tour calendar. “As a club we want to be recognised as a golfing destination,” states Campfield. “It will be a massive achievement if we can get our Pro Am as part of the national tour next year. 2011 is our goal.”
Darwin Golf Club general manager Bryan Seears agrees, and believes they have a magnificent course worthy of a national professional tournament. It is a truly tropical golf course shaded by tall Carpentaria palms and mahogany trees that provide the habitat for a wide variety of Top End native birds and reptiles.
Designed by Australian golfing legend Peter Thompson in the mid-80s, the course’s sprawling 18 holes are surrounded by the residents of the Northlakes suburb, many of whom are among the club’s 700 members. They frequent the clubhouse that houses the administration offices, the 19th hole lounge bar, a pro shop and Chinese restaurant. Outside there is a driving range and putting green. The golf course is on crown land leased to the Darwin Golf Club, operated by a board and the general manager as a not for profit organisation.
But Campfield believes there is great potential for more club members and more Territorians taking up the sport. That is why he travels the Top End to smaller clubs in Nhulunbuy, Groote Eylandt, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and suburban clubs in Palmerston, Humpty Doo, RAAF Base Darwin and Gardens Park, hosting coaching clinics and servicing their equipment needs. “Teaching is a massive side of my work,” explains Campfield. “If you’re not introducing people to the game, by showing people how to hold a club and stand properly, they’ll probably try it, find it too hard and not play again.
“It will be a massive achievement if we can get our Pro Am as part of the national tour next year. 2011 is our goal.”
Most clubs work to have a good pro that’s active to get the game to grow in their area.” The Darwin pro is also the owner of the Territory’s Drummond Golf franchise in Stuart Park. One of 50 Drummond shops across the country, the Darwin shop carries the same complement of equipment that is available in southern capitals - at nationally set prices. “If you walk into a shop in Melbourne and buy a Titleist golf ball it will cost the same in the Northern Territory,” says Campfield. “Drummond is the number one golf retailer in Australia, so to offer the members that range, and at southern capital prices, has been great for them.”
As the club pro he not only teaches but also takes fees, monitors dress regulations, operates the pro shop, and runs the weekly competitions. While members can play in competitions three days a week, Campfield is encouraging players taking up the game for the first time into Sevens Golf, an informal social competition. He sees Sevens (teams of seven can play enjoying generous handicaps for beginners) as a pathway to playing more regularly and seeing the benefits of paying for a club membership rather than paying green fees every time they play.
However, the driving ambition of the Darwin Golf Club and its resident pro is to get their Pro Am event firmly placed on the national tour. That means they need to offer more prize money to lure Australian golf pros to Darwin. Last year they offered $34 000 in prize money, but to get on the Australasian tour they will need to raise $100 000 – and that comes from sponsorship. “We want more pros to come up and compete, but we’re only going to get more if we raise the prize money to attract better golfers,” says Campfield. “We’ll get more exposure if we get the event on the Order of Merit Australasian tour, then there’s TV, and sponsors get real benefit out of being associated with the tournament.”
Judging from previous years, the Darwin Golf Club administrators believe that once the professionals make the journey to Darwin they are sold on it as a golfing destination, distinct from all others. “We want to show them that it’s a great place to come to,” says Campfield. “It’s never cold and it never rains in the Dry. If you’ve got 100 pros that have come to Darwin they’re going to tell others they went fishing, the weather was awesome, and the people were great. That’s got to be good for tourism.”
Seeing is learning
‘They say a picture tells a thousand words … our pictures speak a thousand languages’. This is the guiding idea behind isee-ilearn, an overnight success that was 18 years in the making.
From his studio in Alice Springs, isee-ilearn’s director Christopher Brocklebank has toiled on this project for almost two decades. Now, his technology is used across the country and overseas as a tool for helping people learn in any language.
The software italk transcends literacy and language barriers, making information available to users regardless of literacy levels.
The concept behind Brocklebank’s idea is simple. “As young children, we learn by using our senses - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling,” he says. “We communicate before we learn to read and write. We tell stories, sing songs, play games and draw pictures. As we learn to read and write, these other forms of communication are used less and less.”
On first arriving in the Northern Territory over 20 years ago, Brocklebank was employed as an artist-in-residence at Batchelor Institute. His first position was in Peppimenarti, 250 km south of Darwin. “I had a very clear idea then that it was all about a visual approach, and so the idea for italk was born,” he said. “It was a tool we needed to create as we travelled the spoken and written path.”
Using an innovative visual learning platform, italk presents spoken information. It can be used to deliver information to individuals, groups and communities in English or other languages, depending on the audience. “Software is about relationships,” said Brocklebank. “If you look at Google, Facebook and so on, they’re very easy to use and have a big following.” Italk is similarly easy to use. It has been used in schools to translate story books into several Indigenous languages.
A Northern Territory Research and Innovation Grant helped to develop italk. This included engaging expertise and advice covering issues such as scaling up business structures, maintaining quality during growth, registering trademarks and intellectual property.
Brocklebank has received many enquiries from overseas about italk. He has already worked with the Australia-Thailand Institute to deliver programs on sexual health, and describes the Spanish italk market as ‘huge’, with opportunities in Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.
“Italk is a new medium for communicating in a multicultural world, it is visual not textual, spoken not written, heard not read.”
But with his heart firmly planted in Central Australia, Brocklebank has made a conscious decision to focus his attention on the Northern Territory. His list of clients within the Northern Territory includes the Department of Education and Training, Department of Health and Families, Institute of Aboriginal Development and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.
Italk has been used by these and other organisations to deliver information about gambling issues, credit card management, dental health care and more.
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework E-Learning Innovations has worked with iseeilearn for the past two years within its programs. In 2009, the italk software was used to translate training material for Indigenous students working towards their Certificate I in Retail Operations, delivered in partnership with Charles Darwin University. Two digital learning resources of this course were customised for Arrernte speakers. These training materials and other italk titles are presented on CD or for free download from the internet from the italk library.
In designing the imagery for the software, Brocklebank has made use of the Central Australian environment. As a visual artist, Brocklebank has been able to draw on his creative talents for the look and feel of his software. A screenshot that at fi rst appears to be concentric circles on a black background is, on closer inspection, actually an image of a work of art created from seeds, petals and leaves found in and around Alice Springs. It is attention to detail like this that is gaining isee-ilearn a reputation for quality.
Brocklebank now employs a core team of people, including visual artists and translators, and takes on extra contractors as required. “Italk is a new medium for communicating in a multicultural world, it is visual not textual, spoken not written, heard not read.”
Each italk story is spoken in at least two languages. All these stories are held in an open-source, online library. Any title can be downloaded, swiftly spoken into your own language and then returned to the library to share with others. “With italk, isee-ilearn is really coming into its own now, because italk is all about inclusion. Every user of an italk title becomes a stakeholder. Every person who creates a title becomes a stakeholder. Every person who translates a title into his or her language becomes a stakeholder.”
Http://www.isee-ilearn.com
Paddock to plate: Going for gold
What’s not to love about the goldband snapper? It looks pretty, keeps well and tastes good.
At Ziko Ilic’s Darwin Fish Market, the attractive rosy-gold skinned fish is a strong seller. Available whole or as skin-on or skin-off fillets, the goldband snapper is “very popular”, says Ilic. “It’s because they’re very versatile. You can pan-fry the fillet, steam it or deep-fry it. My favourite is steamed with ginger, garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce - out of 10, I’d give it 9.5.”
Ilic’s supplier is Northern Seafoods Pty Ltd, whose managing director Horst Fischer is another big fan of the goldband snapper.
“For the western palate, goldband snapper would rank as one of the two or three best fish,” he says.
“It’s best cooked really simply - floured, in the frying pan, or a whole fish baked in the oven. Goldband snapper is a lot more forgiving than some other species.”
The former abalone diver and boatbuilder’s three 24m vessels, Starcat, Starfire and Starlight, bring in about 1000 tonnes of the fish a year. It takes them 24 hours to travel north to the goldband fishery, a 34 000 square kilometre patch of ocean known as the Timor Box. Once there, the crews drop lines and set traps.
“It’s a fairly selective fishery,” says Fischer. “All the fish are adult and the by catch is minimal. Goldband snapper are more than 50 per cent of the species caught.”
The fish go straight into an ice slurry, which quickly chills them to -1.5C. Most of the catch is sold to wholesalers in Brisbane and the Queensland seaboard, Sydney and Melbourne.
“Very little is sold in the NT,” says Fischer. “It’s not a huge market.”
For those who aren’t confident fish cooks, a great place to try goldband snapper is Pee Wee’s at the Point. Head chef Phil Gameson is a local boy with years of experience catching, cooking and eating goldband snapper.
“I worked on a goldband boat when I was younger, for about one and half years,” says Gameson, who has been a chef for 16 years including a stint overseas.
Now back home, he partners goldband snapper with Asian flavours to create the kind of dishes for which Pee Wees is renowned: perhaps steamed whole fish in a broth featuring coconut milk and lemongrass or fried Thai-style (see recipe).
“To me it’s one of the few species that will last well on ice and still be in prime condition,” says Gameson.
“It has firm, white flesh - it works well how ever you serve it.
“In fact, the whole snapper species - it’s just a really good tropical fish to work with. It leaves barra for dead.”
Pee Wee’s Thai fried goldband snapper with herb salad and coconut curry broth
Ingredients:
1 x 600g to 800g whole goldband snapper
150g plain flour (season well with salt and pepper)
1 x tablespoon good quality red curry paste
1 x stick of lemongrass
1 x piece of ginger
3 x cloves garlic
½ small onion
50ml fish sauce
50ml lime juice
50g palm sugar
½ teaspoon shrimp paste
Kaffir lime
½ bunch of coriander including roots
½ bunch of basil
½ bunch of chives (roughly chopped)
½ punnet cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
2 cups steamed jasmine rice to serve
500ml vegetable oil
Method:
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Combine ginger, onion, garlic, curry paste, lemongrass, fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, coriander roots and shrimp paste. Process in blender to form a paste.
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Sauté paste in a pan for 2 to 3 minutes, then add coconut milk, fish stock and kaffir lime. Bring to a boil, and simmer for one hour.
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Score fish on each side in a criss-cross motion.
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Coat fish with seasoned flour and fry using a large shallow based pan in vegetable oil for 4 to 6 minutes on each side.
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Pick herbs and combine with cherry tomatoes to make salad.
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Serve fish with broth, salad and steamed rice.
Parting shots! A logistics revolution will benefit Territory importers
Australian logistics specialist Northline started the first regular Less than Container Load (LCL) service to link north Asia with Darwin, a service welcomed by small and medium sized businesses in the Territory. On 20 May 2010, a ship left Shanghai for Hong Kong and Darwin with Northline’s first LCL shipments.
Previously, the only way to get shipments from China to Darwin has been on a Full Container Load basis, so if a business in the Territory required a spare part from Asia, the only options were to order it via east coast ports and road-freight it to Darwin or to have it air-freighted if it was urgent. Under the new practice, businesses can share containers, helping small importers. “With Darwin’s first regular LCL service from north Asia, we expect to benefit from strong demand by consolidating freight in Shanghai and Hong Kong from around the region, including northern China, Korea and Japan,” said Northline CEO Craige Whitton.
The Northline LCL service will provide deliveries to Darwin every week, backed by its long-haul freight capabilities. As well as the resource and housing construction sectors, Northline expects the LCL service to attract demand from industries including tiling supply companies, white goods retailers and automotive parts businesses.
Troppo Architects in a world first
This year’s Global Award for Sustainable Architecture was won by the Troppo Architects, established in Darwin in 1980. The first ever Australian winners, Troppo shared the prize with architects from Japan, Colombia and Canada. The prize, in its fourth year, annually honours living architects whose work has affected a regional or national move towards sustainability.
Jana Revedin, the Venice-based founder and curator of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, said that Troppo’s work fulfilled the prize’s criteria, in that it is “fully in step with the ethical, civil and social concerns of today; innovative in the areas of ecology, energy, material economy and technology; and progressive in its search for new standards in both housing and public architecture”.
New mine for Batchelor
A Territory-based mining company, HNC (Australia) Resources, has lodged an application with the Northern Territory Government to develop a copper, cobalt and nickel open pit mine near Batchelor, 100 km south of Darwin.
The application covers a site near Litchfield Park Road, eight kilometres north-west of Batchelor, and will supply ore to the existing Browns Oxide Project processing plant.
The project footprint will be about 173 ha, on four blocks of land to the north of Litchfield Park Road owned by Compass Resources, the Finniss River Land Trust, and areas of Crown land leased to Compass Resources. The proposed open pit mine will operate only during daylight hours and only during the dry season over about four years. During the dry season enough ore will be mined and stockpiled at the Browns Oxide Project to allow for processing throughout the wet season.
Next Q: Meet the locals at Banubanu in East Arnhem Land … September 10
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