Oil flowed more freely than information

An analysis of why journalists found it so difficult to report on the West Atlas rig disaster.

ABC [read this story]

Now it’s time to find a scape goat

An analysis of the political fallout from the West Atlas rig disaster, it’s impact on the Browse Basin gasfield developments, and the size of the job faced by environment minister Peter Garrett.

The Age [read this story]

Big bang sparks media interest in oil disaster

Sara Phillips says images of the burning West Atlas rig finally got the disastrous oil spill the media and political attention it deserves.

ABC [read this story]

Why the Kimberley can’t remain a park: An interview with Jack Fletcher

Matt Brann interviews the man who owned seven Kimberley cattle stations, almost dammed the Fitzroy and created an irrigation project at Camballin which was twice the size of the present-day Ord River scheme.

ABC [read and listen]

Adverture-seeker Bear Grylls explores the Australian Outback

Dianne Butler literally “takes the piss” out of British survivalist Bear Grylls’ Kimberley adventure, due to be screened on SBS television tonight.

The Courier-Mail [read this story]

Kimberley split over LNG

by Nicholas Perpitch

The Australian [read this story]

Uranium hunt could have sour fallout

by Barry Fitzgerald and Mathew Murphy

The authors of this piece question whether there will ever be enough demand to justify mining the many low-grade uranium tenements that now exist around Australia.

The Age [read this story]

Hell road of the week – the Tanami Track

by Bob Gosford

From Crikey

Peter Garrett ‘all at sea’

“The legal advice of course also found that the Federal Government would be subject to huge costs (tens to hundreds of billions) if a full-blown no take conservation zone was established over an existing drilling operation, shutting it down. It could open the Government up to compensation for the loss of earnings of the entire earning potential of the gas or oil in the permit region.”

From the Sydney Morning Herald

[Read this story]

Talkabout: time for Aboriginal languages to go mainstream

Opinion from Tim Dick in the Sydney Morning Herald

[Read this story]

Brighter outlook in the booming west

Tony Barrass says the WA economy is on the up and tourism is booming, with Broome and Kununurra visitor centres both reporting an increase in visitor numbers since last year.

From The Australian [read on]

From the New York Times

A long discussion in the Australian about the West Atlas oil spill. How it happened, what is being done about it and why, and what its likely consequences are. A good read.

Here is an opinion piece in the Australian. I can’t do it justice because it contains a glaring inaccuracy, like a pimple on the nose of someone who is trying to tell me something important.

It repeats a “fact” – contained in an earlier Oz story – that Yakanarra school didn’t get any “Building the Education Revolution” stimulus money.

Not true.

While they were knocked back $.5million for a language lab, they did get a total of $635,600 from the same fund as reported in KimberleyPage here.

This was for two separate projects: $385,600 for a multi-purpose hall and $250,000 for school buildings.

You can read the public document here.

Barnett/Rudd alliance upsets WA Labor members
Opinion by the Australan’s Paige Taylor

The caravanning fraternity: an unflattering profile by Crikey’s Bob Gosford

An opinion piece by Chris Maher: James Price Point and Broome Chamber of Commerce “What are the Facts on Gas?” Mr Maher is a Broome shire councillor and business proprietor

The Australian on income management

Montgomery Reef: Picture and story about the proposed new gas field and impact on marine mamals

Wirrpanda says AFL ‘a clean sport, free of racial abuse’ (WCE)

Environmentalists ‘condemn Aborigines to welfare-dependancy (The Australian)

Kimberley: A haven for species not yet discovered

Browse Basin – Editorial from the Australian

Higgins misses the point: Comment by Paul Murray

James Price Point: Comment by Tony Barrass

Aboriginal art centres and white coordinators