Trouble

What is going on in the often troubled town of Alice Springs? Trouble goes into the ordered environment of the courtroom to lay out in detail some of the dark disorder in the town's recent history. Men kill their wives, kill one another in seeming senseless acts of revenge, families feud, women join the violence, children watch and learn from the sidelines. Most of the action is relayed from town and roadside camps, places that are out of sight and mind until gatherings awash with alcohol erupt in trouble that cannot be ignored. Occasionally it crosses race lines, with alcohol as the great leveller. Journalist Kieran Finnane follows the stories through witness accounts, recognizing the horror and tragedy of violent events, and the guilt or innocence of perpetrators. She draws on a 25-year practice of journalism in Alice Springs, as well as experience of its everyday life, to add fine grain to the portrait of a town and region being painfully remade. Trouble reveals the local prejudices and sensitivities, the divisions and reforms, the connections and aspirations of individuals, interacting with the justice system, the administration, in local media, in workplaces and public spaces. Finnane privileges context over commentary but does frame questions and issues, and takes the reader to some of the fresh insights of individuals, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, who have thought closely about this place and its people. A gripping account of a place and time in Australia's cultural relations.