2 — Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, January 28, 2014

EntréeChicken Spring Roll

Fried Dim Sim

Chicken Vegetable Soup

SPECIAL CHINESE NEW YEAR BANQUET

MainSeafood Combination Vegetables

Deep Fried lemon Chicken

Mongolian Beef

Special Fried Rice

DessertFruit Salad with Ice Cream or Topping Chocolate

Strawberry Ice Cream

42 Hartley Street (08) 89530747 - (08) 89523873

CHINESE LION DANCESaturday 1/2/14 at 8.00pm

SPECIALFRI-SAT-SUN

BOOKING

Banquet $35 per Head

(Minimum of 4 people)

NEWS

High hopesfor the yearALICE Springs TownCouncil is set to resumetonight with the first ordi-nary meeting of the year.

Council meetings are gen-erally held on a Mondaynight, however this meetingmoved because of yester-day’s Australia Day publicholiday.

Mayor Damien Ryan saidan effective and smart bud-get hand down would be apriority in the council’s firstfew weeks.

He said a particular inter-est would be placed on themaintenance of the AliceSprings Aquatic andLeisure Centre, the PublicLibrary and the WasteManagement Facility.

Mr Ryan said he had highhopes for the new year andsaid the council would con-tinue to support and providefor many community andsporting events throughoutthe year.

A public forum will be heldat 5.30pm to provide thecommunity with an oppor-tunity to ask informal ques-tions to be answered by theMayor and councillors.

The official council meet-ing will follow, starting at6pm at the Council Cham-bers on Todd St, AliceSprings. For more informat-ion phone 8950 0500.

BoostingteachersPROVIDING incentives forthe nation’s best teachers torelocate to remote Australiaand changing rules thatmake it attractive to stay onwelfare in order to receivecheaper housing were somerecommendations Rio Tintomade to the Prime MinisterTony Abbott.

Rio’s Australian Manag-ing Director David Peever,who has been appointed tothe Prime Minister’s Indi-genous Advisory Council,has written to the indigen-ous jobs review headed bymining magnate AndrewForrest to present a blue-print for change.

‘‘There is currently an ur-gent need for governmentto pursue strategies to at-tract and retain high per-forming and experiencedteaching staff and schooladministrators to remote in-digenous teaching locations.These staff should be pro-vided appropriate resourcesto pilot and deliver innovat-ive and culturally appropri-ate teaching programs,’’ MrPeever wrote.

Snail-like response to callby police fails to impressPOLICE REPORTER

Jessica Brown

Rex Neindorf says he was set upon by a man while trying to stop him assaulting a woman near his businessPicture: CHARLIE LOWSON

‘This was also a

life-threatening

incident

’

POLICE response times toemergency calls have beenquestioned after an AliceSprings resident waitedmore than half an hour toreceive assistance.

Rex Neindorf called policeat 11.10pm on Monday lastweek while he was workingat the Alice Springs ReptileCentre, after hearing a loudnoise against a fence.

He made another threecalls to police before theyarrived at 11.45pm - 35 min-utes after the initial call.

‘‘I heard something smashagainst one of our outsidefences so I immediately ranoutside to see what wasgoing on,’’ Mr Neindorf said.

There he said he saw aman ‘‘smashing’’ a womaninto the fence while anotherwoman watched.

‘‘I intervened and said‘Stop it and get off the hill,it’s a sacred site, you’re notallowed to be here’ (and) ‘I’mgoing to call the cops’.’’

Mr Neindorf said the manswore at him and threaten-ed: ‘‘I’m going to properstone you . . . and put you inICU for the rest of your life’’.

‘‘Then he proceeded topick up big rocks and hurlthem at me,’’ he said.

‘‘The first one missed meby about a millimetre be-cause I was very close to himand then the rest fellaround me.

‘‘I rang the cops at 11.10pmand I told them that I’d hadmy life threatened and thatthere was a lady beingsmashed to pieces.

‘‘Then after a few minutesthere was no cop car coming- the cop shop is two minutesdown the street from me -and then I rang up at11.19pm, then 11.26pm, andthen I rang up at 11.45pm.

‘‘When I was on the phone

the last time, a cop carfinally pulled up.

‘‘So from 11.10pm to11.45pm, that’s how long ittook them to get there.

‘‘Their excuse (was that)they were attending someother incident with a guywith a knife, but there’sbucket loads of cops around- you can’t have them alltied up.

‘‘This was also a life-threatening incident and infact, I had the secondwoman threaten my life aswell.

‘‘She said she was going toget her family and bringthem over.

‘‘By the time they gotthere, the guy had gone sothey didn’t find him.’’

Mr Neindorf told the

Centralian Advocate he wasvery disappointed with thepolice response as well as alack of proper equipment tosearch the area.

A family business thathad one of its utility vehiclesstolen, dumped and torchedearlier this month also ex-pressed disappointmentwith emergency responseafter they waited an hour

and a half for fire crews toarrive and douse the flames.

But a police officer laterinformed the family that allemergency calls were re-ceived, there just weren’tenough units available tosend to the scene becausethey were busy at the timeof the initial call.

The police media unit isyet to respond with com-ment on the issue.

Victorians offered RedCentre weekend tripsTOURISM REPORTER

Jessica Brown

A THREE-HOUR directflight from Melbourne toUluru will enable Victoriansin need of a short holiday toeasily escape from the bigcity to Australia’s quiet RedCentre.

The return service, whichd e p a r t s M e l b o u r n e ’ sTullamarine airport at 9amon Fridays and departsAyers Rock airport at 3pmon Sundays, is being pro-moted as the ideal Outbackrelaxation and rejuvenatingpackage for Victorians.

It will run every weekendfor an initial 13-week

season, finishing the last

weekend in June.

Executive general man-ager of sales, marketing anddistribution Ray Stone saidservice like this had been ingreat demand amongVictorians for some time.

‘‘Ayers Rock is a populardestination with Victorians,however feedback indicatedthat there was a real desirefor a direct flight thatallowed guests to make themost of their weekend,’’ MrStone said.

Tourism NT chief execu-tive officer Tony Mayell saidthis was the perfect oppor-tunity for Victorians to visitCentral Australia.

‘‘This is a fantastic oppor-

tunity for Victorians to visit

Uluru and connect with thisspecial part of Australia,’’Mr Mayell said.

‘‘Ayers Rock Resort itselfhas undergone a completerejuvenation over the lasttwo years and with a three-hour direct flight fromMelbourne, it is the perfecttime to enjoy a short breakand reconnect with yourloved ones.’’

The Uluru Weekend pack-age is designed to make themost of the weekend at theprice of $899 per person twinshare.

Flights will be operated byAlliance Airlines.