This is a narrative of the Alice Springs visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, the week of the Camel Cup. However, before I start let me set the scene.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Grimms - I think you will admit they are definitely "characters"
Mr. William Lane - U.S. Ambassador to Australia
Harry Arnold - Sergeant in the N.T. Police Force. President of the local chapter of the Australian-American Association, and local "character"
The Nevada Delegation - The wife of the Governor of Nevada, the Wife of President of the Virginia City Chamber of Commerce and five camel jockeys.
The American-Australian Association - an organization formed 50 years ago to foster good relations between the two countries. The local division is the newest of 13 divisions here in Australia and is just completing its first year.
LOCATIONS
Araluen - The Alice Springs Community Arts Center which includes a theatre, a bistro, art galleries and other assorted rooms.
The "Old Telegraph Station" - the original site of Alice Springs. A telegraph repeater station was built there alongside a waterhole in the dry Todd River bed. The buildings have been restored and the area is now a historic reserve and a favorite picnic area.
Virginia City, Nevada - a town of about 750 people about 25 miles from Reno. The town has been holding Camel Races since 1960 with crowds up to 80,000 on hand.
THE ALICE SPRINGS CAMEL CUP
A yearly event that is similar to a carnival/fair centered around a day of camel races culminating in the Camel Cup. In addition, there is the "Honeymoon Handicap" in which the jockeys have to race half way around the track and pick up their lady and race back to the finish line -sounds easy but the camels are not very cooperative. This year there was also a match race between Australians and Americans (more later) and a game of Camel polo that I did not see.
I would also like to set the scene by relating two events that led up to the weekend. Harry Arnold attended the Federal conference of our association (Australian-American Assoc.) in Adelaide last year and at that time Mr. Lane who is the patron of the Association and who spoke at the conference told Harry he would like to come to Alice Springs as our guest. Consequently we invited him to come up for the Camel Cup. In addition to being our guest, he was also an official the Camel Cup (which is run by the Lions Club).
Dwight has really become involved in photography and has won a prize in a local contest, and in another show, sold a large print to a couple from Sydney - thus becoming a professional. Just last week he received a letter from Time/Life and thinking it was junk mail I threw it at him, joking that they were probably offering him a job. It wasn't a job offer, but it did invite him to enter a contest for young photographers, with a. deadline of 1 June. The contest is not for the best photo, but the best photographers, so requires a minimum of six photos, either as separate items or with a story line. The subject(s) have to be about American Society. I don't know if it'll be seen that way by Time/Life, but Dwight is going to enter a series of shots about a day in the life of a U.S. Ambassador. And now on with the story ...
The Ambassador and his party were due to arrive on Friday, 15 May. The two weeks prior to his arrival the number in his party changed daily, from two to four to eight and finally back to two. Then, his plane developed mechanical difficulties at the last moment and there was some question whether he was going to use commercial air or not. Apparently at that late date there was little chance of getting on a commercial flight, so he came in his plane, but the plane could only fly at 12,000 feet which meant it had to refuel along the way. I was to meet Harry Arnold at the airport to greet the Ambassador when he arrived, so the whole day was spent guessing when he was actually going to arrive. I finally heard that he was arriving at 2:30, so I left work about 2 and headed for the airport. Since Dwight was going to try and get some photos, he and his mother were also there. It turned out that the chiefs of two American installations here in town also felt they needed to be there, and in fact made a point of being the first ones to greet the Ambassador when he got off the plane. I realize there is a matter of protocol, but this was supposed to be a personal visit by the Ambassador as a guest of the Australian-American Association, of which Harry is the president and I am the vice-president. For some naive reason, I figured we should have greeted him on his arrival.
As an aside, the an official of the Canberra chapter of the AAA (Australian-American Assoc.) rang Harry last week and asked if he could send some lottery tickets up to us on the plane oh Monday for us to sell. Harry told him sure, but why not drop them off at the U.S. Embassy and get the Ambassador to bring them along. I guess he must have thought Harry had gone around the bend, but apparently he bought the idea, because as soon as the Ambassador arrived he made a thing out of officially handing over the lottery tickets to Harry and even asked to have some pictures taken in front of him presenting them to Harry.
Dwight was rather obvious, as the only youngster there and the only one there who looked like a photographer. The Ambassador struck up a conversation with Dwight, who explained about the contest and told him his idea about "a day in the life of an Ambassador." The Ambassador apparently was struck by the idea and he and Dwight became quick friends - he specifically looked around for Dwight on certain occasions to make sure he was present to get some shots. But that was only the start of it - more later.
Harry took the Ambassador and his aid to the Sheraton and dropped them off. He was to visit another installation outside of town during the afternoon. Our next commitment was that evening when we had scheduled a dinner for him at Araluen. Guests at the dinner included ranking people from the two American installations here in Alice Springs, and the Australian installation that the Ambassador had visited during the afternoon, the mayor of Alice Springs, Commodore Johnson who is the administrator of the Northern Territory, and the Nevada delegation.
There is a segment of the population in Alice Springs, and elsewhere in Australia, who are opposed to the presence of the American base where I work here in town. It is alleged to make Alice Springs a nuclear target. Consequently, we have periodic protests calling for its closure. Also, the lease for the base is due to be renewed in October and thus the next several months will be especially sensitive. The peace group in town found out about the dinner at Araluen and had a group there to protest. The police were aware of the protest and had a large contingent (more than the peace group) there for security. The protesters were fairly well behaved, only making a few comments when the Ambassador walked in. Someone in the group sent in a letter later on and the Ambassador took the time to read it and then went outside to respond to it. The discussion apparently was fairly rational, but I am sure it didn't solve any problems.
The dinner went well. The food was good. Harry, who can drone on gave a nice, brief talk and the Ambassador gave a somewhat longer but well received speech. An ABC newsman/cameraman man with the Nevada group filmed some of the proceedings. (When he arrived in town his camera was. not working, but fortunately someone in town was able to fix it.) The film from the entire visit, including the Camel Cup was to be shown in Nevada, and supposedly some of it on Good Morning America. Before the dinner ended, I invited everyone to a barbeque the following night out bush in a river bed.
The following morning the AAA had a small champagne breakfast (chicken sandwiches, champagne and orange juice) for the entire U.S. contingent at the Old Telegraph Station. It was a delightful breakfast - the sandwiches were good, the weather a bit nippy, but beautiful and a large flock of galahs (a common variety of grey cockatoo with a pink stomach) joined us. Following breakfast, the coach (bus) took the U.S. delegation back to the Sheraton and then on to the Camel Cup. I might mention the bus - it is owned by a local touring service. The inside is decorated with curtains and hanging plants. It has a bathroom, a kitchen and a bookcase full of field guides and a scrabble game!
During the breakfast, Dwight, who had stopped by before going to work in the camera shop, mentioned to local protocol man that he hoped to get some good pictures of the Ambassador at the Camel Cup. The guy said, "No worries. I'll get you a press pass." Some people just fall into it.
The Ambassador had said he wanted to ride a camel, so one was made available for him and he rode in the grand parade around the race track which opened the festivities. Dwight followed him around the track and took umpteen pictures. The Nevada jockeys did not fare well in the races. They are used to racing in a straight line, not around a track, and someone said they sit differently on a camel -which is an interesting question - just how many ways are there to sit on a camel. They came in last in every race including the International Race, Consequently, the Australians won the 4-foot high trophy that the Nevada delegation brought with them. It will probably prove to be a costly win, since it almost obligates the Australians to send a delegation to the camel races in Virginia City this coming September to defend the trophy. The Ambassador took 'part in the presentation of awards, then he and the Nevada delegation were taken back to the Sheraton.
That evening, as planned, we had a barbeque about 15 km outside of town alongside a dry river bed. I had wanted it to be set up in the river bed, but the bank is a little steep there and at night it was difficult to see to step down, though later a lantern was set up to light the way down. In addition, the Tourist Commission paid to have a local showman some out to demonstrate bush food, and it may have been difficult for him to pull into the river bed. By the time I got there, a fire had been burning several-hours, with a huge iron plate lying concrete blocks over the fire. The Lions Club donated a bunch of steaks, and between those and the food the local people brought, I don't think anyone went hungry.
The bush tucker (food) show seemed to be a hit. The guy showed how to cook the small frogs you can find around in the ground - a species which lives in very dry climates by burrowing in the ground, sometimes for years. He also cooked some witchety grubs - a white grub, several inches long which lives in the ground under specific bushes in the outback. Aboriginals and some white people can eat them raw, but they are also cooked. Let it be recorded that Jack was the only Grimm who tried a small (approximately 1/2-3/4") piece of one. It is difficult to separate in your mind the idea that you are eating a grub and trying to objectively identify the taste, but the impression was that there was little taste. The guy putting on the the show also prepared damper (bread) and spotted dog (a type of cake) which are both prepared in covered pots covered by hot coals in the ground. While the show was very entertaining and the Nevada group seemed to enjoy it, the whole evening up to that point seemed to revolve around them rather that the original idea of the Ambassador being our guest at a barbeque.
This aspect became even clearer when the ABC cameraman broke out a guitar and started singing American western cowboy songs. I didn't mind except I had asked some of the members of the local folk group to come-out and sing Australian songs, I finally asked the guy from the Lions Club who was taking care of the Nevada group if he could tactfully give the folk singers a chance before they left. He said it was too late, he was taking the group back to the Sheraton then, and he did. He did not score any points with our group.
After the Nevada group and the Ambassador left, some of the rest of us went down into the river bed beside a fire we had had going all evening and the three people from the folk group sang for well over an hour. One of the guys even brought along copies of the words to
most of the songs they were singing and a lot of us sang along. Toby thought that was great since he is learning to play the guitar and listening to the people play the guitar raised his interest again. Sitting there under the stars beside a fire and a big gum tree, listening to Australian folk songs was the highlight of the weekend for me - it's too bad the other Americans weren't there to enjoy it as well. The cold finally started to catch up with us, so around midnight we called it a night.
The next morning, one of the American installations in town had arranged for the Nevada group and the Ambassador to have tea and scones at the train museum outside of town, on the way to the airport. Unfortunately, the breakfast at the Sheraton ran long, so the people from Nevada and the Ambassador, who had some business to conduct that morning all arrived very late. So there was very little time to sit down and relax. While he was there, the Ambassador donated $1000 to help restore one of the old trains and he specifically asked Dwight to take the photo of the presentation, and also asked that the picture be used in the newspaper article. It was, with Dwight's name as the photographer.
Finally, it was on to the airport and farewell to most of the group (some of the Nevada people stayed an extra day to attend the beerfest in town that evening). The Ambassador flew back to Canberra via commercial plane because of the problems with his own plane, which had been taken on to Perth for repairs. The Ambassador made sure that Dwight got some last picture carrying his bags and heading for the plane.
As for the professional photographer, stay tuned. The local protocol man came over to the house last night to select photos, approximately 50 in all, to send to the Chief Minister, Commodore Johnson the administrator of the Northern Territory, the Ambassador, etc., and his office will pick up the tab. He also said that since his office does not have a big budget, he may ask permission for Dwight to cover other visits by dignitaries to Alice Springs.
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