Alice Springs

Located on the flood plain of the ephemeral Todd River, Alice Springs is at the centre of the Australian continent. Of its 28 000 people, one-fifth are Aborigines, notoriously over-represented at the low end of most indexes of well-being. Under this shadow, the romance of the town's hardy frontier history has receded. Today inoproving the lives of Aboriginal people and their relationships with the non-Indigenous majority has become central to policy thinking and initiatives in the town, driven particularly by the Australian government. However, the resilience of Aboriginal mores and the entrenchment of disadvantage and dependency over decades present new challenges at every turn.