Steve Langton said NTG meddling killed Tennant Creek gateway lizard project

The feud between the NTG and the Tennant Creek lizard sculptor has intensified. Read the latest.

Steve Langton and the almost completed Tennant Creek lizard

Conflicting accounts have emerged of the progress of negotiations to save Tennant Creek’s doomed nyinkka lizard sculpture project.

The Department of Logistics and Infrastructure, which has project oversight, said the contract is “under consideration”, while the artist said the department had sent him a termination contract and was “kneeling on my throat” to get an outcome to the drawn-out dispute.

Breaking his silence to this masthead last week, Mr Langton said the project had taken an enormous emotional and physical toll.

He accused DLI, formerly the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics, of comprehensively bungling the project and for being responsible for the cost blowout that has plagued the gateways rollout.

“I’ve given the last six years of my life to this project,” Mr Langton said.

“The department has ever changing staff and they just see me as another rorting subbie.

“At present the department is kneeling on my throat, getting me to grant copyright that allows them to paint, or not display, the commissioned work.

The unfinished nyinkka lizard on the Sunshine Coast

“I’ve given the last six years of my life to this project,” Mr Langton said.

“The department has ever changing staff and they just see me as another rorting subbie.

“I don’t want to sell the unwanted lizard to Australia Zoo or anyone else, but that is the choice the department have made.

“The one single reason these lizards have taken so long, with the corresponding cost blowout, is because the department brought Waramumgu traditional owners into my studio about 10 times, who had not been consulted or asked permission about using their totem animal.
“They demanded scales, colour and spiky tails. The department said I had to do what the TOs legitimately asked for. In steel.”

Mr Langton said the department had paid him $430,000 in total, of which the vast majority had gone into sourcing the steel. He had personally earnt only about $35,000 a year for three years while working on the project and he said his 99-year-old mother had contributed $30,000.”

The missing nyinkka lizard needs a tail.

Mr Langton’s comments come as images emerged of the ‘missing’ nyinkka lizard, which is currently located at the artist’s Sunshine Coast studio.

“The clock is ticking on any chance Tennant will ever get two nyinkkas,” he said.

Referencing the emailed image he said: “Here is the nyinkka they don’t want. Tail is outside awaiting spikes. The contract is onerous and coercive.”

Last week, Barkly Regional Council mayor Sid Vashist said he was worried only one of the two 5m hardened metal sculptures would be installed at Tennant Creek’s Stuart Highway gateways.

On Thursday he said it appeared egos were getting in the way of the project’s completion.

“This is more like peoples’ egos clashing,” he said.

He said more money was spent on consultants assessments of the project than on the actual manufacture of the lizards.

In response to questions, a Department of Logistics and Infrastructure spokesman said the agency “continues to work” with the artist.

“One lizard sculpture, approximately 90 per cent complete, is currently in Tennant Creek awaiting final completion,” a spokesman said.

“A revised contractual arrangement is under consideration with the department and the artist for this initiative.

“The other lizard sculpture remains with the artist. The nyinkka lizards are a portion of a broader $2 million project in Tennant Creek.”

Additional questions have been sent to the department.

Originally published as Steve Langton said NTG meddling killed Tennant Creek gateway lizard project