Itchy Koo Park goes dry to allow residents to drink as month long bureaucratic battle ends

How hard is it to get a drink in the Territory? For residents of one Red Centre community, being able to have a quiet drink at home involved a bureaucratic battle which lasted months.

Itchy Koo Park resident Aaron Campbell. Picture: Gera Kazakov

A Red Centre community has performed legal gymnastics – and battled the bureaucracy of the Territory – by becoming a dry zone just to allow residents to be able to have a drink in their own homes.

Twenty minutes out of Alice Springs, Itchy Koo Park (Twenpye E) is under a 99-year liquor general restricted area (GRA) – but residents are still able to drink.

Northern Territory Liquor Commission chair Russell Goldflam approved the GRA application on June 19, nine months after it was lodged in October last year.

For Itchy Koo Park resident Aaron Campbell – who was one of the residents who applied for the GRA – the irony of the situation is not lost on him.

“Ironically, by making that area dry permanently, we will be able to keep the permit system and therefore get around losing that access altogether,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate that it seems like that we’re focusing on making sure that we can access alcohol out there but it’s maintaining way of life that we’ve had out there for decades now.”

In Mr Goldflam’s decision remarks, he notes how Itchy Koo Park residents have quietly enjoyed a drink or two after work, and have obtained permits to do so legally.

Northern Teritory Liquor Commission Chair Russell Goldflam. Picture: JEFF TAN

But then, a series of liquor reforms – which were put in place after liquor bans were lifted, reinstated, and then amended – meant that Itchy Koo Park residents were living in a dry community, then a wet community, then a dry community again.

With these changes, in February 2023 Itchy Koo Park became an “interim alcohol protected area” and residents were encouraged to opt-out of the scheme if they wanted to drink.

Then-director of Liquor Licensing Phil Timney gave residents some incentive: he sent out a notice stating that their alcohol permits would be revoked on January 30, 2024, according to the decision.

But in his decision remarks, Mr Goldflam notes that so far there has not been a single application to opt-out of the interim alcohol protected areas.

“To date, some sixteen months since the establishment of the opt-out scheme, no interim alcohol protected area has been revoked in the Northern Territory,” he said in the decision.

“Opting out under the scheme is not a simple process.”

Itchy Koo resident Mr Campbell said the community wanted to opt out of the interim alcohol protected area but difficulties in obtaining a letter of support from the landowner led them to bypass opting out of the interim alcohol protected area.

“The only legal avenue for us to maintain (the status quo) was to get the area declared as a (GRA) and then apply for ourselves to have permits,” he said.

“And to do that it was several legal loopholes we had to jump through and applications and tribunals and that sort of gear.

“So it was a lot of work, unfortunately, just to maintain the status quo – we’ve not received anything more than we currently get.”

The decision notes that the residents tried to obtain a letter of support from the land trust through the Central Land Council but were rejected.

The social club at the Itchy Koo Park. Picture: Jason Walls

“There was no certainty that such a statement could be procured at all, having regard to the large number of small communities located within the (Iwupataka Aborignal Land Trust), and the possible difficulty in reaching a consensus that the (Itchy Koo Park) application should be supported,” the decision states.

However, a letter of support from the land trust wasn’t needed for Itchy Koo residents to live under a GRA, according to the decision notes.

NT News put questions to NT police as to whether or not there has been much alcohol-related trouble at Itchy Koo Park.

“Northern Territory Police don’t release detailed crime statistics for alcohol related harm in individual communities and towns,” a NT Police spokesperson said.

“The Northern Territory Police support robust alcohol controls that effectively target alcohol related harm across our community.”

As part of obtaining the GRA, Itchy Koo Park residents submitted a community alcohol plan, which states “there has never been a major incident involving alcohol” at Itchy Koo Park.

“Being comprised of fully employed adults with strong family values, residents of Itchy Koo Park largely self-manage the availability of alcohol, as well as any ‘alcohol related damage’,” the alcohol plan states.

Further, in the decision, the liquor commission notes how NT Police Acting Commander Drew Slape supported the Itchy Koo Park GRA proposal.

“Police are wholly supportive of the application, and that there are no alcohol-related problems at IKP that have come to the attention of police,” Mr Goldflam’s decision reads.

Alcohol policy minister Brent Potter said the NT government was committed to maintaining and delivering robust community alcohol measures.

“To date, 102 communities under an interim Alcohol Protected Area have registered their interest in developing Community Alcohol Plans and work will commence with these communities once the panel of consultants is formed,” he said.

But Mr Campbell hopes that the Itchy Koo Park decision will provide a framework for law-abiding communities to be able to have a drink.

“Hopefully, us going through this scenario now is going to make the process smoother for other people, and hopefully, somewhat set a bit of a pathway rather than running into walls and finding the way that we did,” he said.