It’s time for Darwin to fight back against the rise of the objector, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

QUIET Territorians, this is your call to action. It’s up to you to start a movement and fight for the lifestyle we love in the Top End

Daniel Treacy is concerned he will have to close his business if an alfresco dining application is not approved. Picture: Glenn Campbell

• ALFRESCO outcome do-or-die for local cafe
• MATT Cunningham: NIMBYs are helping kill off our city

ON Monday I took my dog for a walk through the streets of Nightcliff and Rapid Creek.

I walked along the beautiful Nightcliff foreshore and up Rossiter Street to the Café Central.

Thanks to the best dry season in living memory, I wasn’t even sweating when I arrived.

I tied Bessie up out the front, sat at a table outside and grabbed a coffee.

The friendly staff were soon on hand with a bowl of water for the dog.

A fellow customer pulled out some treats and fed her.

This was Darwin living at its best.

A simple experience that summed up why I — and I presume many others — have decided to call this place home.

As a longtime Territorian said to me this week, “people come here for the work, and stay for the lifestyle”.

But this lifestyle appears to be under threat. A place that once prided itself on its have-a-go attitude now risks being strangled by bureaucracy.

You can see the evidence of this in a sign that now sits in Café Central’s window.

“Hey everyone,” it reads.

“We just put in for approval to have alfresco dining at Café Central — exactly what we always had but we needed to apply for approval.

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“Some of the neighbours are objecting to us having this outdoor dining at the café. If this outdoor dining was to be rejected, then we would have to unfortunately CLOSE the café as it would not be viable.”

So a café that for close to a decade has happily existed with a few tables and chairs out the front, is now at risk of closing due to the handiwork of our overzealous regulators.

The café’s owners will now be subjected to a process that favours the whines of a noisy few over the views of the quiet majority.

Earlier this year I wrote a column venting my frustration at the road blocks faced by young businessman Dom Wundke who was trying to open a bar in Nightcliff.

The reaction was interesting.

For days I was met with quiet nods of agreement.

Whispered support from people who you’d never find at a protest rally or penning an angry letter to the editor.

People too busy getting on with their lives — working and raising children — to bother joining a campaign.

But perhaps it’s time for these quiet Territorians to stand up.

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The note on the window at the Café Central went on to say this:

“If anyone has anything positive to say in reference to having outdoor dining and what the café brings to this community we would really appreciate it, it can be really brief or detailed.

“This would help to prove to the Development Authority that there are positive opinions and not only negative.

“Send anything to:
[e-mail]”

I’ll go first:

In 2013 I lived in a house at the end of Rossiter St. We had two kids under three and I had a stressful job. But the Café Central was my happy place. Somewhere to enjoy a more-than-decent cuppa and — if just for a moment — escape the chaos of life.

Our community would be much the poorer for its absence.

Now, quiet Territorians, I urge you to follow. Send an email, write a letter, post on Facebook, call talkback radio, start a petition or put a sign up outside your house. Not one of protest, but one of support.

And not just for the Café Central but for any other venture under threat from the NIMBYs.

It might be Dom’s Bar, the food trucks next to Duck’s Nuts or the velodrome redevelopment at Bagot Park.

We might just start a movement and finally fight back against the rise of the objector.

And Darwin will be a better place for it.