THIS week in Alice Springs we celebrate the beginning of test-drilling on the proposed huge Angela-Pamela uranium mine. This open-cut operation is not only gorgeously located above our fragile desert water table but also conveniently situated just 10 kilometres across the field from four indigenous town camps and the indigenous boarding college.

Lucky for them, the seasonal winds often blow from the south, ensuring that no one living there will miss out on a daily lungful of airborne radioactive nuclides during the dust storm season.

Perhaps Peter Garrett can write a song in celebration to mark the occasion. A re-release of Beds are Burning, with funds going to the southern Alice Springs town camps to help purchase some decent respiratory protection, would be another option.