The Good Weekend, for those that don’t live in Sydney, is a magazine liftout found in the Saturday edition of the Sydney broadsheet newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald. Being a magazine it’s generally been dedicated to colour pieces. Recently it’s moved towards lifestyle issues. *yawn*. Nothing that engages the intellect. This weekend for example there were pieces on circuses, what Apple will do next with the iPod and on how parents cramp their kids’ style. However, the one that got my attention was the story by Jane Cadzow on the death of Cynthia Ching at Kings Creek Station in the Northern Territory…
It’s a well worn out story by now. But only after Norman hermant from ABC’s Lateline broke it as a national story nearly two years after the event took place. Basically, Cynthia Ching, a native of Canada, was on a working holiday in Australia and ended up as a seasonal worker at the busy Kings Creek Station. One evening the staff gathered at the cabin of the helicopter pilots for a drink. Not long after soiree commenced a horrific accident occurred: Ned Lee, one of the helicopter pilots, spilt some aviation fuel, being used as fuel for lanterns, over himself an, somehow, all over Cynthia Ching. While Lee suffered serious burns, Cynthia Ching’s were much worse and the morning after she was taken to Alice Springs hospital and then eventually to Adelaide Hospital, where she could get the proper treatment. A couple of weeks later she suffered an infection from the burns and passed away.
It was only after Hermant broke the story that police seemed to be triggered into action, finally charging Ned Lee with some sort of negligent behaviour causing harm charge. Considering Lee was back at home in New Zealand and that there is no equivalent charge in New Zealand, Lee was unable to be extradited. An inquest started yesterday into the accident and the response (or lack thereof) from Territory authorities to the event.
In an interview for ABC radio right after the charges were laid, Lee said that he would come back to Australia if he was asked, but none of the authorities had asked him. He is testifying by video hook-up during the inquest. His story is that no-one did or said anything to him that would seem to indicate he was in trouble.
Now, Cadzow, in her story on the weekend has done either a brave or stupid thing by uttering that which are on the lips of many following this story. Given all the delays and Ian Conway’s (the proprietor of Kings Creek Station) prominent position in the Alice Springs community, was there a cover up or some sort of conspiracy to protect Ian, the reputation of Alice Springs, the tourist industry or a combination of the above?
Conspiracy? Cadzow’s article was a piece of sensationalist crap! There is no evidence of conspiracy between the media, government, police and Conway. If this was a breaking story, tell me why it was found in the Good Weekend magazine and not in, say, the News Review section of the Saturday SMH? Why not? Because it’s not fucking news! Cadzow basically retold an already familiar story and got the Lateline cameraman, Chris Tangey, to go on the record saying “it’s got to be a conspiracy”. No fucking idea!
Erwin Chlanda, editor of The Alice Springs News, said that it was more likely incompetence, sluggishness or something of the sort that led to the delays. Here’s the way I see it:
Accident occurs, police informed, hospital media officers become aware of it after Ching arrives. All involved so far think injuries are serious, but not fatal. Therefore, Alice Springs police and hospital media officers are not ready to attribute any seriousness to the situation. However, Cynthia wasn’t sent to Royal Adelaide Hospital because of the fatality of Ching’s burns, but because Alice Springs Hospital does not have a burns unit. So, off Cynthia goes to Royal Adelaide and off the media, police and government radar. However, upon her death, Royal Adelaide notified Alice Springs police. Some sort of investigation took place and had been ongoing until Hermant broke the story and then charges were finally brought forward. Now, when an investigation is taking place, police tend not to speak to the media (sometimes at all) because it may adversely impact on their investigations. So the only people with the knowledge of Cynthia’s death in Alice Springs were not commenting on it, leaving everyone else in the dark. How was anyone to know that Cynthia had died? I’m sure the police would have spoken to certain people, like Conway, about it during the course of the investigation. But why would Conway, at risk of losing tourists and having to fork out a huge compensation payout, go out of his way to advertise Ching’s death?
In my mind, until further evidence can be brought forward during the inquest, the police need to be scrutinised over not making the matter public and potentially taking too long with the investigation. If anything, Alice Springs and Territory media could be accused of “press release jornalism” and not getting out there and finding out what’s going on in the world.
In the end a conspiracy to cover up the event can’t be ruled out. But I can’t see how it can be the basis of Cadzow’s story. Most of the article was spent re-telling the story. She brought forward no new evidence to back up the conspiracy theory. The only new evidence Cadzow had was personal emails Cynthia Ching sent to friends and family while travelling. And all that did was to bring a human face to the tragedy and exaggerate the emotional content of the narrative.
Lack of evidence for one conclusion shouldn’t rule it out of course, but it should at the very least mean that it needs to be considered with other possibilities. The Good Weekend is really starting to give me the shits for being so pointless and futile.
Before you speak make sure you know what you are speaking about!!!!!! To give you some facts on this case the owner Ian Conway didn’t inform the police after the incident. He claims that he called twice the morning after, however the police do not have any record of this call…hmmmmm….When the police came by that morning on a routine check Mr. Conway just stated that someone was burnt and is at the hospital and everything is fine. He neglected to mention that the person was burnt with aviation fuel that he knew was being used. If he had installed the lights like he was supposed to weeks ago the lanterns would never have been used. I believe that Ned was stupid. He was a pilot and he knew better, he should be charged, but I truly believe that the owner Conway should also be charged. He needs to be held accountable for Cynthia’s death. For the author of this article to put a human face on Cynthia, thank God, this way maybe something will finally be done about this. You have no idea how many people mourn her loss and what a wonderful person she was. The fact that there are still so many unanswered questions almost 2 years later is disgusting. We need to be able to have closure. People like you give me the SHITS!
Thank you for completely misunderstanding my point. Just to reiterate: was Cadzow correct in stating her accusations of a conspiracy? If that article had have been published one day later – that is, on the day the coronial inquest started – then she would have been held in contempt of court. As a piece that puts a human face on this outrage it’s excellent. To link it to some conspiracy theory is to just sensationalise. I’ll give her credit for saying in the press what everyone I know in Alice had been saying for a long time. But to connect it to the need to humanise the morally outrageous response (or lack thereof) is sensationalist journalism.
If I’ve given you the shits because you think I don’t mourn her loss or I have been insensitive to other people’s loss then I apologise. Any loss deserves respect and dignity. However, if you think that any friends or framily of Cynthia have a monopoly on mourning then you are mistaken. Other people have lost loved ones too. Don’t use this as an argument to discredit my opinion. Like I said, you misunderstood my point: to say it is a conspiracy is irresponsible journalism so close to the coronial inquiry. What’s even worse is that it should have been done earlier!!!
Bernard, Melanie obviously worked with Cynthia and knows a lot more about what actually happened than you do in your comfy little Sydney pad.
Saying that Jane Cadzow “got” me to say anything I didn’t want to is not only mind-numbingly ridiculous to anyone who knows me, it is downright
defamatory. I await your apology. By the way I notice you wrote this some years ago, I hope your anger management issues are all proceeding smoothly by now.
Thanks for the reply Chris. The only apology you will get from me is for lack of clarity. I did not mean to say that Cadzow ‘got’ you to say anything, in the sense that she put words in your mouth. What I meant to say was that she obtained that quote from you. So, I’m sorry for not being claer about that.
I’m not sure why my anger (or its management) concerns you because it doesn’t take away from my opinion regarding Cadzow’s piece: something which the two people to comment have (conveniently?) ignored.
Whether Melanie worked with Cynthia or not and how obvious that might be is of little relevance. What is of relevance is the idea that there was some sort of conspiracy. And because the conspiracy that was being bandied about regarded a cover up, what actually happened to Cynthia is circumstantial. The conspiracy outlined by Cadzow and intimated by the Lateline piece you did with Hermant was that Conway was protecting his arse.
Here is what the Coroner found with respect to these claims and I quote at length to include the Coroner’s judgements of the police as well:
You can find the full report here: http://www.nt.gov.au/justice/ntmc/docs/judgements/2006/20060429ntmc039.html
Now, the story done by Hermant was powerful because it raised the question of a cover up, but stayed right away from making that claim. Even if Norman had strongly believed it was a conspiracy I’m guessing he would have run this story past ABC’s legal department who would have prevented him from saying this based on a lack of evidence. Cadzow, on the other hand, decided to do make this claim without any new evidence – at least, nothing new since Hermant’s piece. Whilst her story did not put her in contempt of court, because of it’s timing, it’s fair to have the opinion that it is reckless with evidence. What was great about Norman’s piece was that he raised the question, what was bad about Cadzow’s piece was that she thought she had the answer.
More importantly, it was reckless to have relied so much on your quote that it was a conspiracy.
I won’t lie: I thought that Conway might have been covering his own arse and I thought the police might have been found to be neglectful – but I was wrong. Can you admit the same thing?
In any case, my post was not about my opinion of what really happened, but about the ethics of journalism. Even though in my own mind I harboured suspicions of Conway and doubts about the efficacy of the Alice Springs police, the word around town (Alice Springs, not my comfy pad in Sydney) was to the contrary and I was willing to remain open to this.
So, now that I have your attention: do you still believe it to be a conspiracy? If so, why?