Queers of the Desert

A Gay Party in Alice? (1987)

When I first arrived in Alice Springs in August 1984 I was only intending to stay for a few months. I had visited a couple of times before and was familiar enough with the place to know there wasn't likely to be much in the way of gay life. A search of the gay press before leaving Sydney clearly reinforced my expectations. As something of a last resort I had decided to place a few ads in the personals of Outrage and Campaign, which were then the only national gay publications.

Before I'd even started packing my bags I received a couple of replies. Getting one from Rockhampton in Queensland was a bit of a surprise, but it resulted in a dinner date in Sydney before I left and a long-distance friendship that lasted for many years. The other was more exciting as it came from a guy in Alice who was similarly keen not to be isolated and, strangely enough, also a linguist working with Aboriginal people; exactly what I was proposing to be! He knew the people who would be hosting me on arrival and offered to catch up after I got there.

He was definitely a man of his word as he arrived at my hosts' house about an hour after I did. To escape the curious interest of the locals we adjourned around the corner to the Gap Hotel for a drink and to catch the replay of the Los Angeles Olympics closing ceremony. This guy, who also became a friend and colleague of long standing, was Eric Michaels- famous for his activities in early Aboriginal video production and broadcasting, and later, for writing Unbecoming; the journal of his own demise as one of the early casualties of AIDS in Australia. Of course, we didn't know what the future held for him at that time.

Over the ensuing year I kept placing the ads and hoping for more responses, just to find some gay friends who lived in town; unlike Eric, who spent most of his time in remote locations. Eventually I heard from Jim, who I already knew, but not as gay. After an amusing mutual coming out Jim was able to confirm that although he knew a few other people in town there was no gay scene as such and his best efforts to establish a social life had largely been restricted to sympathetic straight colleagues.

Then I got a letter from Paul who had been sent my ad by a friend of his in Sydney. He was living with and caring for his father who had settled in Alice and had a terminal illness. Paul and I clicked immediately and soon formed a relationship that was to last another seven years. Like Jim, Paul knew a few other gay people around town and had even participated in drag shows on a previous stay in town.

By late 1996 conversations between Jim, Paul me turned to entertaining possibilities of overcoming our shared isolation. Between the three of us we were able to identify a growing group of known or, at least, suspected gay and lesbian people in and around the town and were sure that most of them knew a few more. On that basis we thought we'd take a chance and organise a social function to see who turned up. Although we were probably anticipating a meeting rather than a celebration we thought the idea of calling it a party was a more appealing way to get people to attend.
Jim offered his and Bonnie's house in Lindsay Street as a venue and we picked a suitable date. Figuring that flyers identifying the nature of the evening might put us at some risk we restricted our promotional efforts to word of mouth, asking individuals to pass the message on to anyone else they knew. And then we waited.

When the night finally came we weren't too hopeful of a big attendance. So we were very surprised when about 50 people came through the door within a couple of hours of the designated time.

There were a lot of nerves and comic moments as people that we had never met or thought we already knew outed themselves by joining us.



But the mood very quickly turned to one of jubilation as people gained a sense of how just many of us there really were.


We talked to as many people as we could that night about ideas for creating some focus for us all in future. However the party mood quickly took over and we soon realised that we were in the middle of what was probably Alice Springs' first gay and lesbian dance, and the beginning of a tradition of queer dancing in the desertthat would last well into the next century.

Even though it brought the night to an abrupt end, we were on such a high that not even a neighbour pulling the fuses on the house could dampen our enthusiasm.
  

John Hobson

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