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Toni Tapp Coutts (born 7 November 1955) is an Australian author who has written extensively about her experiences growing up in the Northern Territory of Australia. [1]
Tapp Coutts was born in Alice Springs and grew up on Killarney Station after moving there when her mother, divorcee June Clements (née Forscutt) married cattleman Bill Tapp when she was 9 years old. [2] She moved there with her mother and her two siblings; Billy and Shing. On the station, they lived in a shack with no electricity or running water, and found conditions very taxing. When Tapp Coutts and her family arrived at the house, it had a hand-painted sign stating 'Cockrag Downs'; she said the meaning of 'cockrag' was "broken down and uncared for". [3] She said further of it: [2]
The house was a Sidney Williams hut. A massive great big tin shed that had virtually three rooms. One end was the bedrooms, which were basically rows of beds with mosquito nets over them. That sort of defined the sleeping areas from where people lived or slept, other than my grandmother's room which had half a wall, and there was a toilet down the back, a long‐drop toilet down the back, which I was terrified of, and fall down the hole.
— Toni Tapp Coutts, Growing the Katherine – the Tapp family, 2009
Despite the hardships she loved where she grew up and was "happy on the land" with her friends and family. In her books she offers a tender portrait of the many characters who she encountered there and her love of the natural world. [4] [3] She said that she had an amazing childhood growing up with Aboriginal people, the Olkolo people, and being able to be part of observing and learning about their way of life. [1] She says that everyone was family. [2]
In 1974, Tapp Coutts married Shaun Coutts and in the early 1980s, after a short period in Victoria, they moved to McArthur River Station, nearby Borroloola, where Shaun had taken a job. [2] There, Tapp Coutts became a cook, counsellor, housekeeper, and nurse to many in the region. While there, she created the Heartbreak Bush Ball and started riding campdraft in rodeos all over the Northern Territory, becoming one of the NT's top riders. [5] [6]
In 1994, they moved together to Katherine and, in her time there, she has been a board member of the NT Writers' Centre and coordinator of the Katherine region of the Writers' group. She is also a member of the Katherine Museum, Katherine Community Markets and has organised and participated in many local festivals and events including the Katherine Flying Fox Festival, the Fringe Festival and the Barunga Festival. [7] She also served an elected member of the Katherine Town Council for 25 years (1996–2021) and ran, unsuccessfully, for the 2008 Northern Territory general election as an Independent. [8] [9]
She is a breast cancer survivor and overcame a major spinal infection in 2013 to 2014. During this time she formed a lobby group to establish a chemotherapy unit and cancer support office in Katherine. [7] She is also a mother of three. [6]
Tapp Coutts also compiled the book Katherine street names in 2003. [12]
In 2020 and 2021 Tapp Coutts donated a collection of Personal and Community Archives (PCA 7) to Library & Archives NT: this collection consists of magazine and newspaper clippings, correspondence, personal papers and notes, event notices, ephemera, newsletters, CDs and posters relating to her family and community. [13]
Lianna Rose is an Australian singer–songwriter.
Bulman is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is 400km from Darwin. Along with the Aboriginal community of Weemol, 5 km (3 mi) away, Bulman is considered a closed community meaning all visitors require a permit from the Northern Land Council to transit or visit the town. The combined population of Bulman and Weemol at the 2011 census was 291 and is one of few significant settlements on the Central Arnhem Road between Katherine and Nhulunbuy. Facilities in the town include a school, health clinic, police station and an all weather airstrip. Languages spoken in Bulman include Kriol, English and Rembarrnga.
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Emungalan is a suburb in the town of Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia. It is within the Katherine Town Council local government area. The name Emungalan is believed to come from an Aboriginal word meaning "Place of Stone" or "Stony". The area was officially defined as a suburb in April 2007, adopting the name from the former railhead settlement north of the Katherine River.
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Lily Ah Toy was an Australian pioneer and businesswoman famous in the Northern Territory.
Eileen Cummings is a teacher, policy and liaison officer and Indigenous leader in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is a member of the Rembarrnga Ngalakan ethnic groups. She is also a member of the 'Stolen Generation' and is an activist advocating for the well-being of living members of that group.
Ngaree Jane Ah Kit is an Australian politician, who was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly at the 2016 general election, representing the electoral division of Karama, Darwin, for the Labor Party.
Sandra Joao Nelson is an Australian politician. She successfully contested the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly seat of Katherine at the 2016 Northern Territory general election for the Labor Party. She is the first Labor member to represent the Katherine area, defeating former Deputy Chief Minister Willem Westra van Holthe. She is also the first Timorese born person to be elected to any parliament in Australia.
Charles William Tapp, best known as Bill Tapp, was a pioneer and cattleman from Killarney Station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
James Forscutt better known as Jim Forscutt, is a former Mayor of Katherine in the Northern Territory of Australia.
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Ellen Sarah Kettle MBE was an Australian nurse and midwife who pioneered mobile health care in isolated areas of the Northern Territory of Australia.
James (Jim) Joseph Mannion was a renowned policeman and soldier who worked in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is best known for an act of bravery clearing a burning building of occupants, an act which saw him awarded a George Medal.
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Michele Winifred Castagna was a disability advocate who made a significant contribution to disability services in Alice Springs; for which she received an Order of Australia medal. She is also a former alderman with Alice Springs Town Council and served from 1984–1992.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Northern Territory is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Mayse Young OAM was an outback publican and a pioneer of the Northern Territory's hospitality industry. She ran pubs in Pine Creek, Katherine and Darwin.
The Murranji Track or Murranji Stock Route is a stock route in the Northern Territory of Australia and it runs between Newcastle Waters and Top Springs. The track was primarily operational between 1904 to the late 1960s and it attracted descriptions as the "ghost road of the Drovers" and the "death track". It was used as an entry point to the Barkly Tableland and it is nearby to Wave Hill, Auvergne and Victoria River Downs Stations.
The Mick (Michael) Daly and Mary (Gladys) Namagu were an interracial couple in the Northern Territory of Australia who faced discrimination when they sought to marry in 1959. They were refused permission to marry by Government officials, including the then Director of Welfare Harry Giese, and their plight was covered nationally and sparked public sympathy. Australian federal and state politicians became involved in their case and it attracted the attention of the United Nations.
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