Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The Circus General Manager Greg Hall says three of their motorbikes were stolen in Alice Springs despite being padlocked, with the community helping to get them back

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The Circus General Manager Greg Hall says three of their motorbikes were stolen in Alice Springs despite being padlocked, with the community helping to get them back · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One of the other situations that we were told about
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: over the last twenty four hours is said sometime between
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: one and six am on the thirteenth of March, so
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  Speaker 1: a little bit earlier this week, three motorbikes were reported
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  Speaker 1: stolen from a traveling circus which was in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: Now police confirmed that it happened on len Kittle Drive
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  Speaker 1: in Alice. The good news, i'm told is that all
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  Speaker 1: of those bikes have since been recovered, but police are
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  Speaker 1: yet to make an arrest. Now joining me on the
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  Speaker 1: line to tell us a little bit more about what
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  Speaker 1: happened is Greg Hall, who is the operator of the circus.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Greg, Good morning Katie, Thank.
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  Speaker 1: You so much for your time this morning. Greg. Can
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  Speaker 1: you tell me a little bit more about what happened
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  Speaker 1: with these bikes.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we overnight from we had a last show on
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  Speaker 2: Sunday four o'clock show. We had our people, We've got
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  Speaker 2: people down at the circus side. But somewhere probably early
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  Speaker 2: Monday morning, some very ingenious thieves got in. We had
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  Speaker 2: three motorbikes linked up inside the Globe of Death and
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  Speaker 2: locked and padlocked, and they managed to cut the padlock
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  Speaker 2: get into the tent, cut the padlock, take the bikes.
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  Speaker 2: You can't make a noise, You can't ride the bikes
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  Speaker 2: there because there are thirty people on site. Would have
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  Speaker 2: heard yeah, and they must have loaded. Yeah, they must
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  Speaker 2: have loaded them onto a and off they went. Luckily
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  Speaker 2: for us, we have trackers on the bikes. On you. Yeah, Well,
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  Speaker 2: we did a bit of research before we came and
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  Speaker 2: we had trackers on the bikes and so we could
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  Speaker 2: pinpoint exactly where they were. We obviously we called the
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  Speaker 2: police and told them, but it was still the ingenuity
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  Speaker 2: surprised me. We managed to get there was a location
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  Speaker 2: where two of the bikes were, and we had a
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  Speaker 2: fellow who went out to that location and saw them.
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  Speaker 2: There was no trouble, he wasn't going to get into
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  Speaker 2: any trouble, got the bikes put on as you came back.
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  Speaker 2: That was a local name. Boy do we thank him.
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  Speaker 2: And then on Monday night, about nine thirty, we had
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  Speaker 2: another bike. The last bike returned on the back of
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  Speaker 2: a youth from another fellow who because that was out
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  Speaker 2: in the scrub somewhere and so we knew where it was.
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  Speaker 2: But we weren't going to go anywhere without the police
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  Speaker 2: because we don't know what sort of trolley to get in,
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  Speaker 2: and so anyhow that fell aboard to his bikes back.
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  Speaker 2: So Monday nine, from all day we were thinking, crikeie,
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  Speaker 2: we're not going one of our major actes, the Globe
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  Speaker 2: of Death, and that's where the three bikes are from
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  Speaker 2: major act and we've got a very unique ending to it,
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  Speaker 2: which I'm not telling you. But the thing is, we
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  Speaker 2: weren't going to have the act. We've still got one
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  Speaker 2: more week or we finish on Sunday here in our
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  Speaker 2: Springs before we get the dar and we were thinking, boy,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's a major act, and we were worried about,
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  Speaker 2: you know, not presenting the full hundred percent of the show.
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  Speaker 2: We were worried about the bikes. You know, people have
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  Speaker 2: paid money for tickets. And so when we got the
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  Speaker 2: last bike back, I can tell you it was like
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  Speaker 2: a birthday party. It was the biggest shoe I had.
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  Speaker 2: And that meant that we're right now. The bikes are back.
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  Speaker 2: These bikes are finally tuned, because you can't do this act,
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  Speaker 2: it's so dangerous, they're finally tuned. So we've annow spent
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  Speaker 2: the last couple of days and tomorrow we'll have get
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  Speaker 2: them back into water, get them to shape, get them
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  Speaker 2: into show, and then we'll be able to do it.
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  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you one of the lovely things about it, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: was that the support of the people in Ala Springs.
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  Speaker 2: It's all over Facebook everywhere. Yeah, it's just been amazing.
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  Speaker 2: And there was one lady who drove up on Wednesday morning. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and she just came down to see if we got
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  Speaker 2: the bikes found the box because her daughter and her
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  Speaker 2: saw the show on Friday night. And she told us
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  Speaker 2: that her daughter was worried all day about you know,
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  Speaker 2: like the missing bikes of style and bikes and everything. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and when I told her we got them back, he said, ah,
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  Speaker 2: I can tell my daughter, Yeah, she'll be happy. Well.
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  Speaker 2: And great little things like that.
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  Speaker 1: It's and those little things actually really count because the
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  Speaker 1: community of Alice Springs, the town that it is, it
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  Speaker 1: is such a wonderful place, but it's going through some
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  Speaker 1: really tough times and you know, those really good people
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  Speaker 1: that want to help, that want to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: you know that you get the bike's bag. They are
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  Speaker 1: there and they're wonderful people wanting to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: the town can be the place that it should be.
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  Speaker 2: Well, O, Katie, I can tell you the two incidences.
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  Speaker 2: One which is a very sour taste on the face
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  Speaker 2: is the mouth is the stealing of the bikes. Yeh, grit,
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  Speaker 2: that makes you furious. But the good point out of
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  Speaker 2: it is this community in all of Springs, they're trumps.
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  Speaker 2: And so we'll leave all of Springs with Yes, we'll
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  Speaker 2: have the memory of the bikes and that'll sit with
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  Speaker 2: us for a while, but the memory also of g
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  Speaker 2: you what a good mob down here? Yeah, and you know, terrific,
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  Speaker 2: was absolutely terrific.
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  Speaker 1: I got told that one of those locals might have
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  Speaker 1: been Garth Thompson, who we've spoken to before about different things.
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  Speaker 1: Was he one of the blokes that had helped you
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  Speaker 1: out what allegend?
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  Speaker 2: He is the one who got that he went to
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  Speaker 2: the location for the two bikes. He's a champion.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, how great that they were able to help you.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me, Greg, has anything like this ever happened to
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  Speaker 1: you with thisus before?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've had things like when we had promotional inflatables
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  Speaker 2: three meters high and all of that. You'd have a
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  Speaker 2: couple of young turks on the uh, you know who've
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  Speaker 2: got on the grog a bit and thought it'd be
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  Speaker 2: fun to have them. And you get things like that pinched.
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  Speaker 2: You rarely ever get anything of the show pinched the
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  Speaker 2: interior of the show. And so yes, we've had things
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  Speaker 2: nick before. That's usually by you know, someone who high jinks. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: nothing like this, nothing like this at all.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you obviously you had a bit of an idea
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  Speaker 1: that Alice Springs was going through issues with crime before
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  Speaker 1: you went there, didn't you.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, what we did it was there was Alice Springs,
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  Speaker 2: which have been I've been to before yea and on
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  Speaker 2: the way to DA and now Alice Springs in the
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  Speaker 2: shows that I've been with there's always been very good.
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  Speaker 2: And I thought, well, here we go. Now we've got
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  Speaker 2: all the media reports, We've got all of that. So
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  Speaker 2: we decided to do is We researched as much as
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  Speaker 2: we could. We spoke extensively to the police. We spoke
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  Speaker 2: to a lot of people in town about that we
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  Speaker 2: knew of to get the picture from them what it
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  Speaker 2: was like. And luckily enough we're out at Vladisky Park,
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  Speaker 2: which is an isolated area and we don't expect it
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  Speaker 2: like the troubles in town. Our people were told don't
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  Speaker 2: go into town at night. We had a long list
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  Speaker 2: of dos and don'ts for all our people for their safety.
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  Speaker 2: We had a thorough investigation into it. We thought, well, okay,
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  Speaker 2: this is a lot will happened. We're going to have
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  Speaker 2: to go. As long as we do the sensible things
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  Speaker 2: and follow everything, we should be all right. You never
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  Speaker 2: know what's going to happen, but we'll take the punt.
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  Speaker 2: We'll go there for the people of our springs. They
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  Speaker 2: don't think for a minute we're not commercial yet we
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  Speaker 2: want to make a profit. Of course we're not doing
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  Speaker 2: out the goodness of our heart. But in one part
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  Speaker 2: we were. In the other part we thought, yes, we
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  Speaker 2: could do it if we're careful and sense. And that's
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  Speaker 2: the thing. Extensive research and make sure we know what
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  Speaker 2: are our what's this or that?
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  Speaker 1: So you did all your homework here.
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  Speaker 2: Well you do because you know, look you well, we've
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  Speaker 2: got people who got to look after the two people.
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  Speaker 2: The most important person in the circus is the person
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  Speaker 2: who buys the ticket, and they've got to be looked after.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why we instituted a special car park for everybody,
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  Speaker 2: fully supervised. Their cars are safe while you're watching the
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  Speaker 2: shape like that. You know, we couldn't just let them drive,
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  Speaker 2: turn up and just park and god knows what happened.
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  Speaker 2: We made sure that was supervised and told everybody you know,
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  Speaker 2: when you come here it's safe, it's research making sure
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  Speaker 2: everything's okay. And today, barring that pardon my friend, bloody incident,
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  Speaker 2: it's been terrific.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Mate, I'm so glad that you got those bikes back.
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  Speaker 1: Now tell me is it Are they going to be
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  Speaker 1: able to go ahead in the remainder of the show.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, excellent. Yes, the next show is tomorrow night and
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  Speaker 2: we'll have all the bogs back tuned, ready, ready to
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  Speaker 2: go and raring to go.
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  Speaker 1: Wonderful. And then you're coming to Darwin as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and straight after we finish on Sunday here and
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  Speaker 2: then we got a bit of a trip to Darwin,
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  Speaker 2: which is interesting for our international performers, and then we'll
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  Speaker 2: be opening in Darwen towards the end of March and
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  Speaker 2: then going there for the school holidays and the East
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  Speaker 2: of holidays. We're in town.
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  Speaker 1: Then. Oh well, I'm so glad that you got those
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  Speaker 1: motorcycles back and that you're able to continue on with
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  Speaker 1: that aspect of the show. Tell me, Greg, will it
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  Speaker 1: make you think twice about going back to Alice Springs
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  Speaker 1: or has the goodness from those that helped out outweigh
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  Speaker 1: the bad situation.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's outweighed. Look. Look I got in this morning
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  Speaker 2: and I'm sitting in the tent now.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as I lifted the flat the flat of
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  Speaker 2: the tent and as side the alarms went off penetrating ideas.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Look, we'll be back in Alice for sure. Again.
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  Speaker 2: We'll do our research, we'll talk to everybody locally, we'll
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  Speaker 2: do whatever we have to do. But you know, like,
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  Speaker 2: by golly, three cheers for the people of our off
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  Speaker 2: springs full stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Greg, tell me just quickly, we had a
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  Speaker 1: call of just ring through wondering have you ever had
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  Speaker 1: to deal with these types of issues anywhere else that
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  Speaker 1: you've traveled to in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: No, You've got to be careful. There are some traces
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  Speaker 2: you have to be careful at certain times of the year.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, and it's not getting better at all. You
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  Speaker 2: just have to be very careful of what to do,
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  Speaker 2: particularly when you've got like we've got a big, brand
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  Speaker 2: new million dollar ten curiosity seekers and you only need
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  Speaker 2: one mug, you know, to go in. But obviously all
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  Speaker 2: our security now is extremely tight. Yeah, we keep our
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  Speaker 2: eyes years open. You know, we've liaised with the local
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  Speaker 2: police and all of that sort of thing. It just
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  Speaker 2: means that the days of you free and happy, carefree
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  Speaker 2: days of traveling are gone. You have to be alert
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  Speaker 2: and careful and sensible about it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Greg, thank you so much for having a chat
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning. And you know it is. It
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  Speaker 1: would have been such a terrible situation. But thank goodness
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  Speaker 1: for those locals that have helped immensely by the sounds
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  Speaker 1: of things, So thank you so much for having a
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  Speaker 1: chat with us. And I'm really pleased to hear that
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  Speaker 1: you got those bites back.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, three cheers for Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, wonderful.
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  Speaker 2: I won't do it.
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  Speaker 1: I won't do it right now on.
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  Speaker 2: Air, but thank you Greg, Monday night.
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  Speaker 1: I love it, mate, I love it. We'll catch up
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  Speaker 1: with you, I'm sure when you're in Darwin. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you