Doing a bit of basic , old fashioned journalistic follow up, Little Darwin rang the Darwin Council to find out how Luccio Cercarelli , nominated in the NT News as the person to fix the gross Darwin War Memorial spelling errors, was getting on with the onerous task . He was busy in a conference, so we left our name and number . Not long after , Mark Blackburn of the DC rang back and discussed the issue . It was amazing , he said, that nobody had noticed the incorrect spelling of two countries and the United Nations , which had existed for years .When we pointed out Little Darwin had raised the matter well over a year ago , he seemed doubly surprised , gobsmacked perhaps more apt . Then we told him that Little Darwin had specifically notified the Chief Minister ,through his strategist, Fred McCue , and asked what the CM was doing to rectify the gaffe with the 70th anniversary of the Darwin bombing fast approaching . Chief Minister Paul Henderson, we told Blackburn, did not respond to Little Darwin's warning emails and obviously did not alert the DC. Strange . The NT about to be embarrassed nationally and internationally, and the CM does not spring into action to try and resolve the snafu .
The Little Darwin post on January 20 about DARWIN OFFICIALS AND MEDIA BOMBING OUT over the war memorial caused the number of hits to skyrocket. Blackburn says there is no way the memorial errors can be rectified by February 19; while something could be done to cover up the incorrect apostrophe in NETHERLANDS (NETHERLAND'S) EAST INDIES , the error in the spelling of the PHILIPPINES (PHILLIPINES ) posed a problem as did the reference to the UNITED NATIONS in the singular . He was not certain if the names were engraved into large panels of granite or marble .
When it comes to war history , the NT News itself has a problem spelling the names of WW 11 place names . In the January 24 edition THE YEAR THAT WAS pictorial section showed WW11 veteran "Ted Milliken" with a chest of medals who had served in PAPA NEW GUINEA ( sic ) , Nauru and The PHILLIPINES (sic).
