Year in review: What made news in the Northern Territory in 2014
The Northern Territory had its fair share of big news in 2014. Here are some of the biggest stories from the last 12 months.
Tragedies in the water
Three people lost their lives within a month in early 2014, taken by the power of water that simply got the better of them.
Naomi MacLachlan, 14, was playing in the heavy swell off Casuarina Beach on January 18 when she was overwhelmed by the tumbling surf and dragged under. Attempts by distraught friends and passers-by to save her failed and she died after several days on life support.
The next day, 8-year-old Richard Baird, doing what many Territory kids like him have done for years, was playing in a swollen stormwater drain in Palmerston when he was sucked under and found almost half a kilometre away. He could not be revived.
His death sparked a review into drain safety and maintenance.
The third death, a man whose body was spotted in the sea off Nightcliff, shocked the community and reinforced again the caution needed when attempting to cool off during the long wait for rains.
Crocodiles kill again
Local wisdom sometimes runs to "if it doesn't have tiles, don't swim in it" in the Top End, but still people venture into the sea, rivers and creeks - despite the spectre of the predatory saltwater crocodile.
A 12-year-old boy was attacked and killed while swimming in a billabong in Kakadu in late January, with the animal first lunging at another child in the group before it latched on to the boy. As they have many times before, search and rescue teams took to the water with the awful task of finding what they could. Days later they confirmed the local and wider community's worst fears.
More croc attacks, including a man being taken while standing in a boat, reignited calls for the animals to be culled, to no avail.
Power struggles of many kinds
NT politics was never far from the news, with Chief Minister Adam Giles regularly repeating the mantra of "getting on with the job" in the face of a number of sagas that dogged his first year at the helm.
Allegations of entrenched racism in the ruling Country Liberal Party (CLP) were fiercely denied after indigenous member Alison Anderson accused the Tourism Minister Matt Conlan of calling her a c*** during a party meeting in March.
A CLP slanging match between Ms Anderson and others ended in the note-slipped-under-the-door resignation of Ms Anderson, who took fellow recruits Larisa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu with her, reducing the CLP's hold on power to a one seat majority and adding to the fire.
The trio would go on to join Clive Palmer's Palmer United Party (PUP), with Ms Anderson continuing to personally attack Mr Giles.
Just months later, the flirtation with PUP ended, with Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu returning to the CLP and Ms Anderson and Ms Lee going it alone as independents, much to the amusement of Mr Giles who issued an "I told you so" to Mr Palmer.
The April by-election win in the seat held by retiring former CLP leader Terry Mills gave the government breathing space again and exposed rifts within the education union, while the retirement of Labor's Kon Vatskalis in Casuarina saw a tight contest between Dr Harry Kypreos and Labor's new recruit Lauren Moss, who would go on to win.
The activities of the Foundation 51 company came under scrutiny, with Adam Giles, former chief minister Terry Mills and other senior party officials issuing denials it was a means to funnel undisclosed donations to CLP coffers, despite strong evidence to the contrary.
The CLP countered with the Stella Maris inquiry into Territory Labor's 2012 gifting of a heritage building to the union movement, which criticised the roles of current Labor leader Delia Lawrie and deputy Gerry McCarthy.
Gay slur scandal and the 'nest of vipers'
Mr Giles ally Dave Tollner reluctantly resigned his position of Deputy Chief Minister and Treasurer in August after homophobic comments by him to a gay party staffer became public.
Stung by the perceived lack of support by his fellow CLP members, Mr Tollner quit his frontbench roles, branded his CLP colleagues as a "nest of vipers" and disappeared into the bush to ponder his future while shooting and fishing.
A tilt by Mr Giles to reinstall Mr Tollner to the frontbench after his period in exile came unstuck after a party room revolt, with the mid-December reshuffle line-up excluding Mr Tollner and instead featuring Gary Higgins - the father of the gay staffer targeted by Mr Tollner.
Suggestions that the appointment of Mr Higgins was a gesture of appeasement over the gay slur controversy were described by Mr Giles as "silly".
The PM gets his hands dirty
Prime Minister Tony Abbott travelled to remote Northern Territory in September, to honour a commitment to local Indigenous leaders.
Mr Abbott visited local industries and participated in cultural events before Australia's decision to commit forces in Iraq led him to cut the visit short.
A proposed residential island development off the Darwin coastline rubbed some in the community the wrong way, with questions being asked of the process under which NT developers Halikos obtained permission to conduct drill testing and a 98 hectare exploration lease in the Darwin Harbour.
Fierce debate over the issue culminated in a heated hallway exchange between the then acting planning minister John Elferink and environment campaigner Stuart Blanch after an interview on ABC Darwin radio.
Another contentious project in Nightcliff, the city council owned beachside cafe, got its final stamp of approval in 2014, with work set to begin despite local objections and concerns over clifftop erosion.
Rio Tinto continued winding down operations at its alumina refinery in the east Arnhem Land site at Gove, with federal and territory politicians coming under fire at public meetings over job losses and the town's future.
A plan to build a 1,000 kilometre pipeline, expected to cost more than $1 billion, to supply natural gas to eastern Australia was given "major project status" by the NT government in October and heralded by Adam Giles as the solution to an impending East Coast gas crisis shortage.
Major investment into resources, agriculture and tourism industries formed the backbone of the Abbott government's 2030 green paper into Northern Development, with the Territory government releasing their response soon after which welcomed the plan but said a large injection of federal funds would be needed to make the ideas a reality.
A 12-hour power outage that blacked out Darwin in March shut down industry, closed schools and the public services and led to an inquiry into the procedures in place at PowerWater.
Subsequent power failures, including one caused by a technical fault on an unmanned gas platform about 280 kilometres from Darwin caused more headaches for the Government.
Territory-owned insurer sold
In November, amid strong public sentiment to keep the insurer in government hands - including some resistance from members within his own party - Chief Minister Adam Giles pushed through the sale of the Territory Insurance Office (TIO), with German-based Allianz buying the business for $236 million, with TIO's banking and finance arm sold to People's Choice Credit Union for $48 million - money which the Giles government said would be used for infrastructure projects and flood mitigation in vulnerable areas.
A cold case heats up
The mystery of what happened to 36-year-old Carlie Sinclair came one step closer to its final chapter, with her partner Danny Deacon charged with her murder and police announcing they had found human remains at a property in Berry Springs on Christmas Eve.
It was a tough year for voluntary euthanasia campaigner Phillip Nitschke, who continued his battle against the Australian Medical Association (AMA) which had managed to have him stripped of his licence to practice medicine.
At the November three-day court appeal into the Medical Board of Australia's ruling, Mr Nitschke confessed he wished he had never met Perth man Nigel Brayley, whom he admitted supporting in the decision take his own life.
Mr Nitschke's fight will spill over into 2015, with another 12 complaints against Mr Nitschke lodged by the board.
The NT was not spared in the MH17 tragedy, with three Territorians on board the Malaysian Airlines flight allegedly shot down over Ukraine.
Public servants Theresa and Wayne Baker and young teacher Emma Bell were remembered at services in the Territory.
The discovery of three bodies at a suburban property in Darwin's north shocked the Darwin community, with initial fears of a killer on the loose giving away to the eventual ruling of a murder-suicide tragedy that saw an outpouring of anger, disbelief and calls for compassion.
Darwin man Dan Baschiera took up arms against ebola, travelling to Sierra Leone to do what he could, writing a heartfelt letter that laid bare the disaster ravaging the small African nation.
When it rains...
The Wet season in the Top End is famous for its stunning skies, storm fronts and rain that goes on for days.
Received with outstretched arms by residents sick to death of the humidity, the Wet brings relief, but also many dangers.
Storming into the NT
For someone who does not describe himself as a Star Wars fan, Scott Loxley sure had most people fooled, stopping off in Darwin around the halfway point of a 15,000 kilometre solo walk around Australia while wearing a Stormtrooper costume from the movie.
Mr Loxley agreed to take a dip in Darwin's submersible croc cage to draw attention to his chosen charity, with a video of his plunge seen around the country and by Star Wars fans worldwide.
Indigenous activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks won support for her comments on the ABC's Q&A program and capped off her year by being named the Northern Territory Australian of the Year for 2015.
Young Darwin man Josh Hardy lost his life after an altercation in a Melbourne fast food restaurant in October, with a large turnout at an emotional farewell in his hometown hearing from Josh's father David of his "sense of adventure and passion for education".
Don't bring a car to a train fight
A 23-year-old Territory man escaped with his life but wrote off his brand new 4WD after getting it stuck on railways tracks near Katherine about 315 kilometres south of Darwin, with a freight train smashing into the Toyota, dragging the mangled wreck almost a kilometre and coming to a halt on a bridge.
Local police said it was not an isolated incident and pleaded with NT drivers to use correct crossings.
To add a dash of salt to the wound, police said the 4WD was not insured.
Horror stories from a place of care
Horrific stories of child abuse at the Retta Dixon home came to light at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Pastoralists affected by the Labor government's live export ban took their case to court, with some turning to other means by which to claw back their livelihoods.
The tragedy of the alleged hit-and-run death of 9-year-old Jack Sultan-Page for a Territory family in November was made unimaginably worse when a motorcyclist killed in similar circumstances less than a month later was revealed to be Jack's uncle.
Cyclone memories still loom large decades on
The storm that smashed Darwin to pieces on Christmas 1974 still has the ability to cause distress for many who went through the ordeal.
Forty years on from Cyclone Tracy, ABC Darwin featured the stories and photographs of residents, emergency workers, public figures and celebrities from the catastrophe which defined Darwin for years to come.
The anniversary and commemoration of the disaster encouraged on a wave of stories of bravery, survival, stoicism, kindness and grief.
And, like in every year since, the questions persist - is the Top End ready for another cyclone?
The weird and the whacky
The NT, for some reason, punches above its weight when it comes to strange stories.
One example from 2014 was the case of a man finding a human skull while catching crabs.
The remains were spotted by Darwin man Chris Johnson while on a beach in the Mandorah area, about 130km by road from Darwin in September.
Mr Johnson posted photos of the skull on his Facebook page.
"Yep!! Called the Po Po (the police)... They want me to hide it!! They are going to come around," he wrote.
Mr Johnson said he had caught several crabs and had packed up his equipment when he made the discovery as he left.
He said the police told him to hide the skull in the bushes until they could get to the remote location, a claim the police denied.
In one of the most shared stories on social media, CCTV footage showed a Darwin man attempting to steal money from an ATM by pumping it full of flammable gas and having it blow up in his face in December.
Police said they were on the lookout for a man without any eyebrows over the incident.
