Tamara runs a coffee van in Tennant Creek and has for nearly eight years. She chose the town over Katherine, drawn back to the NT after living elsewhere. Business is flat-out every day, but she's noticed the town has changed: kids wander into her van uninvited and she worries more about safety.
Tamara does make the best coffee in town. So what's your story, Tamara? How did you end up in Tennant Creek in a coffee van making the best coffee in town?
Well, my husband's a builder and it was either— he said either Katherine or Tennant Creek, and I went on the map and I went, Tennant Creek it is.
Oh, so yeah, a lot of forethought. So how long have you been here?
Uh, be coming up 8 years now.
8 years?
Yep. I had— I've got a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old, and then I have a 7-year-old in Queensland, a 5-year-old in Alice Springs, and then probably about 3 years ago we just come up for sales and I bought it.
It's a great thing, it's gone well for you, hasn't it?
Yeah, I'm flat out every day.
Yeah, you are. So what, what is it you love about Tennant Creek, living in the Barkly?
Ah, just the Northern Territory. We lived in Darwin and then we moved to Queensland and then it just sucked us back. I don't know, something about the Territory.
There is, isn't there?
It sucks us back over here, but, uh, we just love the We just love the town.
Yeah, yeah.
But no, we just love this town. We— it has changed over the 8 years we have been here. Yeah, like before when we first got here, it was— we could go walk down the street. Like, I always walk my little one, old one now, up the street in the pram or whatever. But you can't— well, sometimes you can still do that, but other times, like, you can't. It's a bit tough. It's quite sad.
It is sad.
Yeah, they love walking and getting out. I love doing it too, but this is—
Yeah, yeah, there's, there's room for it to change for the better of everyone. Oh, there is.
Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, before, when I first started this van life, I've never felt like— not so much scared, but because I've got my money on me and stuff in the van. But as the years have gone on, it's harder and harder. Yeah, I've heard that. Like, I've had kids walk up to my van while I've been in to like the childcare or similar, and they've actually gone into my van, and I've gone off at them, like, and they're like, what's wrong, miss? What's wrong? I said, well, this is my property, and they just don't understand. It is hard. It is getting hard. And it's, yeah, like I said, Russia said it's— they just don't respect us.
Well, thank you very much. Delightful.
