Barbecues, cruises, pool parties and coffee dates – gay men in Darwin are a rowdy bunch, thanks to men’s social group, Frankly Speaking. Adam Bub speaks – frankly – with coordinator Peter Caust.
The Northern Territory has an active but widely dispersed gay and lesbian community. The need for social groups and support networks could not be greater in any other part of Australia. That’s why, in 2003, Darwin bookshop owner Peter Caust started Frankly Speaking – the only gay men’s social group in the Top End.
“Frankly Speaking is a two-hour discussion group held monthly on Monday nights,” Caust tells GayNT. “We cover a wide range of topics, like being out of your comfort zone, gay rights, politics, what turns you on, alcoholism, mental health and drugs. Sometimes somebody might have a death in the family, so we talk about that.”
The group attracts around 10-13 men each month, who share food, drink and conversation on the waterfront of Darwin’s North Coast. “We have our discussion groups and social events outside – during the dry season, we hold it closer to the city. During the wet season, we have it near my place,” Caust says. “So if it pisses down with rain we go there!”
Caust sees the group as an opportunity to socialise, but also to learn about safe sex. “Mark Halton from the AIDS Council sometimes comes to talk about particular issues. It’s very important, because I think most guys don’t practice safe sex.”
Before the discussion group began, Caust coordinated a monthly social event for local gay men that still continues today, alongside the Frankly Speaking group. Previous events include games nights, harbour cruises, pool parties and a joint function with the Country Network, a national organisation that links GLBT people in rural Australia. This event attracted 50 people.
Caust also runs free, informal social gatherings for gay, lesbian and straight patrons of his bookshop in Cullen Bay, Absolutely Books. On various weeknights, Caust invites customers, visitors and new arrivals to have wine, nibbles and a good yarn in his shop after 5pm. “It makes the shop look busy!” he laughs.
On Saturday mornings, Caust invites friends and visitors to join him for a good coffee, using an email list of around 100 people, and telling regular visitors to his store. “People meet,” he says. “There’s been quite a few partnerships formed since we started in 2002.”
The bookshop stocks material for a more discerning audience. “I’ve created a business that people come to because it has different stuff – I don’t have any mass market books usually. We mainly have literature, including a gay and lesbian literature and sex section. You couldn’t survive on just gay literature here in Darwin, it’s too small a place.”
It’s no wonder Caust, a Darwin resident of nine years, and former Coober Pedy local of 25 years, has been described as ‘a hub for Top End connections’ by friend Phil Walcott, director of GALTA NT (Gay and Lesbian Travel Association Northern Territory).
GALTA are a national not-for-profit organisation that connect federal, state and regional tourism bodies, companies and professionals who are committed to the GLBT market, including hotels, airlines and restaurants.
GALTA NT’s membership is enormous, says Olli Berst, GALTA’s Top End NT representative. However, exclusive gay venues or social groups are hard to come by. “Even though we have many gay and lesbian friendly organisations, there’s not much for the community other than Darwin’s Throb nightclub,” Berst tells GayNT.
This shows just how important Caust’s gay social group is, especially after the Darwin Pride Festival 2008 was cancelled due to planning troubles and the withdrawal of the NT Aids and Hepatitis Council’s sponsorship, according to Caust and Mark Halton, the organisers of Pride 2007.
Despite the cancellation, Walcott insists that NT is welcoming to GLBT people all year round. “It’s not really the rednecky backwater that some people might perceive it to be,” says Walcott, who, with his partner, runs the only gay and lesbian hosted accommodation in Central Australia, the Rainbow Connection.
Berst, who moved from Germany to live with his partner in 2006, agrees that the locals are open-minded. “Even if you walk along hand-in-hand nobody really cares,” he says. Berst runs travel service Frangipani Holidays, and is launching a new website for gay and lesbian travellers called QueerTravel.net.
Over recent years, Tourism NT has implemented a gay and lesbian tourism strategy that promotes “the Northern Territory’s appeal as a friendly and welcoming destination for G&L travellers,” according to a statement by Jo-Anne Harkin, Regional Director of Central Australia at the NTTC.
This strategy has included conferences with local tourism operators, the inclusion of gay-specific images in Tourism NT’s visual library, the publication of a gay and lesbian hip guide, which was attached to the 2008 Mardi Gras guide. To top it off, Phil Walcott is sponsored by Tourism NT to attend national fair days such as MidSumma Melbourne and Sydney Mardi Gras.
Like Caust’s Darwin group, Alice Springs has GayASP, a social group for gay and bisexual men, who hold barbecues, drinks and breakfasts throughout the week in gay-friendly hang-outs. They even hold the ingeniously titled ‘Campout’ event, and the Alice is Wonderland festival in March as a Mardi Gras follow-up, reinforcing Walcott’s claim that the Central Northern Territory gay and lesbian community is ‘vibrant’.
With no specific groups for lesbians, and only a handful for gay men, the Northern Territory gay and lesbian community can only survive through networks fostered by people like Peter Caust, Phil Walcott and Olli Berst.
As Walcott puts it: “It’s about networking, and making it all happen.”
For more information on Frankly Speaking, email
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or call (08) 8941 1363. For more information on GALTA, visit www.galta.com.au
Barbecues, cruises, pool parties and coffee dates – gay men in Darwin are a rowdy bunch, thanks to men’s social group, Frankly Speaking. Adam Bub speaks – frankly – with coordinator Peter Caust.
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