Alice Springs and Surrounds

Downtown Alice Springs - From Anzac Hill

Alice Springs is located around the geometric centre of Australia, and lies some 1500 km to the south of Darwin - our next major destination. Running to the immediate east and west of the town are the MacDonnell Ranges, named after Richard MacDonnell, Governor of South Australia (SA) at the time of their discovery. Over millions of years, weathering and erosion at what is now called Heavitree Gap enabled a breach in the range through which the Todd River now flows, the Stuart Highway traverses and the Ghan railway line passes. The gap is no wider than a few hundred metres and is the single access point by which Alice Springs is approached from the south.

Old Telegraph Station - Alice Springs

Alice Springs came about because of the establishment of a Telegraph repeater station about 3 km north of the current town centre. The story of the building of the Overland Telegraph line (OT Line) through central Australia is an epic in itself. But in short, with the opening up of a route through the centre of Australia to Chambers Bay near Darwin by John McDoull Stuart in 1862 - a Scottish Civil Engineer turned explorer - building of the OT Line by the SA Government began in 1870 between Port Augusta and Port Darwin, and was completed in 1872. Along the route, 11 repeater stations were built, one of which was located at Alice Springs. We took a stroll through the station and it’s been maintained in excellent condition. The buildings have been stocked with period furniture, the telegraph office has the original equipment and outside, the blacksmiths shop has the whole box and dice. There are also the stable buildings holding saddles - both horse and camel saddles - and buggies from that era. Even the cattle yards still exist. Adjacent to the station is a dip in the Todd river where the original founder of the site, as part of an advance party looking for the most suitable route for the OT Line, thought he had stumbled on a natural spring. In reality, it had rained for the preceding weeks and water had been retained in the dip which, with a base of solid rock, prevented water from soaking through the natural river bed sand. The name “Alice Spring” was given to the site, Alice being the name of the wife of Charles Todd, the SA Superintendent of Telegraphs who was also responsible for construction of the OT Line. The main river running through the current and original Alice Springs was named the Todd River. A tributary of the Todd river was named the Charles river.

About 3 km south of the original Alice Spring, the town of Stuart was established around 1872 and named after John McDouall Stuart at about the same time as the Telegraph station started operations. In 1933, a referendum of the people of Stuart was held and they agreed to the renaming of Stuart to Alice Springs.

To me, this is a sad reflection on the character of the people who opened up this country. John McDouall Stuart spent two years and 6 attempts in order to cross Australia from Port Augusta to Chambers Bay new Darwin. He suffered terribly with his health during these exploits, returning to Scotland in 1864 and dying 2 years later at the age of 50. For his efforts in all these exploits, he was awarded the princely sum of GBP3,000 and even then, because he was an alcoholic, he was only allowed access to the interest on that amount for his daily needs. And to top it off, they name a Highway after him ....

Alice Todd on the other hand was the wife of Charles Todd - the main driving force behind construction of the the OT Line and a person of some importance in the SA community. So by mere association rather than involvement, her name is now part of the Australian landscape. And to top it off - Alice Todd never paid a visit to the original Alice Spring.

But then we do have the Stuart Highway ......

John McDouall Stuart

Unless you missed it, I am a huge fan of Stuart. An alcoholic yes, but leaving that aside, when the man was in the bush, he could read it like a book. He had an uncanny knack of finding water sources where others couldn’t and was the quintessential bushman - and this in 1860. He was at his best in the bush and his worst on return from his 6 exploration trips to the interior - that’s 6 - with his final trip being the breakthrough he and his two financial backers, Chambers and Finke, had hoped for. And as someone I bumped into the other day remarked, he’s the least known Scottish explorer in Scotland, even though he discovered and traversed more harsh country than the African explorations of the famed Dr Livingston. If you’ve ever been into the central parts of Australia, especially those of northern SA and the northern parts of WA and the NT, you’ll understand just how hard that must have been back in 1860. No air-conditioning, internet and Tellie then folks ....

Photo from the Strehlow Collection

Also took a trip through the Central Australian Museum, which is part of a Cultural Precinct that comprises an Art Gallery and Centre with a Gallery dedicated to paintings of the famed Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira and members of his immediate family, The Museum of Central Australian which is dedicated to the natural geography and fauna of the NT (fantastic Museum) and also includes many photographs from the Strehlow collection (another story in itself), and of course the Central Australian Aviation Museum. In the Art gallery, there was a collection of lithographs from Roy Lichtenstein on display, courtesy of the National Gallery. A very interesting artist - his art is a commentary on the political and social norms of the day during the 1960’s through to the mid 1990’s. He passed away in 1997 at the rather youngish age of 74.

Connair DeHavilland Heron

The Aviation Museum was good, primarily based around an excellent display of aircraft from Connellan Airlines, which was an outback airline headquartered in Alice Springs. Long short, the airline was founded in 1939 by Edward Connellan and in 1970, it underwent a name change to Connair (remember the movie ???) . In 1980, as the result of financial difficulties, it was sold to East-West Airlines but not long after the sale, it went into Liquidation. During the good times, it operated the 4 engined DeHavilland Heron as its mainstay aircraft, which underwent a re-engine program after Edward Connellan decided that, although a good aircraft, it was, like many British aircraft at the time, underpowered. So and against advice from the original designer, he installed American manufactured Lycoming Engines with higher power, finally producing an aircraft that was lighter by 800 lb and had markedly increased fuel efficiency. Another interesting aspect of the airline was that way back in the 1970’s, Connellan employed a lady as the Chief pilot. An interesting man was Edward Connellan. He died around 1987.

Ormiston Gorge - West MacDonnell Ranges

When you come to Alice Springs, there are many “musts”, but one is to spend some time in the MacDonnell Ranges. They are referred to as the West and East MacDonnell Ranges, the demarcation being the Heavitree Gap referred to earlier. So TJ and self took a trip out to both on different days - there's a fair bit of driving, especially in the West MacDonnell's. For the West MacDonnells, there some very interesting places to visit, among them Glen Helen, which although a resort, has an interesting Gorge and quite large water hole, as part of the Finke river. Ormiston Gorge is a natural spring water hole and aside from the Ellery Creek Big Hole water hole, is perhaps the most picturesque of the river Gorges. 

The Boofheaded Rock Ape

Another interesting weathered feature is Simpsons Gap, only about 18 km out of Alice Springs. It was originally considered as a potential way through the MacDonnells for the OT line, but the line was finally routed further east. The gap has similar weathering and erosion as Heavitree Gap south of Alice Springs, but has very steep Gorge walls and is no wider than perhaps 6 to 8 metres. It’s also a natural habitat for the Black Footed Rock Wallaby, one of which I saw at Ormiston Gorge. These are timid creatures, seem to be very fine boned, unlike their cousin the Wallaby and Kangaroo. Simpsons Gap is also host to the Boofheaded Rock Ape who fortunately, only visit on occasion and are characterised by their inability to read Park signs, have a noisy aural habit and a brain the size of a Walnut. I saw more of these than I needed to.

Finally, in the East MacDonnell Range, there are similar delights, such as Trephina Gorge - very picturesque, Jessie Gap and Emily Gap, both of which are culturally important to the local Arrernte Aborigine tribe. Emily Gap is particularly significant because it has rock art on the Gorge wall that dates back many years. Last time I visited in 2011, this Gap had water in part of the river. This year it’s bone dry. According to the locals, 2013 has been the “driest wet season” in 27 years.

So tomorrow (Saturday May 4th), we head north for Darwin, with a few other interesting stops in between.