| Alice
Springs - Alice Springs, at the heart of the Red Centre
and almost 1500 km from the nearest capital city, is en route
to many attractions including Uluru (Ayers Rock). More than
350 000 visitors a year pass through this well-maintained town
in the scenic MacDonnell Ranges. The area has a strong beef-cattle
industry, and more recent industries include cut-flowers, camel
meat and date-growing. The Todd River, which runs through town,
is dry except after heavy rains; for the Henley-on-Todd Regatta
held every Oct. the boats are carried, or wheeled. Between May
and Sept. days are warm and nights can be cold. For the rest
of the year daytime temperatures rise to the high 30s but nights
are milder. Rains, usually brief, can come at any time of yeac
Alice Springs’ pioneering history began when the town site was
seen by William Whitfield Mills in 1871, when surveying for
the Overland Telegraph Line. He named the river after the SA
Superintendent of Telegraphs, Sir Charles Todd, and a nearby
waterhole Alice Springs after Lady Todd. The first European
settlement was at the repeater station, built for transmitting
messages across the continent. In 1860 John McDouall Stuart
had passed about 50 km w of the site. He named Central Mt Sturt
after Captain Sturt, who had commanded an earlier expedition;
however, the SA Covernment renamed the mountain in Stuart’s
honour. Pastoralist John Ross also helped to look for a route
for the telegraph line. Until 1880 the repeater station was
the only reason for a few Europeans being in this remote area,
then the Government sent surveyors north seeking sites for railheads.
The township of Stuart, 3.2 km from the telegraph station, was
gazetted in 1880 but the railway remained unbuilt. Supplies
came by camel train from Port Augusta. Even the discovery of
gold at Arltunga, 113 km NE, did little to develop Stuart. The
Federal Government took control of NT from SA in 1911; the township
then developed slowly. The Australian Inland Mission stationed
Sister Jane Finlayson there in 1916 and local need led to the
establishment of Adelaide House nursing hostel in 1926. The
railway was completed in 1929 and the service became known as
The Ghon, after the Afghan camel drivers. Sonn there was confusion
between Stuart and Alice Springs, only 3 km apart, so the name
Stuart was dropped. |
