A Week in Alice

There is much to see and do in Alice Springs, plus some domestic duties that the convenience of a caravan park is very handy and a bit of relative comfort was welcome.  The self guided walking tour of Alice shows the city as it is today, modern convenience but with a sense of history as well.  The Todd Street Mall is the centre and this is where I watched The Bang Tail Muster parade:  Apparently it used to be a cattle drive through the centre of town but now is a civic parade.  A Bang Tail Muster is actually a muster of cattle which are tallied by cropping the hair on their tail (thus the term 'bang tail') to show they've been counted:  As it takes a couple of years to regrow, they can tell which cattle have been previously tallied.  The name for the event has stuck, though cattle no longer parade through the main street.

A walk up Anzac Hill gives a good overview of the city and the surrounding ranges.  The Gap refers to the opening in the range made by the Todd River, through with the Stuart Highway and the Ghan Rail travel as well as other facilities such as The Overland Telegraph originally with its subsequent evolved communication infrastructure.  Being a city it has the required Coles, Woolworths, Harvey Norman, Repco and service station chains.

The Telegraph Station is the original Alice Springs station restored to show life as it was in its early days.  It provided communications of course, but also acted as a supply centre including distributing supplies to Aborigines, a school, as well as having children boarders and a social hub for travelers.   There are also local walks setting out from the station, one which goes along the foot of the ranges and if you are lucky, you can see some rock wallabies on the hillsides.

The School of the Air started in Alice Springs and has grown out to other areas from there.  The Alice Springs School serves 120 pupils, the furthest being 1200 km away.  They now use modern communications so when a new student joins, they are provided with a computer and satellite dish so they can actually see the teacher and other students.  They have 2-3 get-togethers a year in which they participate in sports events, learn to swim and socialise with other children.  A map of Australia with other countries overlaid give an idea of the size of Australia:  Also, for the Bicentennial in 1988 students made a quilt square which was then sewn into a large quilt, which is displayed at the School.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Women's Museum are very close to each other and give a good coverage of the respective background and contribution to improving Outback life:  The knowledge that essential health and emergency medical is now hours rather than weeks or months away is a very important factor for families.

The Desert Park gives an excellent example of the range of desert ecosystems in the broad area, as well as an excellent bird show!  It is amazing the subtle changes that create entirely unique ecosystems, as well as how complex something that at first glance a rather barren landscape can be. 

The Ghan and Transport Museums have excellent examples of how they have taken on the challenges presented by the Outback,  the Ghan of course providing a rail service right through the Centre, bringing goods within trucking distance of remote stations but not quite trucking as we know it over well constructed bitumen highways, but rather somehow managing to take a mechanical vehicle over tracks previously a challenge to bullock wagons.  One unique vehicle - the A.E.C Truck - was specifically developed in 1934 and is the first road train used in Australia.  It was a tractor and 3 trailers, eight driven wheels on the prime mover and each trailer had eight wheels.  The driver sat in an open seat next to the engine, with the radiator behind him, no doubt a hot, dusty and noisy job.  It had a payload of 40 tonnes.

Being back in civilisation also meant a 'pizza fix', which turned out to be easier said than done!  As I hadn't noticed any pizza shops, I scrolled through 'food' on my GPS, which actually has a separate section on pizza!  It listed at least six, of which four no longer exist, one was closed and the last was hard to spot driving, but the GPS homed in rather precisely!  So Rocky's Pizza & Fat Kebobs were more than happy to supply a large Italian pizza and very delicious it was (though a bit of overkill). 

I went to Trephina Gorge - Yeah, another spectacular natural feature, this one in the East MacDonnell Ranges with some terrific walks and stupendous views.  This was my last nite in the Red Centre, traveling the next day north to the Devils Marbles.

From Brisbane to Tennant Creek, around the Red Centre & down to Coober Pedy and back to Tennant Creek I have traveled some 6900 km in some 40 days.  I have stayed in caravan parks (powered site) 13 nights at an average cost of $21.30, Park camps 14 nights at an average cost of $3.60 and free camped 14 nites.  So to date 28 days at unpowered sites which help write off the costs of deep cycle batteries, regulator and solar panel, as well as providing extra flexibility in camping sites.  Here I must give full marks to the Northern Territory for their parks - they are great!  They provide the basics at a very reasonable cost and access world class natural features!  It is no wonder about 80% of the vehicles on the Stuart Highway are campers of one sort or another! 

From here it is on to Katharine and the north end of The Territory.