At a time when most city dwellers have trouble finding a local doctor to do house calls, it’s incredible to learn about a medical service that covers an area almost as big as Central Europe and reaches most of their patients within two hours. These are the doctors of the Royal Flying Doctor service who often fly 700 kilometres to do house visits. Similarly, it wasn’t until I was given a guided tour of School of the Air, that I realised what a brilliant organisation this was, and listening in on some of the lessons was a revelation about the way that the biggest classroom in the world operates.
Later, as I wandered among the historic buildings of the Telegraph Station, I marvelled at the engineering feat that constructed the overland telegraph. Instead of taking six months to receive a reply from London, transmission time was reduced to six hours. With the advent of the telephone, the Telegraph Station became a home for aboriginal children. Alec Ross, who was one of them, has become a guide who mesmerises visitors with enthralling stories of his childhood here.
I hadn’t realised how rich in history Alice Springs was, but before my recent visit I didn’t know much about this little town that’s located in the geographical heart of our country. Like many Australians, I had regarded it merely as a stopover on the way to Uluru or Adelaide. So I was surprised to find an attractive little town with a shady tree-lined mall, outdoor cafes, restaurants and art galleries displaying the work of indigenous artists. I hadn’t realised that Alice was a showcase of art until I visited the exhibits at the Araluen Arts Centre and at the Panorama Guth gallery which contains wonderful watercolours by Namatjira, as well as a remarkable circular mural that was painted by Henk Guth.
Art and history are only some of the attractions here. One of the highlights of Alice Springs is the remarkable Desert Wildlife Park, but you need at least half a day to watch the exciting birds of prey display and to visit the nocturnal animals.
The old courthouse now houses the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, a gallery of Australia’s outstanding women, and I gazed at their portraits and read their biographies, enthralled by these feisty women whose lives resembled the heroines of epic novels.
One sunset, we rode camels beside the Todd River and surveyed the interesting scenery as the camels ambled along the dry river bed among river red gums.
Every evening we had a wide range of restaurants to choose from, upmarket ones like Keller and Red Ochre Grill, ethnic ones like Sultan’s Kebab, or lively pubs like Firkin and Hounds and Todd Tavern that served copious meals at reasonable prices.
Alice Springs is an ideal base for exploring the outback, and we spent most of our six days taking tours into the spectacular surrounding area with its vermillion soil, jade foliage of acacias and desert oaks, spiky clumps of spinifex and rugged sandstone cliffs.
Distances here are huge, and settlements are few and far between so if you self-drive, make sure you take plenty of water and some food.
You don’t have to drive far from Alice Springs to see spectacular gorge scenery, at Emily Gap, Simpson’s Gap and Standley
Chasm, but you need a whole day to visit Palm Valley.
On the way, we stopped for morning tea at Hermannsburg, the first aboriginal mission in the Northern Territory. After apple strudl and big flat scones on the verandah of Pastor Strehlow’s homestead, we walked around the small white-washed church and evocative old buildings of the historic Lutheran mission where Albert Namatjira was born. After viewing a video of his tragic life, we visited the gallery that contains the work of his descendants, some of whom still live there.
Past Hermannsburg, as we passed gleaming ghost gums and purple mountains, I felt I’d stepped into one of Namatjira’s
paintings. The scenery became more and more dramatic, until we came to Kalarranga, a breath-taking amphitheatre of sheer cliffs that glowed in the sun. In a region renowned for its lack of water, it was amazing to come to a wide river whose level was so high that our driver wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to cross it. Our excursion turned into an adventure as the 4WD ploughed into the Finke River and water sprayed above the bonnet.
You don’t expect to find a tropical oasis in Central Australia, but that’s what Palm Valley was, with its red cabbage palms, lush ferns and luxuriant cycads that grew on both sides of the river. At Cycad Gorge, we wandered between towering red cliffs where a waterfall spilled over galleries of rock into a small grotto. Occasionally as I looked up, I spotted tiny rock wallabies peering timidly from behind rock ledges.
Although there was nothing lush in the scenery we saw the following day, on the way to Chambers Pillar, this trip had a
mystique of its own.
On the way, we stopped to look at the Ewaninga rock carvings, mysterious symbols chiselled into the sandstone. Our driver, who was a keen follower of the Finke Desert race, veered off the main road and lurched along part of the rugged, winding track to give us an idea of the route the drivers had to follow. Finally we came to the Simpson Desert, and reached Chambers Pillar.
Looking at this outcrop of eroded sandstone jutting into the sky in the middle of nowhere, it struck me that some people might wonder why you’d do a 300 km round trip to see a piece of rock. But as I gazed out from the lookout onto the huge plain, I felt stirred by the vista of untouched wilderness that stretched in every direction and by the entire journey which gave an insight into awesome landscape with its spiritual aura and infinite horizons.
For more information: www.ntholidays.com or phone 134 383
Story by Diane Armstrong
Image courtesy of Northern Territory Tourism.
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