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Tourist place in Alice Springs |
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| Tuesday, 08 April 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 2 Photo Gallery | Hotels | View Map Back to tourist place in Australia History of Alice Springs
Apart from Canberra (ACT) Alice Springs (alt. 550m; pop. 25,000) is the only important town in the interior of Australia.
Alice Springs is an important base camp for tours (either by independent travelers in a hired car, all-terrain vehicle or camper van or by organized groups, to the fascinating natural beauties of central Australia - Ayers Rock, the western and eastern MacDonnell Ranges,
This arid desert region was from time immemorial the home of the Aranda tribes. In 1871 a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line was established to the north of the Heavitree Gap in the rocky MacDonnell Ranges, close to a waterhole in a normally dry river bed. The site was selected by the surveyor William Mills and the waterhole was named after Alice Todd, wife of Charles Todd, postmaster-general of South Australia, and the river became the Todd River. Charles Todd was responsible for carrying out the project for a transcontinental telegraph line to provide faster communication between Britain and eastern Australia.
After the Second World War the tourist development of Alice Springs and the Red Centre began, stimulated by the enthusiastic accounts by ex-soldiers fascinated by the outback. As a result the town has been completely transformed, and little is left of the dusty outback settlement that it once was. It is now a town of restaurants, luxury hotels and caravan parks, entertainments of all kinds and innumerable shops and galleries. The development of the town's administrative and supply functions is reflected in many new buildings within the town and on its ever-spreading outskirts.
Tourist Attractions in Alice Springs
The Corroboree Rock, a striking limestone crag, is a place of great significance to the Aborigines. It is a cult site where initiation rites are performed and sacred stones are kept with which the Aboriginal myths are handed down to the younger generation by the telling of stories about the Dreamtime. Corroboree means a meeting place for ceremonial, ritual or warlike occasions, usually accompanied by dances. The term is now also applied to the performances of Aboriginal dances organized for tourists.
A short walking trail runs through the area.
Finke Gorge National Park extends along the Finke River between the Krichauff Range in the west and the James Range to the southeast. The imposing rock formations in the park are of ritual significance to the Aborigines. The prehistoric red cabbage palms (Livistona mariae), extinct elsewhere, seen here are relics of a much wetter period. They grow in the valley of Palm Creek, a tributary of the Finke River. From the earliest times the bed of the Finke was used by the Aborigines as a route through the hills, and in 1872 Ernest Giles, on the first of his five expeditions through the Red Centre, followed the Finke valley upstream from Chambers Pillar. At the mouth of Ellery Creek he found a number of palms which Ferdinand von Müller, director of the Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, identified on the basis of Giles's specimens and sketches as the ancient Livistona mariae species. The river was named by Stuart in 1861 after his sponsor, Finke.
Frontier Camel Farm and Arid Zone Reptile Display
The Frontier Camel Farm and Arid Zone Reptile Display features camels, snakes, lizards, and camel rides.
Ghan Railway
The Ghan Preservation Society has restored a 26km long section of the old Ghan railroad and rebuilt an old station, MacDonnell Siding, with rest areas and tourist facilities. From this station old-style trains drawn by steam or diesel engines travel to Ewaninga and back.
Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve
The Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve, a kind of lunar landscape, contains twelve craters left by a meteorite which exploded some 5000 years ago. The largest crater is 180m across and 15m deep; the smallest, barely perceptible, has a diameter of 6m and is only a few centimeters deep. The park has only a scanty covering of vegetation except in the crater basin, where water collects and growth is lusher. The fragments of the meteorite that have been found are very heavy, consisting as they do almost solely of metal (90 per cent iron, 8 per cent nickel). It is not worth looking for further fragments; in any case this is prohibited. The craters are seen at their most impressive in the sun of early morning or late afternoon. There is a walking trail, signposted, round the craters. There are few trees to give shade. The Ormiston Gorge and Pound is part of the West MacDonnel National Park The main attraction is the gorge carved out by the Ormiston River. At its south end, some 500m from the visitor center, is a waterhole which hardly ever dries up, shaded by mighty river gums and the high rock walls of the gorge, which shimmer in the sunshine in varying colors, depending on the minerals in the rock.
In Ormiston Pound, a wide valley 10km across framed by ranges of hills, there are a number of walking circuits (drinking water, sun protection and sturdy footwear essential).
Half an hour's walk will take you to see the breathtaking views from Ghost Gum Lookout.
The Ghost Gum Way from the visitor center to the gorge (2.5 km; 1-3 hours there and back) is waymarked in white, the Pound Walk (7 km; 3-4 hours) in yellow.
A longer bush walk (several days) leads north through the Pound to Mount Giles (1283m). Simpsons Gap was discovered in 1871 by a surveyor called Gilbert McMinn. The origin of the name (spelt Simsons Gap earlier in 20th C.) is unclear: it has no connection with the Simpson Desert. Until the establishment of the national park in 1970 the area was a huge cattle station which had suffered from overgrazing. The balance of nature has now been stabilized.
A visit to Simpsons Gap National Park is a good introduction to the topography of the western MacDonnell Ranges. Deep gorges, carved by prehistoric watercourses through the sandstone of the ancient hills, with permanent waterholes and remains of earlier vegetation, form a striking contrast to the wide desert-like plains and dunes. Areas of white sand, huge river eucalyptuses and white-barked ghost gums lead to a permanent waterhole in the shelter of rugged cliffs, which are particularly impressive in the slanting sun of late afternoon. To the Aranda tribes who live here the gorge is the home of their giant goanna ancestors.
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