NT Day 9

On my last day in Alice Springs I drove to the Telegraph Station and visited the original site of Alice Springs. This is a photo of the original Alice Spring, located on one side of the (dry) Todd River. The original surveyor who first explored the area was hired to survey a telegraph route from Darwin through to Adelaide. Mid points were needed near water sources. At the time of the survey, the Todd River was in flood. Water was running into a small cave and rushing out, giving the appearance of a spring. The surveyor named the spring "Alice Spring" after his bosses wife.


The Telegraph station was eventually built near by.

This is a picture of the evapourometer, which was used to measure evapouration rates at Alice Springs.

Once the telegraph station was closed, the site was used to house "half-caste" aboriginal/european children, who had been orphaned or taken from their parents. The guide was one of those children. His memories of his time there were very positive, although from some of the stories on display, others of children felt differently. There seems to be general agreement that the women who ran the centre cared for the children, and tried very hard to give them a good life, but that the center was massively overcrowded and underresourced.

After seeing the Telegraph Station, and reading about some of the early history of Alice Springs, I drove to Alice Springs airport, returned my hire car, and took a plane back to Melbourne. It was a great trip, but I was very happy to be home.