We’d had a busy morning on our first day – Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm, and the Desert Park. The afternoon was very different, with our visits in the town itself.
Our first stop was at The Royal Flying Doctor Service. It has a small museum where visitors can read about the various pioneers of the service and the equipment they used. But the highlight was a fifteen minute video explaining the history of the RFDS – presented by an actor taking the role of the Rev. John Flynn, who started the service. We’d stopped briefly at his grave on the way back from Standley Chasm.
His dream was to be able to offer the people of the vast outback with the same medical services available in the cities. That’s maybe impossible but plenty of people in the bush owe their lives to the skilled pilots and the medical staff who go out here to do their jobs.
From there we visited the old telegraph station which was the reason the town had been built. Established in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide, it is the original site of the first European settlement in central Australia. It was one of twelve stations along the Overland Telegraph Line. It’s basically a group of sandstone buildings. They’ve been restored and the doors and windows are filled with Perspex so visitors can see the furniture inside. There are billboards showing photos and explaining some of the history but it was hard to show much enthusiasm when compared with the other places we’d visited.
The highlight was that the telegraph station was built next to a waterhole in the river and while we were there, a group of young people were enjoying the water on what was by now quite a warm day. That happens to be the spring after which the town was named. Between 1871 and 1933, Alice Springs was simply the name of the waterhole adjacent to the telegraph station and named after Alice Todd, wife of Sir Charles Todd. Alice Springs began its modern history as the township of Stuart.
By this time a few of us were getting tired and longing for a beer at the hotel. But we had two more places to visit before then.
Roger drove the bus up to Anzac Hill, a high point in Alice Springs that is a memorial to the men and women from this area who fought in Australia’s wars. It also gives a good view of how the town nestles between the hills of the MacDonnell Ranges. The picture is at the top of the post.
From there, we visited the School of the Air. I’ll admit to a bit of mental eye-rolling of the ‘not another museum’ kind. But it turned out to be unnecessary. We were given a presentation that explained how the RFDS had sparked the idea of giving remote kids an education. It was all done by radio at first. Thick piles of books were sent out to every kid for use in their schoolroom on the property, supervised by an adult – sometimes mum, sometimes an employed tutor. At least once a year the kids came to town to meet their teachers and fellow students. It’s much easier these days, with high speed internet. The kids can see each other and the teacher via something like Zoom. We were shown a short video of a school lesson where one little girl was far more interested in showing off her new red dress than being in class.
And then Tanya Heaslip arrived. She grew up on a remote station near Alice Springs and was educated via the School of the Air. She went on to attend boarding school for high school, then university where she studied law. And she wrote three books about her life’s journey. The first, An Alice Girl, recounts stories from her days as a School of the Air pupil. If they’re as good as her presentation, it will be a great read. She sold several copies to our group and signed them all. Good for her. Here’s a link to the first book on Amazon.
We were all pleased we’d come.
That wasn’t the end of the day, though. That evening we were loaded onto one bus and taken out to a station at the edges of the town for an Outback Bush Barbecue.
We had no idea what to expect as we went off-road down a track in the scrub while the sun started to head for the horizon and the rocks glowed red.
We ended up in a quarry set up to welcome guests. A large shed open on two sides contained tables and bench seating for the barbecue. There was a bar to serve the drinks and we sat outside to enjoy the entertainment before dinner.
It’s hard to imagine that a man making damper could be so much fun. But it was. Our host was one of those laconic bushmen with a deadpan style that had us roaring with laughter. While he went off to cook the steaks, a young woman sang country songs under a clear outback sky that featured the Southern Cross and the unmistakable shape of Scorpio. The steaks were huge and superbly cooked – simply delicious. You helped yourself to salads, jacket-baked potatoes and more wine or beer. It was a glorious meal. To top off the evening we ate damper served with molasses and cream.
And then they turned off all the lights so we could admire a peerless view of the Milky Way. Some aboriginal people say it’s a river in the sky, marked by the campfires along its length. Others say it’s the rainbow serpent. Whatever. It’s a magnificent sight, something you’ll never see in a city with its light pollution.
Tomorrow we would be off to Uluru.
This is the fourth post for this trip. If you missed anything, pick up the whole journey here.
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