Uluru and Alice Springs
Uluru and Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Once a remote outpost, today Alice Springs has a population of approx. 25,000 people and all the facilties of a modern city including international standard restaurants and cafes, four star hotels and a casino. The transformation has taken place in the last 10 years thanks to the sealing of the last section of the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and Port Augusta.
Alice Springs is a frontier capital, right in the heart of the centre of Australia. The original Alice Spring is still there - the permanent waterhole that clinched the location of the Overland Telegraph Station in the 1870s and named after the wife of Sir Charles Todd, Postmaster General of South Australia. The township was called Stuart, but officially became Alice Springs in 1933 when only 400 people lived there.
There is much to learn from the Arrernte, the Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the area in and around Alice Springs and the MacDonnell Ranges. Cultural centres and attractions in town introduce you to the historical and conteporary Arrernte culture and lifestyles, icluding world renowned artefacts and dot paintings. You can also take tours from town to learn more about hunting, bush tucker and their complex social organisation.
Where in Australia will you see boats and crews battling it out without a drop of water. Only at Alice Springs when the Henley-On-Todd Regatta id held in October. Where do you think you would see the world's biggest camel race - the Lions Camel Cup, including helicopter rides and fireworks? Right here, every July. Alice Springs hosts the traditional Alice Springs Rodeo in August and if you like a bit of speed, we've go the hell-for-leather Finke Desert Race for motor cycles and cars here in June.
Other unique experiences include a mini-safari on camelback to dinner along a dry riverbed and taking off at dawn in a hot-air balloon to rise above the MacDonnell Ranges to watch red kangaroos bounding below followed by a champagne breakfast. But there really is so much more, as you will see!
