Alice Springs 11-17 & 22 -23 August 2009

Alice Springs is a good stopover. We serviced the car and the van's brakes and wheel bearings.

We also cleaned the car and van and were pleasantly surprised by how little dust entered the van.

Then we were free to enjoy the town. We liked the MacDonnell Ranges Camping Park which had excellent activities scheduled most evenings, including a very knowledgeable NT Parks Ranger.

We enjoyed the cafes and bookshops and purchased rather a lot of books.

We visited the AIM Hospital designed by John Flynn to act as a large evaporative air conditioner. Hot air was drawn in through the basement and passed through wet sackcloth which cooled it and filtered dust.

It was then drawn up through the wards and vented through the ceiling.

Attached to the Hospital was the shed where the first pedal radio transmissions occurred.


The pedal radio, developed by Alfred Traeger in 1929, solved the problem of communication in the outback. The pedal mechanism powered the radio and as a side benefit gave outback ladies great figures and a social life through what were called the Galah sessions.

Having followed the route of the Ghan from Port Augusta, Alice Springs was the last last stop. As the sign on the poster said "Just getting to Alice was an experience." A copy of the Alice Springs Station has been built as a museum for the Ghan.

Adjoining the Ghan museum is the National Transport Hall of Fame.

It is an amazing collection of trucks and memorabilia. Their brief is unusual in that they don't restore all of them to factory perfect but leave modifications in place to show how the trucks were used. The trucks are registered and can be driven. They have a lot of one off trucks such as an experimental hybrid Hino and a Rotinoff Road Train that Vesteys [Lord Vestey was the second largest owner of Stations after the Kidmans] had built as they didn't want to use American trucks.

WWII revolutionized trucking in Australia as Army surplus trucks were sold off and trained drivers returned from overseas.

This was the end of the road for the Afghan Cameleers. When the camels were no longer needed they were let loose in the desert. The Cameleers and their camels are viewed with a lot of respect and affection here for the part they played in opening up the outback. This is possibly the only place in the world where you can buy an Afghan biscuit (cookie).

Inside the Transport Hall of Fame is the Kenworth Dealers Hall of Fame, which includes one of every Kenworth model sold in Australia. Tricia used to drive past the Kenworth Factory daily and often saw the heads going out, all painted up, for their final test run. She enjoyed this very much and consequently it was a big thrill for her to see this museum. They have the first truck delivered from Bayswater.


We saw the Pioneer Womens Museum which is also the old Gaol. John questioned why this was the venue, and apparently it is still a hot topic with some of the supporters, but it saved the gaol from demoliton and they do have a lot of space for expansion. As well as pioneer women they commemorate women who were the first in their field.


We saw the School of the Air. Originally remote and isolated children were educated by Correspondence School, however it was noted that they often lacked socialization skills. In 1944 Adelaide Miethke thought that the Flying Doctor Radio could be used to reach children learning by correspondence and give them a wider range of experiences. This was trialled and has evolved into the modern School of the Air, which uses computers to provide the children with classroom experience. At 1,300,000 square kilometres it is the world's largest classroom, and it is fascinating to watch videos of the class in progress. www.assoa.nt.edu.au
There is also a good description in Wikipedia.

Alice Springs is also the site of John Flynn's Grave.

John Flynn's first parish was at the tiny Smith of Dunesk Mission at Beltana, [See our previous posting on Beltana]. At Beltana, he saw at first hand the difficulties of Outback life. He was commissioned to prepare a report on life in the Northern Territory, to be presented to the Presbyterian Church in 1912. The General Assembly acted upon Flynn's recommendations and appointed him the head of a new organisation, the Australian Inland Mission (AIM).

 

Flynn's ideas and hard work were responsible for alleviating much of the isolation that makes the outback such a challenging place to settle. The outback was a frontier through to the 1950's It can be romanticized, but it was a place of great loneliness where people suffered and died unnecessarily. Human contact and medical care helped to make life on vast Stations such as Anna Creek possible. Flynn's work provided a mantle of safety for outback people through medicine, aviation, pedal radio and visiting padres.

During our travels we have been following the Cameleers, the Old Ghan, John Flynn and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Alice Springs marks an end point in that journey. The Overland Telegraph continues to Darwin.

Sunday we visited the West Macdonnell Ranges,

seeing Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Bighole,

















the Serpentine Gorge,The Ochre Pits,

















Ormiston Gorge and Glen Helen Gorge. Our final day we saw The Residency which was built during Central Australia's brief period of legislative independence and remained a social hub in Alice Springs and The Old Stuart Town Gaol.

We enjoyed a final coffee and wander up the Todd Mall.