A town called Alice

Alice Springs was the final stop on our road trip up the Sturt Highway.  We arrived in the township shortly after lunch on our penultimate day.  Garry dropped me at the rental car depot while he went on to return our Motorhome.  Once this chore was completed it we headed over to the Royal Flying Doctors visitor’s centre to learn more about this iconic Australian Outback service. 

The centre is well laid out.  We watched an informative movie on the service before spending an hour making our way through the centre educational exhibits.  Highlights of our visit included a live map displaying the movements of the service’s aircraft throughout Australia and the pedal-powered radios once used by Outback farmers to power their two-way radios.

We then made our way to the Alice Springs Desert Park.  This tourist attraction proved to be a genuine highlight. The park sits in the foothills of the MacDonnell Ranges that frame the surrounding area. Inside all manner of native flora and fauna is on display in series of open-air enclosures linked by meandering trails.  The complex includes several aviaries filled with more native birdlife than I’ve ever seen before.

However, the real highlight of the Desert Park would have to be its nocturnal house.  Inside we watch Bilbies, and Wallabies and all manner of desert critters go about their business.  The animals on display were simply phenomenal.  In hindsight, I wish we’d allowed more time for this impressive park. 

We then finished our day with a stop at ANZAC Hill.  We arrived just in time to witness the sun setting over the MacDonnell Ranges and the township below.

Our final day in Alice Springs was spent touring the Old Telegraph Station.  This fascinating complex was the genesis for settlement in the area.  In 1872 the Overland Telegraph Line was completed, linking Australia to the world’s growing telegraph network.  A year earlier the Alice Springs Telegraph Station had been established to house a critical repeater station for the transcontinental telegraph line.

Until 1932, the station played a vital role in maintaining Australia’s telecommunications link with the rest of the globe.  The link’s morse code messages were amplified and transmitted using power generated by 150 electrochemical batteries.  Each battery latest three months before its wet crystal contents had to be replaced.

We enjoyed a fascinating guided tour of the station; as well as an opportunity walk a section of the nearby Todd River’s dusty, desiccated riverbed.  The river is dry most of the time making for a rather unusual experience.

Our final stop in Alice Springs was Todd Mall in the town centre.  It was here that we stumbled upon the Megafauna Centre.  Wow!  What an unexpected discovery.  This modest museum houses some impressively mounted skeletons and life-size recreations of some of Australia’s extinct super-sized marsupials.  

 Exhibits include a recreation of the world’s largest bird, Dromornis, which grew to three metres tall and weighed up to 650 kg.  There’s also a fearsome mega croc and a marsupial herbivores called Plaisiodon (it looks like a giant wombat).  They all roamed the region more than 8 million years ago during the Miocene epoch.  And with that, it was off to the airport for an uneventful flight home.