Jaypatrol

On  the 15th of June we thought we would have a look at the old  “Alice Springs Telegraph Station”. This turned out to more interesting than I thought it would be.

“The Alice Springs Telegraph Station was midway along the Overland Telegraph Line  from Darwin to Adelaide which played a key role in Australia’s development. It was opened in 1872 and the line suddenly reduced the isolation of Australians from the rest of the world. The exchange of personal & business messages now took hours instead of the months it previously took by sea. By 1900, this very isolated Station was home to a cook, a blacksmith-stockman, a governess, four linemen-telgraph operators plus the station Master and his family.   

This Station is the era’s most intact Telegraph Station and the Parks and Wildlife Commission protects it as solid evidence of the lives led by  the pioneering men and women who first established Australia’s telegraphic lifeline to the world”. 

(extract from brochure, handed to us on our arrival, describing the buildings and operation at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station as it was between 1895 and 1905).

The Station is where the overseas line was joined to our lines so that we could speak to family and friends in England first. (Later it grew,  to the rest of the world). The guide we had to show us around, was very informative telling of this historical event. He explained how this was the original site of Alice Springs. (It was a few kilometres from the existing site of the township). And it was called Stuart Town.
Later on it was decided to move the main town away from here and the current site was chosen. The new site was named after the wife of the current  bigwig whose role I have forgotten. Her name was Alice.

Also the original buildings are still in pretty good condition and it is so easy to imagine the times they lived in. There are even gun port holes in the walls of the homestead to fend off the native enemies.
This was indeed a very informative day.

On the 17th, we packed a lunch again and headed out to the Standley Chasm & Simpson’s Gap.
We parked the car and walked into Standley Chasm. Standley Chasm is a unique area. If you are at the Chasm at noon, the sun shines down the chasm and the colours of the rock changes with the different lighting from the sun. It is not for those in a hurry  as we had to hang around waiting for the right time to take the best photos. We were very patient, (I know, hard work for Arthur), but the wait was truly worth it. They were lots of people there with us, so we  talked among ourselves to fill in the time. Everyone was after that special picture. We were in Standley Chasm for two and a half hours in all. We were rewarded with some great photography after the long wait.

After leaving Standley Chasm, we moved onto Simpsons Gap. This is another area with unique features. It was a bit of a drive into here and then we walked into the Gap. We walked along the dried up river bed to get into the area, having a giggle at the “NO SWIMMING” sign. On reaching the end of the walk, we just lingered to enjoy the surrounding area and taking photo’s. Lovely!
It was time to leave after a while and we headed back down the riverbed back to the car to drive out of the Gap area again.

On the 20th of June, it was time to head out to Hermannsburg and then onto Palm Valley. We had heard a lot about Palm Valley and the pros and cons of driving yourself out there, or taking a tour bus into the area. After much discussion and pondering the options, we decided to drive ourselves. It was going to be a long day, so we packed a lunch and lots of fruit and snacks and filled the drink bottles and thermos before heading off.

We arrive at Hermansburg first. This is the furthermost point to travel out, on tarred surface,  to the West McDonnell Ranges.
We walked around the compound reading the history of the Hermannsburg site. This was an old Mission. The new owners of the site, intend to restore this historical area to its former glory. This is where a lot of the “stolen generation” were housed in those days.

“One of the most famous to live here is Albert Namatjira. He was actually born at the Mission and was a full blood member of the Western Aranda tribe - his tribal name meaning Flying White Ant. Albert was born on the 28th of July 1902 at the Mission. He married Rubina at the age of 18. She was the daughter of a Ceremonial Chief of The Luritja Tribe. The couple had 5 sons and 5 daughters.
In 1934, artist Rex Batterbee visited The Centre for the second time and displayed his paintings at the mission. Albert showed great interest in the watercolours of his Aranda country, so that Pastor F.W. Albrecht arranged for Albert to accompany the artist as camel boy on his next painting trip, two years later. It was on this two month trip, in 1936, that Rex Batterbee instructed Albert in the techniques of water colour painting. Two years later, in 1938, Albert’s first exhibition was arranged with the help of Rex Batterbee. It was an immediate success. Ultimately, exhibitions were held in every capital city of Australia over the years, although none were arranged from 1940 to 1944, most works being sold privately to the military people stationed at Alice Springs at the time. Albert’s fame became wide spread over the following years and many of his paintings were bought by overseas art collectors.
In 1959, after a heart attack, complicated by pneumonia, Albert Namatjira died in the Alice Springs Hospital on the 8th of August. His wife Rubina, died in 1974 at the age of 71. To this day, Albert Namatjira’s watercolours are much sought after by art dealers. Most of his works are in private collections”.
(extract from brochure, handed to us on our arrival). 

We wandered around the site checking out all the buildings, trying to imagine life in the days of the Mission. We had a look at the old original date palm tree plantation. This had been ruined in a storm a few years ago, but the new owners were hopeful of restoring this too. The old Church building on the site is still in use today and a popular site for weddings. We had a look in the Art Gallery on site. This was interesting. Though not really to my taste.

After we were finished looking around, we ventured back inside the old homestead. This is now the tea-rooms. We indulged ourselves with a devonshire tea and just rested before meandering into the gallery at the rear of the homestead. Housed there were prints of some of Albert Namatjira’s paintings. We purchased one of these. It was a print of his painting of “Heavitree Gap”. As this is where we are staying in Alice Springs,  we thought it appropriate to have a Namatjira momento of the time we spent in the Alice.

It was time to move on to Palm Valley, so reluctantly we bade farewell to Hermannsburg and pointed the car in that direction.

This is to be a long rough journey as we are to travel the ten kilometres up the dry Finke River bed at the start of the journey. This terrain varied from sandy bottom to rocky base. It was fascinating to see  the different surfaces, the surrounding mountain range, the vegetation, and other follage. We noted areas where there had been previous flooding too.

We stopped off at a rest area for lunch break and a chance to stretch our muscles before the haul up onto rock sheets to drive into Palm Valley. The first section of rock sheet was an ‘experience’  to say the least. Unfortunately, Arthur had forgotten to take the towbar off the car before we left, so it was a bit of a challenge to travel over the rock sheets and uneven surfaces. But he took it slowly and we managed to get to our destination in one piece. Though we were certainly “all shook up”.
We eventually arrived into the Valley, spotting the first Red Cabbage Palm on the outskirts of there.
Parking the car in the designated area, we had to walk the final leg into Palm Valley. What an awesome sight!  There were plenty of signage around teaching us about this valley and its habitat.
These Red Cabbage Palms were so tall, we were dwarfed by them. Of course we got lots of photographs to tell the story. It is just so amazing that these Palms can be found in such an unlikely place, so far from anything else. And that they continued to survive and thrive.

As it was going to get dark fairly quickly and we had a long drive out of the valley, we had to head back. So once more,  we  had to navigate the sheet rock and rocks out of there. We stopped for a break at the rest area on the way out again. When we arrived, we disturbed a wild Dingo that was scavenging around the picnic rotunda. We managed to get a couple of photos of him too. This was our first sighting of a dingo in the wild. Whilst we were there a coyboy in a 4 wheel drive came roaring into the rest area, flicking up stones and dust. Unfortunately for him, he scared off the dingo, so he missed out on seeing him. His loss!  
We continued back down the track out of the Valley. We again had to travel the ten Kilometres on the dry Finke RIver bed. It is amazing that everything looks so different from the opposite direction. We saw things we had missed on the way in. And as the sun was going down quickly, the shadows and colours of the terrain changed rapidly. An old  4 wheel drive chock full of aboriginal’s overtook us as we navigated through the riverbed, waving arms were protruding from where the windows once were in the car.
We eventually exited the riverbed and hit the black top, (as the seasoned travellers call it).
On the way back, we stopped off at the site of the memorial to Albert Namatjira. It is overlooking the beloved country and terrain he used in his paintings. A fitting end to a very eventful day.

To Be Continued:

Then on the 23rd, Lindy returned from her Singapore trip. It was great to see her smiling face as we met her at the airport. I didn’t realise how much I had missed her.

We had been baby-sitting her mobile home in her absense. And Lindy had bought a new video camera for us in Singapore to replace our other one that had died on us earlier, before we had realised till we went to use it the first time on the trip. It was going to cost us $600 to send it to Adelaide to get it fixed (which meant we would be without it for over 2 weeks) and it was a lot cheaper for us to buy another one and Lindy helped us out there. The new one is smaller and more compact than the other one, so we really ended up better off.

The day after Lindy arrived back, Lindy & I went to the airport to meet Lindy’s friend, Margie, who was coming to Alice Springs from Perth. Margie was going to be travelling with Lindy for part of her trip, at least till she got to Queensland. Like when we met up with Lindy, we all hit it off really well with Margie.

It was Lindy’s birthday on the 24th.

We celebrated by going to the “The Red Centre Dreamtime”, at Heavitree Gap. This was a great night with a lovely meal and a display of aboriginal tools and then an Aboriginal Dance team showing us their art as they danced around the camp fires that they lit earlier in the night. The atmosphere by firelight made this a time to remember. We all enjoyed the night all round.

Before we left Aice Springs, we spent one more night at the Heavitree Gap Hotel, to see Chris and Scott perform one last time. (Margie hadn’t seen them yet), so it was a bit sad to say good bye to these two old friends.

On the 27th we decided to move out of Heavitree Gap and head for Ross River for a couple of days and look around the East McDonnell ranges this time. This was going to be a different kind of camping as this is a more isolated area, so we needed to stock up on food before we left.

The East McDonnell Ranges are much different to the West McDonnell Ranges in many ways.
The most obvious being that the East McDonnells were very close to the road and driving to Ross River was very picturesque and so much easier to access the various gorges and viewing sites.

We stopped of at Emily Gorge and Jessie’s Gap on the way there. Again these were very unique areas. There was some rock art in these two places as well.

Emily Gorge had beautiful rock formations with varying colours. There was unusual rock art here and an information board that explained how the Ochre and White Lime were mixed for the painting. It also explained the story behind the paintings.

Jessie Gap was different again. With its rugged rock formation, layers of colours and sandy floor. There is also another information board telling the significence of the both Emily Gorge and Jessie Gap. It also tells the how they are associated to local Aboriginal tribes.

The next stop was at Corroboree Rock. Corroboree Rock is a very sacred place for the local indiginous people. It is a large rock shaped like a big arch. It can be seen from the road for some distance. You can walk all around this huge rock and see the full structure of it. Again there are information boards on this site explaining the sacred nature and power of the site. This information also asks that you respect this rock outcrop as if you would a church. Another information board explains how the rock was formed. It is an interesting site.

Moving on from here, we finally arrive at Ross River Camping Ground. This was an old Station in days of old and included a hotel as well as having their own camels, horses and usual farming requirements. The hotel is old and there is a lot of memorabilia to browse through and you can still get a home cooked meal and a cold drink here. ( We dined at the Hotel on the last night we were there. Delicious! We were not disappointed.

The camping ground is a paddock that has powered sites and wood cut for the fireplaces scattered around the park. There is a resident camp ranger here too. There were a few other campers enjoying the outback feeling with us.

As the day drew to a close the long shadows from the surrounding trees gave the evening a special atmosphere. Before too long, it was time to light the camp fire to add to this atmosphere.

We settled down to a cosy night around the camp fire, when the park ranger came over to introduce himself and to invite us to his camp site for some of his special camp fire damper. He already had it cooking.

After we had cleaned up after our evening meal, we headed over to his camp site and his damper. Wow! What a surprise! It would have been the best damper I have ever tasted. And I have not had another one as good since. Thankfully, he had baked two, so there was plenty to go back for seconds, which of course, we did. He had a range of different toppings, there were various jams, honey and golden syrup. I tried it with the golden syrup - Yummy!

Not long after this, the hotel cook, (Derek), wandered over for some company as he had finished work for the night. He was a little under the weather after sipping too much of the cooking wine, but he picked up the rangers guitar and started to play and sing. He had his Darwin Stubby beside him, so he was ready to settle in for the night. (For those who haven’t seen a Darwin Stubby, it is about 2.5 litres of beer in a huge stubby shaped bottle or flagon). It was unfortunate he was a bit inebriated, so the vocals cords were a little too loose. But we had a good time anyway.

As we were weary from travelling, we retired early, but Derek and his mate, the camp ranger were still going long after we went to bed. We could hear them singing and playing an harmonica in the background, well into the night.

The next morning, we were up early and after the usual chores and planning time, we packed some afternoon tea and headed to Arltunga. This was an old mining town in its heyday. Most of the old buildings are still in reasonably good condition, concidering their age and the village is still visible. It was great walking around the small community buldings imagining life in the days when it was a thriving town. All the modern machinery of the day was set up around the area, as was the essential services you would see around town. The plans of the area were available at an information post at the entrance of the park. This was a great to have as we wandered around and looked into each of the houses and buildings. Each one was unique and contained he character of the original inhabitants. The flooring was still intact in most of the houses too. One even had what looked like an oven resembling a wood fired pizza oven. The Battery Pit was still visible too. As well as the old Cornish boiler. There is also the old prison cell there, they even had baddies there in those days. As we continued to walk around the area, we came across the old mine site. It is amazing how these men would dig into the ground or the side of a mountain and crawl through it on their belly’s looking for their fortunes, of which most never saw the fulfillment of their dreams. As we walked further afield we saw little round houses. These were so tiny, they must have only contained the sleeping quarters for the miner.

As we left the mining town area, we passed the ruins of the old Arltunga Hotel. We then passed the present day Arltunga Hotel . This is built of corregated iron and is still in use today.

Driving back to camp, we saw some Brumby’s grazing in the paddock and then we saw a pack of Dingo’s wandering through another paddock, being lead by a black dingo.

We arrived back at camp late and tired but exhilerated from our big day out.

Unfortunately, the next day was a non-event for me as I was not well and slept most of the day. But Arthur, Lindy & Margie went to Trephina Gorge. They took lots of photo’s and video to show me what I had missed out on. Trephina Gorge Is another picturesque area. It has high mountain tracks to walk and rugged countryside to be investigated. They walked along the top rim of the gorge and looked down into the riverbed that meandered around at the bottom.
On the way home they came across some camels grazing in the bush.
The three of them came home exhilerated by the time they had whilst there and I wish I had been up to joining them on the discovery trail.

After lunch, I still was not up to doing too much, so the three amigos headed for N’Dhala Gorge at the back of the camping ground. Here they walked along the riverbed into the gorge. Again, this area was different. The rockwall was more rugged and the area has a beauty of its own. They trekked around admiring the formations and colours. They took photos and video again. They loved this area and came home excited about their trek into the gorge.

By the time they got back, I was up to sitting around the camp fire and enjoyed hearing of their adventures of the day.

The next morning we were up early and packed up ready to head back into Alice Springs. Lindy & Margie were moving on to Hermansburg, where they planned to stay the night in the lonely caravan park up there. As they hadn’t seen it yet. We had to get our microwave oven replaced, because it died a few days before we left for Ross River. Jayco had honoured the warranty and agreed to replace it and fit another air vent in the back of the cupboard to give better ventilation so that it wouldn’t happen again. We had to spend the day waiting for it to be fitted and the vent to be put in. As the repairs were to be done by a Jayco repair agent whose workshop was in a different caravan park to where we stayed earlier, we decided to book into this park for the time it was being fitted and in the meantime, I would do some washing as I could not get into the caravan till it was finished and it was better for me to keep out of the way.

After the job was finished we had an early night as we were leaving early in the morning to head for Gem Tree and to meet up with Lindy and Margie again.

The morning dawned and it was time to move on and time to say farewell to Alice Springs. We had been there for four weeks and had loved the time we spent there. We had grown to love The Alice. But all good things must come to an end. So long Alice Springs - till we meet again.