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:

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 14th, 2006 at 1:50 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.