Friday the 22nd of July 2022 – Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Posted on by bebraveontour

The reason for Alice Springs, the old telegraph station.

We’ve spent the last few days touring around Alice, doing shopping and cleaning our vans from the red dust @ the Rock, Olgas & Kings Canyon. Alice was founded as a repeater station for the overland telegraph line that went from Adelaide to the Port of Darwin. There were 12 repeater stations over the 3,000 K’s and the line took 2 years to build and was opened in 1872. The telegraph station lies about 3 k’s north of Alice and the township was originally called Stuart who explored the country from Adelaide to Darwin, which the telegraph line followed. It wasn’t until 1932 that the town changed its name to Alice Springs.

The Post Master General at the time was named Todd and that’s were the famous Todd River gets its name and his wife’s name was Alice. The repeater station was situated next to a waterhole or spring, so that’s the reason how Alice Springs got its name.

As I said we visited a number of places and the following photos are a brief view of our “tourist” activities.

Sue & Susan outside the Barracks Building at the Old telegraph station, the oldest building in Central Australia.
This is the waterhole beside the Old Telegraph Station and the reason the repeater station was located were it is. As mentioned above this is how Alice Springs was named.
You don’t waste anything in the outback if it still works, whatever its age!
The Rev. John Flynn’s grave at Mt Gillen, the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Susan on the track to Standley Chasm, wearing her camouflage gear to match in with the scenery.
The Christie & Walton’s @ Standley Chasm
Standley Chasm
Simpsons Gap
The waterhole at Simpsons Gap
The cliff face at Simpsons Gap, the colour was a brilliant orange in the sun.

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