Our first day at Alice we saw the Overland Telegraph Station, the Royal Flying Doctor Service Visitors Centre and went grocery shopping (not everyone did all of them).
– The Overland Telegraph Station Historical Reserve was very interesting. It was a part of Australia’s history which I hadn’t known about previously, and was one of the main factors influencing the opening up of the centre of Australia to European settlement. In the first half of the 1800s, the only means of communication from England and Europe was via letters on ships – taking at least 6 weeks to reach Australia. In 1838, Samuel Morse invented Morse Code and this allowed for messages to be sent over telegraph wires from one country to another in a matter of minutes. This was occurring in England and Europe for a decade or so before it came to Australia. First telegraph wires had to be laid under the sea. This was completed in 1872 with the messages from overseas coming in to Darwin. But then how to get the messages from Darwin to the more inhabited parts of Australia? Adelaide was keen for the telegraph line to come to them, but so was Queensland. Adelaide won out as the governor of SA pledged to pay for it themselves and to have it completed in 2 years. It was completed in 19months which was a pretty impressive achievement. Several repeater stations were located along the route, which needed to be manned. Alice Springs had one of them. The station was built near the site of the ‘spring’ which AS was named after, on the Todd River. The historical area that we walked around had the original postal and telegraph office, complete with a working morse code machine to try out sending messages to each other. There were all the updated machines and accessories displayed also. We could walk through the original house of the station master, the barracks for other workers, the blacksmith workshop, the ‘garage’ for the buggies, the horse stables and yards and the camel yards. There was information about the different station masters and their families. It was indicated that one of the families – the Bradshaw family – had a book written about their time there – I found the book that afternoon at the local shops and bought it. After walking around the site, we went down to the Todd River, which was just a dry river bed at this time of the year. However we had read about the water being just a short way under the sand, so the kids decided to find out just how far down it was – they dug down about 20cm and struck water. The girls had a bit of a play there for 20mins or so while Sam went climbing on the rocks on the other side of the river bed.
– The RFDS visitor centre was somewhere Michael wanted to visit. I said I would do grocery shopping instead. Sam decided to go with Michael to the RFDS. Hannah and Beth really needed some down time – they were getting a bit over the tours of different places. Lauren said she would be happy to stay at the van with them while they watched a movie. It was helpful that we could do this.
– Anzac Hill was the name of the tallest hill within AS and it had a lookout at the top. We had read that dawn or dusk were the best times to go up there and see the view of the McDonnell Ranges all around (due to the colours at that time. So we did this the first evening – we went up about 5.45 and watched the sunset over the West McDonnell Ranges. It was lovely.
Our 2nd day we went to the Alice Springs Desert Park from about 9am-2pm, and then we had a rest for the remainder of the day.
– AS Desert Park is a few acres of land just outside AS and tucked in under the ranges. It is an educational park on all things to do with the desert and the red centre and it is very well done. We had read to get there earlyish as there were a few talks and shows before midday. We arrived just after 9am. At 10am there was a free flight bird show where the birds had been trained to fly in to the open amphitheater on cue for the ranger to talk about them. The birds often flew right above our heads. There were eagles, kites, tawny frogmouths and barn owls among others. It was a fabulous show. We also sat in on a talk about aboriginal culture and their use of bush medicine and bush tucker. Lauren especially found it fascinating all the plants in the bush that could be used for tucker – she loves the bush and is now keen to find out more about the local bush plants around where we live. There were 3 sections of the park showcasing 3 different landscape types in the dessert – the woodland habitat, the desert rivers and the sand country. We each had our own audio guide handset and would press a number on the handset when we came to that area and it would tell about something about that habitat/plant/animal. This was great for Hannah and Bethany especially as it gave them a sense of ownership of finding out about things – much more than if we’d just tried to tell them things. There was also a nocturnal house in which we were able to see lots of the desert animals that come out in the cool of the night – like bandicoots, bilbys, desert frogs, etc. many of these animals are endangered. The other reason we are glad we went early is because by 11.30, it was getting quite hot. We had to have lots of drinks of water. By 1.30pm, we were ready to go back to the caravan for a rest.
– the kids had a swim in the rather cold swimming pool at the caravan park and a play on the playground.
– Michael had been planning to do some flying at Alice Springs and had arranged the previous day to do a check flight with an instructor at 4pm today. He couldn’t take any of the children on this check flight, so he went and did that on his own while the kids and I had some down time at the caravan.
Day 3 was scenic tours over the West McDonnell Ranges care of Michael Branch Scenic Flights. After ‘passing’ his check flight the previous day, he now wanted to take the family up for a flight over the West McDonnell ranges. Initially he thought he could take all 4 children with him because Hannah and Beth’s combined weights are under the usual weight limit for 1 adult. However he then realised the aero club rules wouldn’t allow this. So he did 2 flights – first with Hannah, Beth and I (Lauren and Sam waiting at the car down below) and then with Lauren and Sam. Each flight was about 50mins and we went over some amazing scenery. It was great seeing the ranges from up above. The kids all really enjoyed it, although I think Sam’s eyes were shining the most afterwards – he thoroughly enjoys the flying with Dad.
We then had another afternoon of down time, and Bethany actually had a nap (which she rarely does these days) – she really needed it – Mum had one too:)
We planned for the following 2 days to be day trips out into the West McDonnell Ranges, so they would be a bit more full.