Alice Springs
Alice Springs is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin and Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Charles Todd. The town is situated roughly in Australia's geographic centre, nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin.
The area's original inhabitants, the Arrernte, have lived in the Central Australian desert for tens of thousands of years.
Alice Springs had a population of 34,783 as of June 2025. The town's population accounts for approximately 10 percent of the population of the Northern Territory.
The town straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges. The surrounding region is known as Central Australia, or the Red Centre, an arid environment consisting of several deserts. Alice Springs experiences a wide temperature range, with an average maximum in summer of and an average minimum in winter of.
History
Traditional owners
The Arrernte people are the traditional owners of the Alice Springs area and surrounding MacDonnell Ranges. They have lived in the area for at least 30,000 years. The traditional name for the township area is Mparntwe, referencing Atherreyurre, a waterhole in the Todd River at Old Telegraph Station. Mparntwe refers to the majority of the Alice Springs township, with two additional names: Irlpme covering the south and Antulye the east.Arrernte has been spelt in various forms, including Aranda, Arrarnta, and Arunta. There are five dialects of the Arrernte language: South-eastern, Central, Northern, Eastern and North-eastern.
Arrernte country is rich with mountain ranges, waterholes and gorges, which create a variety of natural habitats. According to Arrernte traditional histories, the landscape was shaped by the Yeperenye, Ntyarlke, and Utnerrengatye caterpillars and Akngwelye or wild dogs.
Sites of traditional importance include Anthwerrke, Akeyulerre, Ntaripe, Atnelkentyarliweke and Alhekulyele.
European settlement
In 1861–62, John McDouall Stuart led an expedition through Central Australia to the west of what later became Alice Springs, thereby establishing a route from the south of the continent to the north.File:Alice Springs Telegraph Station, 2015.JPG|thumb|The original Alice Springs Telegraph Station was built in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide.|left
A settlement named after Stuart was necessitated ten years later with the construction of a repeater station on the Australian Overland Telegraph Line, which linked Adelaide to Darwin and Great Britain. The OTL was completed in 1872. It traced Stuart's route and opened up the interior for permanent settlement. The Alice Springs Telegraph Station was sited near what was thought to be a permanent waterhole in the normally dry Todd River, named Alice Springs by W.W. Mills after the wife of the Superintendent of Telegraphs and Postmaster General of South Australia, Sir Charles Todd, who was the driving force for constructing the OTL. The nearby settlement of Stuart was renamed Alice Springs on 31 August 1933. The Todd River and its tributary the Charles River, which meet near the telegraph station, were named after Sir Charles.
It was not until alluvial gold was discovered at Arltunga, east of the present Alice Springs, in 1887 that any significant European settlement occurred. The town's first substantial building was the Stuart Town Gaol in Parson's Street; this was built in 1909, when the town had a European population of fewer than 20 people. Many of the jail's first prisoners were first-contact Aboriginal men imprisoned for killing cattle. The first aircraft, piloted by Francis Stewart Briggs, landed in 1921. Central Australia's first hospital, Adelaide House, was built in 1926 when the European population of the town was about 40. It was not until 1929, when the train line to Alice was built, that the town's European population began to grow. Aboriginal Centralians outnumbered European Centralians until the mid-1930s. From 1926 to 1931, Alice Springs was the seat of government for the now-defunct Territory of Central Australia. Until 31 August 1933, the town was officially known as Stuart.
The original mode of British-Australian transportation in the outback were camel trains, operated by immigrants from Pathan tribes in the North-West Frontier of then-British India, known locally as Afghan cameleers based at Hergott Springs, or Marree as it is now known. Many cameleers moved to Alice Springs in 1929 when the railway finally reached the town. They lived on the block where the town council is now, transporting goods from the rail head to stations and settlements to the north. A gold rush in Tennant Creek in 1932 kept the wheels of the Alice Springs economy turning until the outbreak of World War II.
In 1941 Father Percy Smith, an Anglican minister, founded St John's Hostel in Bath Street. The hostel provided accommodation for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children from remote areas who were attending school in Alice Springs. He had been concerned at the lack of opportunities for children housed in the government facility for Aboriginal children in Alice Springs, called The Bungalow. Smith went on to found and run St Francis House in Adelaide in 1945, but St John's continued to operate. Children under the care of the Welfare Branch were also placed there, and the building had to be expanded. During World War II, the hostel served as a recreation centre for troops. The new two-storey building was designed to accommodate up to 50 children, with separate dormitories for boys and girls, each with separate study area and library. Several of the children were transferred to St Francis House over time, and St John's Hostel continued to operate until the 1970s.
World War II
brought significant changes to Alice Springs. Prior to the war, Alice Springs was an isolated settlement of fewer than 500 people. During the war, however, the town was an extremely active staging base, known as No. 9 Australian Staging Camp, and a depot base for the long four-day trip to Darwin. The railway hub in Alice Springs was taken over by military operations, and the number of soldiers posted in Alice Springs grew rapidly, as did the number of personnel passing through on their way to and from Darwin. When Darwin was threatened by Japanese forces, the sea routes—the Northern Territory capital's primary means of transportation and resupply—were cut off. The evacuation of Darwin first brought a large number of civilians including elected officials and many of the territory government's records. Alice Springs became the war-time civilian capital of the Northern Territory. When Darwin was bombed by Japanese air forces, a large number of military personnel and their heavy equipment were rapidly moved south to Alice Springs.The number of soldiers posted in Alice Springs peaked at around 8,000, and the number of personnel passing through totalled close to 200,000. Once the war ended, the military camps and the evacuees departed, and Alice Springs' population declined rapidly. After being visited by nearly 200,000 people, including the American General Douglas MacArthur, Alice Springs gained considerable fame. The war years also left behind many structures. The historically listed Totem Theatre, created for the entertainment of this camp, still exists today. The Australian Army set up the 109th Australian General Hospital at Alice Springs. Seven Mile Aerodrome was constructed by the Royal Australian Air Force. War-related operations necessitated the first sealing of the road between Alice Springs and Larrimah, expansion and improvement of Alice Springs' water supply, and improving the rail head. The war-related operations left behind thousands of pieces of excess military equipment and vehicles and a marked increase in Alice Springs' population.
During World War II, Alice Springs was the location of RAAF No. 24 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot, completed on 20 May 1942 and closed in November 1944. Each IAFD usually consisted of four tanks; 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the RAAF and the US Army Air Forces, at a total cost of £900,000.
After World War II
During the 1960s, Alice Springs became an important defence location with the development of the US/Australian Pine Gap joint defence satellite monitoring base, home to about 700 workers from both countries.By far the major industry in recent times is tourism. Almost in the exact centre of the continent, Alice Springs is some from the nearest ocean and from the nearest major cities, Darwin and Adelaide. Alice Springs is at the midpoint of the Adelaide–Darwin Railway.
Alice Springs was connected to Darwin by rail on 4 February 2004, when the first passenger train arrived in Darwin from Adelaide.
Modern town
The modern town of Alice Springs has both European and Aboriginal influences. The town's focal point, the Todd Mall, hosts a number of Aboriginal art galleries and community events including the fortnightly Todd Mall Markets. In February 2024, AIATSIS Central Australia information and exhibition centre opened in Todd Mall.Alice Springs' desert lifestyle has inspired several unique events, such as the Alice Springs Camel Cup, the Henley-on-Todd Regatta, the Bangtail muster, Beanie Festival and the Finke Desert Race.
In May 2000 the Arrernte people were recognised by the Federal Court as the Traditional Owners of Alice Springs and they are recognised as the native title holders, with non-exclusive rights over their lands. This was the first successful native title claim in an urban area within Australia and the Prescribed Body Corporate for this claim is Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation'''.'''
Built environment
Alice Springs has many historic buildings, including the Overland Telegraph Station, the Old Courthouse and Residency and the Hartley Street School. Adelaide House, a stone building in the middle of the Mall, Central Australia's first hospital, was designed and built by the Rev. John Flynn, founder of the world's first flying doctor service, in 1926. It was also the site of the world's first successful portable wireless radio experiment conducted by Alf Traeger. Today it is a museum, one of several significant tourist attractions which form part of The Flynn Trail, a self-guided urban heritage trail.Today, the town is an important tourist hub and service centre for the surrounding area. It is a well-appointed town for its size, with several large hotels, a convention centre, and a good range of visitor attractions, restaurants, and other services.