From Pebbles to Marbles and Beyond

 Stuart Highway historic marker stone

On Tuesday morning we packed up again – we have our routine down pat now and can be up, packed and on our way quite quickly if that suits us.  Other times, we just take our time and leisurely move on.   There had only been four groups of campers overnight and as there are three areas we continues to have an area to ourselves.  We had six kms of dirt road (red dust with surprisingly a lot of corrugations) to take us back to Stuart Highway from The Pebbles (an Aboriginal women’s dreaming site).  Soon after turning on to the Stuart Highway we made our first detour for the day to see the Tennant Creek Old Telegraph Station.  This station is one of only four still standing of the original thirteen from Adelaide to Darwin.  The original station, wagon station, butchery and blacksmiths area are still in very good repair.  There is also a small cemetery with the graves of two of the original pioneers.  Besides looking at the Telegraph Station we spent a good amount of time searching the car – Peter could not find his wallet and he was most concerned and was already planning on cancelling cards, deciding what was actually in it and when he last remembered having it.  Fortunately after worrying for about half an hour, and turning both the caravan and car upside down we found it in the pocket of his seat! 

Just a further twenty kms down the road we arrived at Tennant Creek – this is a small, mainly aboriginal town.  We needed fuel and to refill the gas bottles.   As we wandered down through the shopping centre we were shocked to see that the shops and offices all had grills over the windows and doors even though the shops were open.  The town was not busy but there were numbers of locals sitting on the pavement or leaning on doorways chatting.  The pubs in the area do not open until 2 pm so these were still closed.

We visited the information centre – there was the opportunity to go on a mine tour but this was not until 3 pm so we looked at the exhibitions and continued on our way south heading to The Devils Marbles – a further 100 kms – just a short travelling day for us today.  The turnoff to The Devils Marbles is well sign posted and takes a 2.5 km detour off the main road and as soon as you take the detour the granite rocks can be seen.  They cover an area of about two kms and the boulders vary in size from about 2m to 7m square.   Some appear to have been stacked in precarious piles and others stand alone balancing at unlikely angles – even though we tried to shove them they didn’t tumble!  This is another Aboriginal Conservation and like The Pebbles is a Women’s Dreaming area.  There is a camping area positioned with great views of the boulders and we soon set up camp, along with many other travellers.  Like The Pebbles, the Devils Marbles are best seen at sunset and sunrise.  We followed the tracks throughout the boulders and climbed nearly to the top of the highest group overlooking the camping ground.  By evening there were at least fifty groups of campers varying from a very large fifth wheeler, to caravans, camper trailers, campervans, tents and sleeping in cars and vans but there was no noise overnight.

There was a dingo wandering around the camp area – he was harmless but during the ranger’s visit he was quick to remove any water or food left out for the dingo as they do not want to encourage them.  It was the most close up that we have seen a dingo.

We moved on Friday morning continuing with towards Alice Springs – a further 400 kms.  We like to stop at any points of interest on our travels – today it was alien time!  Wycliffe Well is a wayside inn renowned for its UFO sightings.  We have to admit that we didn’t see any aliens, but we looked hard!  During the war years this area became a large vegetable garden growing vegetables for the military.  The goods were carted north to Darwin forty kms a day and as it is nearly 1000 kms to Darwin it would have been a long trip.

Next stop was the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station – one of the four still open to the public.  This station was actually lived in until the mid 1980’s and is still in very good condition.  There was also a roadhouse here and a camping ground – it looked very run down and not where we would have wanted to stay.

Another 100 kms down the highway we reached the memorial to Mount Stuart who the highway is named after.  This is considered the centre of Australia – the most central point from north, south, east and west.  The landscape we passed through varied from Spinifex grasses to rocky outcrops and Peter found the roads really boring to drive.  At Ti Tree we topped up with fuel and as it is an Aboriginal settlement we had access to mobile coverage and the internet.  We sat beside the roadhouse clearing email etc.  The roadhouse at Ti Tree has a sign saying that they are the central hotel in Australia – many of their clientele were hanging around with what appeared little to do.  There was also a pack of stray dogs, about eight of them, so I stayed comfortably in the car!  The dogs were wandering around and crossing backwards and forwards over the road – we were fortunate not to see a nasty accident as they went in front of cars on the highway.

Soon after we saw a sign post advertising mango ice cream.  This caught our attention as nowhere else on the highway was there any sign of cultivation.  We pulled off the highway and up the drive lined with grape vines and mango trees.  The shop was really a general store servicing the local Aboriginal people but did sell their own mango ice cream and mango wine.  We gave the wine a miss but enjoyed the ice cream.

Soon on the horizon we could see two large statues.  The first is a 13m statue of an Aboriginal warrior and the second is an Aboriginal woman and child.  These quirky statues have been built by the owner of the roadhouse.

Our stop for the night was at the Tropic of Capricorn marker just 30 kms north of Alice Springs.

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station sign

Detail of the Telegraph Station

 Telegraph Station place of refuge

Storage of food houses

 Telegraph homestead detail

 Food storage house

 Second food storage area

Historial information Tennants Creek Telegraph Station

Morse code from Telegraph Office

Tennants Creek Telegraph Station well kept

 Main building at Tennants Creek Telegraph Station

Detail of maintaining the telegraph line

 Butchers shop detail

 Inside the butchers shop Tennants Creek Telegraph Station

Blacksmith shop detail

 Inside blacksmiths shop Tennants Creek Telegraph Station

 Details of those buried in cemetery

Grave of Archibald Cameron at Tennants Creek

Grave of Tom Nugent at Tennants Creek

 Telegraph Station Grounds

Shopping in Tennants Creek - notice bars on windows yet shop open

 Bars on all shop fronts

 Street view of Tennants Creek

 Welcome to Devils Marbles

How the marbles were formed

 Aboriginal significance of the Devils Marbles

 Just a bit bigger than Peter

 Tour group at the top

Peter at the Marbles

Walking up the Marbles

 National Park Camping area at 3 pm Devils Marbles

  View from top of the Marbles

 Marbles

A house on wheels

Sunset

Dingo at Devils Marbles outside caravan door

 How do the marbles break in two

One of the marbles broken in two

 Holding them apart - yeah sure!!

 Push it over - again yeah sure!!!

Wycliffe Wells where aliens visit

 Earthlings are welcome at Wycliffe Wells

 The servo at Wycliffe Wells

The area was used for vegetable growing in WW II

 Alien family

 UFO landing pod

 Aliens welcome

  Landscape north of Alice Springs

 Long boring roads north of Alice Springs

 Rock formations on hill tops north of Alice Springs

 In Europe there would be a castle built on this hill top

Barrow Creek Telegraph Station

Info Barrow Creek Telegraph Station

 Map of Telegraph Line

Well at Barrow Creek Telegraph Station

 Rear view of Barrow Creek Telegraph Station

 Wagon Station at Barrow Creek

Blacksmiths area

 Living quarters in wagon station

 Info Centre of Australia

Monument to John McDouall Stuart who the
Stuart Highway is named after

Apparently the most central roadhouse and hotel in Australia

  Mango wine sales

Red Centre farm store

 Big Man Walk

Statue of Aboriginal Man

Aboriginal woman and child statue

Free camping site at Tropic of Capricorn

 Tropic of Capricorn

New facilities at Tropic of Capricorn

 Sunset  in the outback Tropic of Capricorn