Tennant Creek

Sunday 29 May 2011

We left the BARLKY ROADHOUSE at about 10.00 and headed for THREE WAYS, which is the road junction where the Barkly Highway meets the Stuart Highway, which runs from Adelaide to Darwin.  To give you an idea of the road conditions, once we had got up to 100kph, I set the Cruise control and sat back.  It was 50 km before we came to the first slight bend in the road, and it wasn’t until we got to THREE WAYS at a distance of 195 km, that I had to use my feet, and that was to brake as we approached the intersection.  For that whole time the Cruise Control kept us at a steady 100 kph.   Straights of 30 and 40 km were not unusual. The BARKLY ROADHOUSE was about a third of the way along a 77.7km straight, our longest so far.

Unlike the previous day, this time we travelled the whole way through scrub land, with lots of it showing the effects of a recent fire.  We think this was probably a controlled burn off, carried out near the road to help control any actual bushfire, should it occur. 

At THREE WAYS we turned south on the Stuart Highway,

and about 12km later stopped at the old Tennant Creek Telegraph Station.  This was one of the stations that were established when the first overland telegraph line was put in, from ADELAIDE to DARWIN, between 1870 and 1872.  The stations were placed 200 miles apart and acted as repeater Stations passing messages by Morse code from one to another.  Although no longer used, all the original buildings are still standing. 

Today, the Stuart Highway basically follows the route of the original Telegraph Line. Back in NZ, I had read quite a bit about the establishment of the line, and about some of the people who had worked in the stations, in particular the Tennant Creek Station, so it was quite good to actually visit it.

Another 10 km had us at TENNANT CREEK, and we were soon booked in at the Outback Motor Camp, which had been recommended to us by fellow travellers.  One of the reasons was their nightly show by an old chap who specialises in Aboriginal Bush Tucker, and bush poetry.  Apparently his show is a must see.  TENNANT CREEK is based on the mining industry, and the town is nestled in the McDouall Ranges.  Quite a pretty setting, but the town itself is nothing to write home about.  We had a look around town and went up to a view point for some photos.

TENNANT CREEK is the first town we have been to, where the population is predominantly Aborigines, and sad to say, we are not very impressed with them or their rather strong body odour.  Makes grocery shopping a whole new experience, trying to hold your shopping trolley with one hand, holding your nose with the other, and at the same time trying to load groceries into your trolley.  We had been warned.

We had been told the view point was a great place to view the sunset, so before tea we shot up there to watch the sunset and get some photos. 

After tea we went to the Aboriginal Bush Tucker show. The guy, who does the show, Jimmy Hooker, is a white Australian who was bought up in the bush, and spent a lot of his childhood living with the Aboriginals.  As a consequence he learnt a lot about their bush ways, and he incorporates this knowledge into his show.  We sat around a camp fire while he showed us various edible plants which we got to try, cooked up some witchetty grubs which we also tried, and showed us some plants which the aborigines used for various medicinal purposes.  He also entertained us with some of his bush poetry.  Quite an enjoyable evening

Tomorrow we will continue south towards ALICE SPRINGS.  We are planning to stop off and see the Devils Marbles on the way, and may stay the night.  We’ll see what happens.