Travel to Australia's Northern Territory: Tennant Creek

We jaunt north from Alice to Tennant Creek.

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A fine, fine road, with nary a pothole along its 1,000-mile course. Even more amazing for Americans, there's no barbed-wire keeping you on the straight and narrow. This is the Stuart Highway, named for John McDouall Stuart, who--it's history time again!--arrived in Australia in 1838. He set out to claim the 2000-pound reward offered to the first person to cross Australia south to north. Afer traveling about 10,000 miles in 33 months, in 1862 Stuart made it to the north coast on his third attempt. Ten years later, the Overland Telegraph was opened along roughly his route.

Gird thyself.

Triple trailers are about the most exciting thing en route, which is not to say that the drive is boring, only that these longhaulers catch your attention as they merrily fishtail down the highway. You'll see.

One of many such signs, aimed at sequestering Aboriginal populations from the evils of the outside world.

Close-up so you can study the penalties.

The Charles River, so-called despite its being bone dry. As we move north, the country gets wetter until finally, somewhere around Katherine, the road crosses a river that's actually wet.

One of zillions of termite mounds.

Unpaved roads branch off the highway, here with mailboxes for folks who really have to hike to pick up their mail.

Branch road, high, wide, and handsome.

A hundred miles north of Alice, the first dot on the map: Aileron, named for an airplane part. There are various uncertain explanations, but in any case the name is a good reminder of the importance planes have had and continue to have in these parts.

The road, lacking in many conventional distractions, boasts a profusion of monuments, often erected at private expense. Here's the one marking the Tropic of Capricorn. The longitude is just shy of 134 degrees east.

With a corrugated steel roof and wraparound screened porches, this is a regional adaption of the Bengali house, in this case portable if the occupant decides to relocate.

Another 40 clicks up the road, the first town enroute. Its name presumably comes from the tea-tree (Leptospermum spp.), so-called because its leaves were used as a tea substitute. (Presumably means I'm guessing.)

Grocery-store shelves, like airports, are an under-appreciated indicator of economic development. The lesson here is that, although many people might say we're in the middle of nowhere, we're actually very much within a modern supply-chain network. The store's most popular item, alas not shown here, was a man-sized stack of Heinz baked beans.

The local school.

Clinic.

Residential street.

Sixty miles farther up the road, the Barrow Creek telegraph station. Not a lot of shade.

The front yard of the Barrow Creek telegraph station. The unassuming telegraph pole is one of thousands that were schlepped into place. You wouldn't think they would be of interest, but you might reconsider after reading the sign shown in the next picture.

More than you wanted to know, but interesting to a point.

Many if not most of the stations have small cemeteries.

Back to the road.

The road we've been on is the second one along this route. The first was built during World War II. It survives in places and is littered with the past.

A little geological diversion: the exfoliation blocks called the Devil's Marbles.

The main street of Tennant Creek, 300 miles north of Alice and with three times that many residents. A third are Aborigines. It's early in the morning, which is why the place seems so shady, as well as deserted.

Sunrise at the Goldfields, its name a reminder that the town was established after gold was discovered by a lineman. That was in 1925, which explains why the buildings are relatively new.

The strip.

The heavy screens speak to the town's security problems.

The single grocery store is similarly screened.

It's just a grocery store!

You'd think Australians were health freaks, with their variety of yogurts rivalling Europe's. We're back to supply-chain marvels.

The 1936 Welfare Club, occupying a once-popular "Sidney Williams" prefabricated steel-frame and steel-sheet building. Now part of the United Australia Church, it was originally part of Rev. John Flynn's Australian Inland Mission.

The local branch of the Church of Rome.

A residential street speaking to pretensions and inexpensive land.

Many houses in town bear these grim signs, part of the government's campaign to reduce alcoholism among the Aboriginal population. So you're a senior citizen? No matter, you'll still be carded to verify that you're not on the list of those forbidden to drink.

Bureaucracy! The fine for spoiling the sign is bigger than the fine for violating the sign's injunction.

An unsigned house. Substantial yard fencing is very common.

Tennant Creek cemetery.

Most of the tombstones are grimly uniform, but here's one that tells a tale.

A grave whose occupant apparently didn't want to be disturbed.