Between the East and West MacDonnel Ranges, in the heart of Central Australia, sits the most famous outback town of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

The original site was actually at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, several kilometres to the north of the city centre. Despite its beginning as a remote outpost, present day Alice is well serviced by it's airport, and, culturally rich thanks to the number of visitors from all over the world and their influences. It has excellent restaurants, an assortment of accommodation and nightlife and hosts a calendar of unusual and stimulating events throughout the year.

An excellent view of Alice Springs can be had from Anzac Hill and is consequently a good starting point for any town tour. As you go down the hill and stroll through the Todd Mall,you can shop for everything from second-hand books to camping equipment and semi-precious stones to organic liquorice.

The traditional owners of the area are the Arrernte people. The Cultural Precinct, a short drive or walk from the city centre, is home to several of their sites ( all are sacred) as well as many interesting galleries and museums.

Then there's the Alice Springs events calender which offers a real taste of the outback sense of humour. Marvel at some of Australia's finest headwear at the annual Beanie Festival or enjoy the ridiculous Henley-on-Todd Regatta set on the almost permanently dry river bed of the Todd River. Held in the centre of Australia at Alice Springs, it's the sort of event that can motivate the most mature, conservative business people into the roles of 'Vikings' and 'Pirates' crewing battle boats bristling with mortars and high pressure water cannons.

In 1962, Reg Smith and his compatriots at the Alice Springs Meteorological Bureau proposed they hold an actual regatta along the lines of the famous Henley-on-Thames, a race between Cambridge and Oxford Universities. The idea was taken up by the Rotary club of Alice Springs, and the fact that the town was 1,500 kilometres from the nearest large body of water was never seen as a problem. Watching seemingly sane people race in bottomless 'eights', 'oxford tubs', 'bath tubs' and yachts through the deep coarse sand of the Todd River provides an unique spectacle amongst world sporting events.

The multi-event program attracts many local and international participants from the audience who often finish up on world television news paddling canoes with sand shovels and in 'land lubber' events like filling empty 44 gallon drums with sand.

Alice Springs is the meeting place of many different cultures and the Alice Desert Festival, in the heart of Australias outback, will celebrate this rich diversity. The Alice Desert Festival is a unique 3 day annual event showcasing the thriving community of visual and performing artists, both indigenous and non indigenous from the Central Australian region. The Festival also attracts inspirational acts from both other states and overseas to further enhance and develop the culturally diverse and eccentric local arts industry.

The Festival begins with its street parade in the Todd Mall when the community of Alice is joined by many home and overseas visitors to joyously celebrate in this free community event. The festival will then bring to the streets, theatres and galleries and public venues of Alice Springs an amazing array of events from theatre, dance, films, sculpture, music, poetry readings, physical theatre, workshops, pottery, writing and book launches, indigenous art and craft, to concert evenings of jazz, orchestral, hip hop, samba, salsa, fusion and world music.

The Festival closes with Desertsong, when one is invited to throw down your swag on the sands of the Todd River bed under the splendour of the night sky for an unforgettable journey of haunting desert harmonies by regional indigenous choirs.

For sports fans there is the Alice Springs Masters Games. These are a biennial sporting event aimed at attracting and encouraging mature people to participate in over 30 competitive events. These games are known as the Friendly Games and are one of the highlights of the Alice Springs social and sporting calendar.

Desert Mob is an annual exhibition presented by the Araluen Galleries, Alice Springs Cultural Precinct, featuring art works from Aboriginal Art Centres in Central Australia, encompassing the Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australia. The exhibition gives visitors a complete overview of the work by Aboriginal artists in this vast region and the opportunity to purchase artworks from both new and established artists all in one place, directly from the art centres.
The Aboriginal language Warlpiri is spoken at the Araluen Galleries. As a prelude to the annual Desert Mob exhibition there is what is known as the Desert Mob Market Place which is held on the second weekend of September each year and brings together Aboriginal art centres in Central Australia to display a wide variety of art and craft works, with artists and art co-ordinators on hand to not only sell but also to discuss their works.

Held in the foyer of the Araluen Galleries, the MarketPlace event offers paintings, ceramics, prints and textile works, with everything for sale being £80 or under.

Located 250 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, the Mount Ebenezer Roadhouse is one of the few Aboriginal-owned roadhouses in the Northern Territory. Within the historic stone buildings, visitors can enjoy homemade foods and view locally produced Aboriginal art in the impressive gallery with its unique red sand floor and hessian walls.

On the Mereenie Loop Road, situated about 130 kilometres south west of Alice Springs is the Aboriginal community of Hermannsburg. After this you will reach the beautiful Finke Gorge National Park.

The German name of Hermannsburg was chosen by the Lutheran pastors who, in the 1880’s, established a small mission for the Arrernte Aboriginal people here. Artist Albert Namatjira was born here and his house, which is about three kilometres west of Hermannsburg, is, to this day, open to visitors.

Day tours are possible to organise out of Alice Springs though a campsite and accommodation are located in and around Hermannsburg. Additional camping facilities can be found at the nearby Palm Valley in the Finke Gorge National Park.

It is thought that the Finke River is one of the world's oldest water ways but the Finke Gorge National Park is best known for Palm Valley, which contains groves of exclusive and beautiful cabbage palms which are botanic left overs from when Central Australia was rich in tropical forests millions of years ago.

A local event, the Tattersall's Finke Desert Race, is arguably Australia's premier off road racing event attracting bike, car and buggy entries from all around Australia and overseas. It has the reputation of being one of the most difficult off road races in one of the most remote places in the world. The Finke, as it is known, is run along sections of what was the Old Ghan Railway service track adjacent to the railway line along a winding corrugated track, which snakes through typical outback terrain of red dirt, sand, spinifex, mulga and desert oaks. It's a gruelling 460 kilometres, conducted as a return race from Alice Springs 230 kilometres south to Aputula Aboriginal Community at Finke. The Finke is a unique event in that in enables people from all walks of life to become involved. For 3 days, it is estimated that more than 12,000 people camp beside the racetrack, sleeping under the stars in tens and swags. Come and experience a truly unique outback event.

As you travel further west along the Mereenie Loop Road you will arrive at the captivating Tnorala (also known as Gosse Bluff) Conservation Reserve, which is the site of a huge crater and subsequently a place of international scientific interest as well as cultural significance to the Western Arrernte Aboriginal people.

Stretching out for hundreds of kilometres on both sides of Alice Springs are The East and West MacDonnell Ranges. The Aboriginee owners of the Alice Springs area are the Arrernte people and these people still believe today that giant caterpillars called the Yeperenye became the Ranges and that they entered this world through one of the enormous gaps in the escarpments of the area.

Access to the West MacDonnell Ranges from Alice Springs is not difficult and each of the West MacDonnell's chasms and gorges has its own unique character and scenery. Simpsons Gap has a permanent pool and rock wallabies live in and around the gap's rocky ridges.The reflecting overhead sun at midday lights up the Standley Chasm in amazing colours of fire. Pretty swimming holes such as Ellery Creek Big Hole, and the gorges of Ormiston, Glen Helen and Redbank offer a cooling relief on a hot day. It is also possible to visit the Ochre Pits that desert Aboriginal people once used as a quarry for ochre pigments.On the opposite side, the east MacDonnell Ranges, while not as well known as the West MacDonnells, do provide some fabulous scenery for those out bush walking and camping.Arltunga, a ghost town that was the site of a gold rush in the 1930's, is also worth a visit, and another place of particular impressive natural beauty is Trephina Gorge which is best known for its sheer quartzite cliffs and River Red Gum lined creeks and rivers. It is also an excellent place to try and see the black flanked rock wallaby which is quite a rare species of marsupial. The nearby John Hayes Rockhole is good for swimming.All of this makes a visit to the East MacDonnells definitely worthwhile.

The area stretching north of Alice Springs is an area known for its serene beauty and is an ideal place for gem fossicking, bush trekking, camping and four-wheel-driving.

The imposing rich, red walls of Ormiston Gorge were caused by huge geological forces, and thus creating one of the most acclaimed gorges of central Australia. The West MacDonnell Ranges National Park is rich in flora and fauna, and sets the scene for an unforgettable bushwalking trip. In places, Ormiston gorge rises to over 300 metres in some places, and those seeking adventure can spend many hours exploring. The pound runs east from the large waterhole at the gorge. This waterhole is around 14 metres deep, and fairly beckons the traveller at the end of a rewarding day exploring.

The gorge is dotted by the graceful river red gums and adorable wallabies that make the park their home. You will also find a fascinating collection of native fauna that includes plant species left over from a forgotten, tropical past.

Ormiston Creek runs through West MacDonnell National Park. It is a tributary of the Finke River, which some say is the oldest river in the world. The area was named by explorer Peter Egerton Warburton on his 1873-74 journey from Alice Springs across the Great Sandy Desert to the Western Australian coast.

A number of walks in the area allow you to choose your way to best explore the gorge. The seven kilometre Ormiston Pound Walk leads you on a circuit from the visitor centre, across the slopes, onto the flat floor of the pound. It returns along the gorge by the main waterhole. Barbecue facilities invite you to relax and enjoy this scenic landscape.

70 kilometres north of Alice Springs is where the Plenty Highway separates from the explorers and links travellers with Queensland through the Harts Ranges which is the scene of a gem and mineral rush in the 19th Century and is now an area of great cultural significance to the Arrernte people. You can fossick for your own gems with a tag along tour from Gemtree, hunting for semi-precious stones like garnets and zircons.

Another of those spectacularly beautiful spots is Rainbow valley in central Australia that appears to have been designed especially for people who love to see beautiful landscapes. Rainbow Valley, part of the James Range, is around 75 kilometres, about an hour's drive from Alice Springs. The name comes from the array of colours in the stone, ochre, rose, vermilion, rust and gold. The colours seem to change depending on the atmosphere, light and time of day.

A combination of water, weathering and erosion has coloured and sculpted the semi-circle of peaks and valleys that make up this reserve. Over millions of years, the red iron of the sandstone layers was dissolved in water, and was then drawn to the surface in the dry season. The red minerals formed a dark, iron-rich surface layer, with the white layers lying below. The dark red capping is hard, and weathers slowly while the soft white sandstone below weathers far more quickly, into loose sand. Weathering and erosion has also sculpted the shape of the peaks and the valley into bluffs, peaks and towers.

Sunrise or sunset are the best times of day to come here, when the light really has a chance to transform the peaks. Visitors are welcome all year around, to go camping, to bushwalk and to take fantastic pictures. However the best time to come is during the cooler months, between April and November.

The Tanami is the quintessence of what most of us regard as a desert. It is a vast, flat and sandy red landscape and here the notorious Tanami Track cuts a sandy course of over 1,000km from Alice Springs to Halls Creek in Western Australia's Kimberley region. Only the most experienced 4-wheel drivers should tackle this so you have been warned!

Those who travel further north along the Explorer's Way will come across settlements such as Aileron which is a welcome stop for refreshments, just as it was for early pioneers working along the old Overland Telegraph Line that once relayed messages between Adelaide and Darwin. The Explorers Way follows the same route as the famous Australian explorer John McDougall Stuart, the first man to travel across Australia. His journey started in Adelaide on 26th October 1861 and ended near Darwin on 24th July 1862.

The route takes in the Flinders Ranges, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock (Uluru), Kakadu National Park and finally Darwin.

The Red Centre Way (previously called Pioneer’s Way) joins Australia’s Northern Territory landmarks of Ayers Rock (Uluru), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon). It covers a total of 850km and can take up to 5 days to travel it’s length.

The Watarrka National Park is well known in Australia as the home of Kings Canyon, a huge crater with a depth of 270 metres. It can be found at the western edge of the George Gill Ranges some 295 kilometres to the north east of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and about the same distance west of Alice Springs. To Kings Canyon from Uluru takes about three hours by car by taking the Lasseter Highway and Luritja Road whereas four-wheel vehicle drivers who have least a 24 hours to spare can take the unsealed Mereenie Loop from Alice Springs.

An important conservation area, Watarrka has many rock holes and gorges which provide refuge for over 600 species of plants and many animals. The red rock face of Kings Canyon rises straight up for over 100 metres above dense forests of palms, ferns and cycads helping shelter them from the surrounding arrid conditions.

For the best view of the Canyon rim you can take a walk which takes up to four hours and which is about 6km in length but only if you are physically fit as it is quite a tough climb.

Whilst doing this walk you will get good views of the weathered, buttressed domes of 'the Lost City' and the 'Garden of Eden' which is a sheltered valley with permanent waterholes and green vegetation. If this all sounds a bit of a grind you can do the much shorter and easier Kings Creek walk that leads into the centre of the Canyon.The name Watarrka comes from an Aboriginal word referring to the umbrella bush that grows in abundance here. Watarrka National Park has been home to the Luritja people for over 20,000 years and this particular area of Australia was hardly known to Europeans until fairly recently with Ernest Giles(1835-1897) being the first white man to explore the area in 1872. At the Kings Canyon Resort, seven kilometres from the Park, there is various types of accommodation, campsites, a service station and a shop. Further on at Kings Creek Station some 35 kilometres from the Park, also has campsites and basic hotel accommodation.

Established as a frontier settlement town for north-south travel through the outback, Alice Springs was originally named Stuart but was re-named in 1933. Set almost in the exact centre of this vast continent Alice Springs is 1200 km from the sea and 1500 km from the nearest major city. Its sits at the mid-point of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway.

Tourism is by far the major tourist industry although about 700 workers are located 19km south-west of Alice Springs at Pine Gap the U.S./Australia satellite monitoring base. The town has a strong American influence anddue to this Alice Springs sees celebrations of all major stateside festivals such as Halloween, Independence Day and Thanksgiving. Baseball, American football and baseball are played along side the more traditional Australian games of cricket, Australian football and rugby.

Aboriginal people from all over the region visit the town to use its services. Resident in ‘town camps’ in the suburbs and according to the 2001 census Aborigines make up about 17% of the population and about 29% of the Northern Territory.

The climate is arid with little or no rainfall although this can vary considerably from year to year. Summer temperatures can reach as high as 48 degrees celsius whilst in winter temperatures have been reported as low as -10 degrees. Click here for tourist information.