The Biggest City in the Centre

"The Alice," as Alice Springs is most commonly called, is the biggest city in Australia away from the coastal areas. It is situated almost right in the geographical centre of the country, about halfway between Darwin and Adelaide. All other big coastal cities, like Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth, are around 2,000km away.

There are about 25,000 people living here. The town owes its existence to being a major telegraph signal repeater station on the Darwin-Adelaide telegraph line. You can still see the historical telegraph buildings.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Due to its location, the best way to arrive here is by plane. If you should go by bus or with your own car, prepare for a long and sometimes boring road. Even the two closest coastal towns, Adelaide and Darwin, are 1500km away.

If you don't want to fly and you don't have your own car, a good way to travel is to take an organized tour by bus or even by 4WD. They will stop along the way in a few interesting places. We did this to get from Alice to Darwin, which was quite a good trip.

If you want to explore the city and its surroundings, the best idea is to walk (as long as you stay in the centre) or rent a bike (if you go farther).

There's a river running through Alice Springs, called Todd River. However, it's mostly dry the whole year due to an average precipitation below 50mm. There's a "boat race" (Henley-on-Todd regatta) held on the river each year, but due to the lack of water, the crew needs to carry the boat across the sand of the river. This is probably the only boat race in the world that is cancelled when there's water in the river. If the river runs dry, you can walk in the riverbed.

The MacDonnell Ranges are mountain ranges with red-coloured sandstone rocks all around Alice Springs. You can have some spectacular views already if you stay close to the town. The ranges are split up between the most-visited Western MacDonnell Ranges and the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges. There are plenty of guided tours to the region, but we decided to rent a bike. It was quite hard, however, due to the high temperatures around Alice Springs. From a distance, the rocks look spectacular, but if you get closer, you'll notice chasms and gaps in the rocks, which make them look even better. A spectacular gorge only about 20km from the town is Simpsons Gap. You can clearly see the red colour of the rocks in here, and it was nice for the day trip we did.

If you want a panoramic view on the city, you should climb this viewpoint. It is located right in the city centre and is an easy climb up. There is a monumental obelisk at the top of the hill to commemorate the people who helped to defend the country. Anzac is short for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the people who fought in the great wars.

If you come back in the evening, you will have a beautiful view on the starry sky of the southern hemisphere, weather permitting. You can even see shooting stars and the Milky Way if you are as lucky as we were.

A nice 5km walk along the Todd River will bring you to Alice's most famous and oldest landmark, and the reason for its existence: the old Telegraph Station. The oldest building here, dating from 1872, was set up as a telegraph signal repeater station on the important Darwin-Adelaide telegraph line. More buildings were added later. The whole area is now beautifully restored as a museum, that will give you good information on how the telegraph lines were used.