Southern Region
Region Snapshot
Region Snapshots, provided by the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development, are based on the the 5 Statistical Regions in the Northern Territory.
Originally a quiet little settlement known for keeping a relaxed style in one of Australia’s harshest climates, today Alice Springs is a fascinating mix of lifestyles and cultures.
Alice Springs is a small outback town which punches above its weight, maintaining big city facilities in an environment which for millennia has sustained only small nomadic groups. Over recent decades the little outback town has become a global phenomenon, marketed in New York and Tokyo as the epitome of outback style. This has come as a surprise to many long-term residents, but not to the many souvenir and Aboriginal art shops now lining the streets. Yet the marketers’ efforts have not completely locked out the past – the traditional ‘Alice’ remains, but in pockets, and usually out of the gaze of tourists. Today, those seeking the Alice Springs of legend must look in the old corner pubs, in the town camps, along the banks of the Todd River and outside town, at places like the Old Telegraph Station - or just wander where ancient axe heads and flints still lie on the ground on nearby properties.
The streets of Alice Springs show this contrast. There are of course the tourists, easily identifiable.
But then there are the cattle station owners and workers from the surrounding area – casual, yet as tough as the country they work. And Aboriginal people are now in full possession of their legal rights to land and citizenship, a long way from earlier this century when most aspects of their lives were controlled by governments. Today they live in camps spread throughout the town, with their own representative organisations in such areas as health, education, art, land management, finance and media. A history of neglect and dispossession has, however, left many struggling to cope with life still lived on the fringe of society.
Alice Springs will always have a strong future. It is the only major town for hundreds of kilometres - the only service centre, the only base for desert knowledge, the stepping off point for Central Australia, and a symbol of ‘our Australia’.
Alice Springs named
The discovery of gold at Arltunga in 1887, mica at Harts Range, and more gold at Tanami and Winneckie in the early 20th century ensured would-be miners were added to the list of newcomers heading north into the NT. The town of Stuart, 3km south of the original ‘Alice Spring’, was gazetted in 1888, and lots auctioned. By 1926 around 40 people had come to live in the fledgling town, and in 1933 its name was changed to Alice Springs. The railway came to connect the new town with Oodnadatta, 600 km south in 1929. For the first time there was easy access to Central Australia, giving pastoralists the ready means to get their cattle to southern markets.
Controls
At this time Alice Springs was a non-Aboriginal town. But gradually Aboriginal people came in to obtain rations and work, often camping on the town’s edge and becoming subject to strict government controls in such areas as marriage, housing and access to alcohol.
First European presence
The first permanent indication of the European presence in Central Australia were the stations of the Overland Telegraph Line. But this did not indicate a serious interest in Central Australia – it was just a by-product of a communications system linking Australia’s coastal regions. Nevertheless, the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1871-72 provided coastal dwellers with their first real information about the land beyond their horizons. At first, this information was not particularly reliable. Rather, it catered to city fantasies, with tales of gold and money to be made. Little consideration was given to the fact that there were people already living there.
Heading north from Adelaide in 1871 a surveyor for the Overland Telegraph came across a spring in a riverbed, named it Alice Spring and set up an area near the spring for a repeater station and combined barracks and telegraph office. So began European settlement in the Centre. The spring was on the country of Arrente Aboriginal people, but this was of no concern to either those organising the Overland Telegraph Line or to the pastoralists who soon took up leases in the area.
Social profile
A social profile of the region reflects the contrast between the predominance of non-Aboriginal people in urban centres (Alice Springs, Yulara) and the predominance of Aboriginal people in the smaller bush communities outside these centres:
• According to the 2006 Census, the median age in the town of Alice Springs was 33, the same as Darwin.
• The average income was $658 per week in Alice Springs and much lower outside the town.
Diversified economy
Mining has become a major feature of the Central Australian economy, with traditional landowners proving they are interested in developing the mineral resources on their land. But recent decades have also seen the diversification of industry beyond the conventional exploitation of natural resources.
Tourism has had strong growth in recent years, focussed initially on Uluru and Kata Juta but now extending elsewhere, to places such as Kings Canyon. An interesting recent development is that small communities such as Titjikala and Wallace Rockhole are entering the tourism industry.
Closely related to tourism is the Aboriginal art industry, now dominating the commercial areas of Alice Springs township and providing an income for many.
And the recent formation of the Desert Knowledge Centre as a Co-operative Research Centre holds the promise of further development of the human and natural resources of the region.