Australia Week 3 Alice Springs and Uluru

In the MacDonnell range there are a number of chasms or gorges . Often in the bottom of these, waterholes exist where wildlife and the local people gather.

They are used for swimming and other recreational activities.

These Rock Wallabies were seen just outside our motel in Alice Springs. Notice the joey in the pouch.

Alice Springs is also famous for the Flying Doctor Service as seen on television. In real life the service started operating in 1928 but came to Alice Springs in 1939. It provides a life saving service to the Outback.

Every community has to provide a runway for the aircraft to land . Only 4 were tarmac the rest may not even have lights. Car lights or lanterns being used if required at night

In the early days the outback radios were powered by pedal power. Mrs Lockwood trying her feet at an early radio in the museum.

The Alice Springs service operates witha radius of 600km reaching patients within 1.5 hours. Nurses and doctors hold clinics, transport patients, attend accidents and offer advice in the outback areas. It offers an invaluable service.

These Melons are by the side of the road on the Lassetter Highway between Alice Springs and Uluru. They look very inviting but are poisonous and not even the wildlife will eat them in this harsh environment.

This is Uluru (Ayers Rock) a famous Australian landmark.
It was handed back to the Aborigines in 1985 as they are the traditional land owners. It is believed that Aborigines have lived in the area for 20,000 years.

Many of the areas around the site are sacred and photography is not allowed within those areas.
The Aborigines manage the area along with the government preserving the culture and nature of the area.

Many of the lower caves have markings and teachings of the Aborigines.





The walk around the base is 10.6km. This allows a close up view of the many rock features that have formed within this very old rock formation.
The rock was part of a sea bed area millions of years ago.
Many of the formations have been weathered in by wind and rain. Black water streaks are left with algae where waterfalls spring to life during storms.

People travel from all over the world to get photographs of this famous landamark at sunset.


Around the base area there are many interesting and colourful birds like this Rainbow Bee Eater.

In Kings Canyon another significant rock formation in Wataka National Park close to Uluru -Perenties (large lizards as photo), Dingo's Camels were all seen.










Camels were brought into Australia by early exlorers from Afganistan to help transport goods in the late 1800's.

There are several camel farms offering tourist rides but there are also ferrel camels wandering around. There were several sets of camel remains by the roadside.

The desert area can be very barren and harsh but also green and lush especially close to water holes or after rain which often falls in there summer months in thunderstorms. Dry river beds can turn to torrents and several areas are marked on the roads as floodways with depth markers up to 2 metres.

Mrs Lockwood walking in the Outback in the MacDonnell Mountain Range. You have to keep a close look out under foot and make lots of noise and stamp your feet hard if you cannot see clearly past the undergrowth as Australia has many deadly snakes. The worlds most venomous snake the Brown Snake inhabits this central area. Mrs Lockwood was worried as one had killed a lady in Brisbane in her garden a couple of days before.

The only thing that crossed our path was this Perentie which is a form of Monitor Lizard. This one was about a metre long but they are non venomous.
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Keeping your eyes open you may also see Black Legged Rock Wallabies.
They can be seen hiding in the rocks often close to waterholes.








This one was hiding on a ledge out of the sun which can be very hot. It was 38C in the shade.

Wallabies are smaller than the red and grey kangaroos which we haven't seen apart from road kill and on Mr Lockwood's plate one night.

Alice Springs is world famous for School Of The Air. Started in 1951 to meet the needs of children living in remote areas of the Australian Outback it has become a world famous style of education.Many of the children lived on cattle stations, drill rigs, missions and remote national parks.They were so far from any schools they were not educated except by parents or they had to go to boarding schools. Often they had no friends as no other children were at the sites.Basic pedal driven radios were initially used to communicate with children who got their first chance for an hour per day to listen and talk to a teacher.Packs of books were also sent in the post which could take several weeks or even months to arrive.

Advances in technology now enable children to communicate with their teachers and other children within their class via web cams and the internet.Teachers work from a studio using interactive boards and web cams and children can respond directly.Then they still have to work at home with a tutor often a parent for at least 4 hours per day. They still receive packs of work books.

School Of the Air covers an area as shown on the map with each picture showing a child or children. There are currently about 120 children in an area 10 times the size of England and Scotland and Wales together.
Many well known celebrities and government ministers visit the school each year and broadcast to the children. The celebrities traditioanlly sign one of the studio walls since Rolf Harris first drew a picture there.