Alice Springs is in the heart of the Red Center and in the center of Australia; it sits on the Todd River surrounded by the MacDonnell Mountain Range. The Todd River is dry most of the year (Roger ran in the dry bed, where there are many, many trees!), but in the rainy season (which begins soon) it becomes a torrent. Alice Springs (named after the wife of the Postmaster General of South Australia). It originally referred to a waterhole near the Telegraph Station, but there was never really a spring there. The waterhole is fed by waters that stream off the surrounding mountains, and then collected in a basin area.
Alice is the second largest town in the Northern Territory after Darwin. Even at that, it has a population of only about 28,000 people: about twice the size of Haddonfield. We had to visit the town -- both having read Nevil Shute's famous book, A Town Like Alice and having seen the PBS mini-series starring Bryan Brown over thirty years ago.
The town serves two basic functions: providing needed services to the cattle stations and mining communities in the region (which should be defined in terms of thousands of square miles). Remember the passage vignette from the book: Joe Harmann tells Jean Paget that his station, Wollara, is two thousand seven hundred. Jean replies "Two thousand seven hundred acres. That's a big place." Joe stares at her. "Not acres," he said. "Square miles."
The service nature of the town is best illustrated by its three biggest "tourist attractions:" the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the School of the Air, and the Telegraph Station.
Royal Flying Doctor Service
The Royal Flying Doctor Service was the brainchild of a Presbyterian minister, Dr. James Flynn, who established the service in 1928. It was intended to provide medical services and evacuation services in the Outback. Crucial to its existence were two inventions: the airplane and the pedal radio. According to its website, it now provides medical emergency, primary and preventive healthcare services across more than 2.3 million square kilometres covering South Australia, the southern half of the Northern Territory and, on occassions, areas within Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.
Headquarters
RFDS entrance
Quilt for RFDS
Model of inside plane
Flynn's Grave
School of the Air
The concept of distance education is not new to the internet generation. As the RFDS grew, educators became aware that the radio could be used as a way of reaching children scattered throughout the Outback, and the flying service could be used to distribute books and teaching materials. Thus, the School of the Air was begun in 1951 in a room at the Royal Flying Doctor Service headquarters. Today, it has its own structure, and uses a sophisticated computer system to communicate with its 140 students within a 1000K radius covering 1,300,000 square kilometres. A large classroom! Each student is equipped with as computer, fax, camera, microphone, and communicates with the rest of the class and the teacher through satellite communications. Several times a year there is a face-to-face meeting in Alice Springs. The School only covers primary and middle schools; high school students then go to boarding school in Alice Springs, Adelaide, or other big cities. Dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth and Rolf Harris have visited here.
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