What is Alice Springs?

Answer 1

The city of Alice Springs is located 1524 km from Darwin and 293 km north of the South Australian border. Apart from Palmerston, which is regarded as part of Darwin, it is the second largest city in the Northern Territory, with a population of over 25 000.

Alice Springs was initially the name given to the telegraph repeater station which operated from 1872 to 1932 in central Australia. The actual town, originally surveyed in 1888, was 3km south of the telegraph station. Until the early 1930s, the official name of the town was Stuart. However, this created confusion for administrators in Adelaide, so on 31 August 1933 the township of Stuart was officially gazetted Alice Springs.

The springs after which the town was named were discovered on 11 March 1871 by the team building the Overland Telegraph Line. They lie to the north-east of the town and were named after the wife of Charles Todd, the man instrumental in securing the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line for South Australia. Surveyors William Whitfield Mills and John Ross both claim credit for the discovery of the springs.