Alice Springs to Ti Tree after overnight at Tropic of Capricorn Rest Area
We spent about five hours at the Araluen Centre. It has been built on the site of the Connellen Airways, and we were able to revisit the hangers where Dad (Ralph) used to work and we used to play. Or at least I could see one of the hangers, at the time I went the second one wasn’t open.
Apart from the Galleries, and I was especially impressed with the photographic exhibition by Aboriginal photographers, there was the Strehlow Centre with exhibits showing central Australia from the beginning – very interesting and well done. There was also more information on the anthropological work done with local aborigines by Strehlow and his son, who weren’t a trained anthropologists, and made the sort of mistakes typical of the times, such as selling objects to a museum in Germany. There is a huge archive of film taken by the son which has never been edited, I hope they realise it will need to be digitised soon. The reason for the lack of editing, just too much to do in one lifetime and being unsure of the audience, given that much of it was of secret/sacred business.
It was after 3.00 p.m. when we set off, stopping to fill up with fuel on the way. We went about 30kms to our first rest area at the Tropic of Capricorn Rest Area. It continued to be slightly wet, but became very windy. We decided to sleep with the slide in as the little cover was flapping about in the wind and we thought it might break off. I also had to raise our TV arial a little to keep it from banging on the roof. It was still quite cold and windy this morning and as we drove to Ti Tree. Interestingly, the landscape became greener on the drive here.
I checked the Alice Springs climate information. It does indeed get most of its rain in summer, but that doesn’t mean it can’t rain in winter as well, just that it won’t be as much.
We are parked at the Ti Tree Roadhouse because we have (slow) access to the internet.
We are having fairly short travel days today and tomorrow as I would like to overnight at the Devils Marbles Rest Area tomorrow night.
We are staying at Ti Tree for a while as our next overnight is only about 20 kms down the road.
2 responses to “Travels with the Winnie: Day 41”
Nice to know the hangers were still there at the site where daddy worked. I only remember the smells of the Connellen area, like the smell of hot concrete and aviation fuel but I could be wrong. I would only be 2 or so.
I love your photos xx
Aviation fuel would have made a deep impression on you😀