Showing 1-16 of 16 results
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Alice Springs Cultural Precinct
The Alice Springs Cultural Precinct combines a natural-history collection, a stellar arts centre, a cemetery, a sculpture garden, sacred sites and an aviation museum, all connected by a walking path. You can wander around freely outside, accessing the cemetery and grounds, but a precinct pass provides entry to the exhibitions and displays.
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Alice Springs Desert Park
A wonderful walk-through lesson in the key habitats of the central Australian environment. Explore sand country, woodlands and desert river ecologies, and meet some of the residents. This predominantly open-air park also touches on the traditional relationship of Aboriginal people with the land.
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Alice Springs Memorial Cemetery
The Alice Springs Memorial Cemetery is adjacent to the aviation museum and contains the graves of some prominent locals. The most famous is that of Albert Namatjira (1902-59); it's the sandstone one in the middle section to the left as you enter the cemetery.
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Alice Springs Reptile Centre
Ever wondered how, in the movies, they happen to be in the right place at the right time to film that lizard scampering across screen? It's a setup. And many of the stars are here, in their dressing rooms, glass-fronted for us all to see. The Alice Springs Reptile Centre provides a rare opportunity to see the enormous, magnificently patterned perentie lizard, plus thorny devils, bluetongues, bearded lizards and pythons.
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Araluen Centre
Alice Springs' art gallery, the Araluen Centre shows off an enviable collection of works spanning decades. Permanent exhibitions include the Albert Namatjira Gallery - the Territory's largest collection of the famous watercolourist's works - plus paintings by Albert's mentor Rex Battarbee and other artists from the Hermannsburg School. Other galleries exhibit acrylics from the central desert region, plus European-style oils and outdoor sculptures.
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Aviation Museum
The Aviation Museum is in the Connellan Hangar, Alice's original aerodrome. There are exhibits on pioneer aviation in the Territory and, of course, the famous Royal Flying Doctor Service (the old plane out the front belonged to John Flynn, founder of the service).
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Kookaburra Memorial
A small circular building houses the wreck and story of the Kookaburra Memorial, a tiny plane forced to make an emergency landing in the Tanami Desert in 1929 while searching for Charles Kingsford Smith and his copilot, Charles Ulm, who had gone down in their plane, the Southern Cross . Keith Anderson and Bob Hitchcock perished in the desert, while Kingsford Smith and Ulm were rescued.
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Mbantua Gallery
With an enormous collection of works from Utopia, plus pots from Hermannsburg and art books, Mbantua makes for a great wander. The permanent collection upstairs interprets Aboriginal mythology and customs, and displays more paintings.
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Museum Of Central Australia
Deftly designed displays at the Museum Of Central Australia recall the days of megafauna - when hippo-sized wombats and 3m-tall flightless birds roamed the woodlands of 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Meticulously pinned insects, pieces of meteorite, stuffed reptiles and marsupials, and indigenous artefacts provide a window into the Centre's past.
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National Road Transport Hall of Fame
Transport tragics, the National Road Transport Hall of Fame is for you. Check out the chassis on the first Kenworth to come off the production line in 1971, and learn all you've ever wanted to know about road transport in the Territory. The enormous shed is jammed with restored Macks and a vintage car collection, as well as a couple of road trains and the bush-basher used by Lasseter's descendants in an attempt to find his elusive gold reef.
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Old Ghan Museum
Behind every good railway museum there's a team of dedicated volunteers. The Old Ghan Museum is no exception, displaying a collection of Ghan locomotives and carriages, plus memorabilia. The museum fires up an old engine to take visitors down the single-gauge track and back, on Sunday at (returns ). The museum's located 10km south of Alice Springs on the Stuart Hwy.
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Olive Pink Botanic Garden
There's a fine collection of native shrubs and trees here. Short walks in the reserve include the climb to the top of Meyer's Hill in the Sadadeen Range (a 35-minutes return trip), from where you can enjoy a sweeping view over the town. Known to the Arrernte people as Tharrarltneme , the hill is a registered sacred site.
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Papunya Tula
The Western Desert art movement began at Papunya in 1971, and today this Aboriginal-owned centre displays some of the most sought-after art. Papunya Tula works with around 150 artists, most painting at the centre's Kintore Studio.
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Royal Flying Doctor Service Base
All communities and stations within a 600km (373mi) radius of town are serviced by Alice's Royal Flying Doctor Service base. Entry is by half-hour tours that run continuously all day. Tours include a 10-minute video, a squiz at an operational control room, and a wander through the museum where historical displays include some fascinating ancient medical gear.
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School of the Air
Using a combination of satellite-linked webcams and HF radio, the School of the Air broadcasts lessons to children living on remote outback stations - over an area of 1.3 million sq km. Informal tours of the facility (included in admission price) begin with an interesting video screening, and you can watch a live broadcast ( to Monday to Friday) during school terms.
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Telegraph Station Historical Reserve
Laying the Overland Telegraph Line across Australia's harsh Centre was no easy task, as you'll discover at the small museum at the evocative Telegraph Station Historical Reserve. The old stone station dates to the early 1870s and operated until 1932. It later served as a welfare home for Aboriginal children of mixed descent, until 1963.
Showing 1-16 of 16 results
