Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", it had a population of 26,486 in 2005.[1] Averaging 576 metres above sea level, the town is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin, close to the geographic centre of Australia.[2] The site is known as Mparntwe to its traditional inhabitants, the Arrernte, who have lived in the Central Australian desert in and around what is now Alice Springs for more than 50,000 years.
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Eighteen km south of Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory, along a sandy track that mostly follows the dry riverbed of the Finke River, is Palm Valley. The valley is actually a narrow gorge with stands of red cabbage palms (Livistona mariae), some reaching as high as 25 metres. This species is unique to this area and found nowhere else. The gorge has over 300 plant species and is a true oasis in this otherwise dry land
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Hermannsburg was originally a mission station established by Lutherans and is now a thriving Aboriginal community. It is located 124 km south-west of Alice Springs and the Hermannsburg Mission is the most famous of all of the religious missions to Aborigines. It was established in 1877 when two Lutheran missionaries from Germany made an overland trek from Bethany in the Barossa Valley region of South Australia bringing with them livestock and equipment to set up a permanent mission. The name was taken from the town in Germany where the missionaries had trained. Hermannsburg is also the birth place of Albert Namatjira who was born on the mission in 1902. Namatjira met the artist Rex Battarbee in 1934 and the result was a series of paintings of Central Australia which, while using European watercolour traditions, evoked the beauty of the centre from the perspective of one who knew and loved the land.
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The Flinders Ranges is South Australia's largest mountain range which starts approximately 200 km north west of Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over 430 km from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. Its most characteristic landmark is Wilpena Pound, a large, sickle-shaped, natural amphitheatre covering nearly 80 square kilometres, containing the range's highest peak, St Mary Peak (1170m), and adjoining the Flinders Ranges National Park. The northern ranges host the Arkaroola wilderness sanctuary and the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park. The southern part of the ranges are notable for the Pichi Richi scenic railway and Mount Remarkable National Park. Several small areas in the Flinders Ranges are protected as National Parks. These include the Flinders Ranges National Park near Wilpena Pound and the Mount Remarkable National Park in the southern part of the ranges near Melrose. The Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is a scenic protected area at the northern end of the ranges. In addition, the Dutchman's Stern Conservation Park, west of Quorn, and the Mount Brown Conservation Park, south of Quorn, are protected areas of the ranges. The Heysen Trail and Mawson Trail run for several hundred kilometres along the ranges providing scenic long distance routes for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders.
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