Things to Do in Alice Springs

These days it’s commonplace for many schools to offer programs online, where you can receive a degree without ever seeing a teacher. Well, before the age of the internet, there was radio-- the means of how School of the Air in Alice Springs, Australia, nobly pioneered the idea to reach out to kids in obscure destinations without proper schools. One visit to the school premises, which is now complete with its own Visitor Center, and you can share a moving experience that shows how the utilization of technology we take for granted has not only brought people together, but shaped lives.

       Teaching primary and secondary level students since the 50’s, today students are outstretched as far as 502,000 square miles from the school. You can watch a film about the history of this truly unique school, and even listen in on live classes, which have since switched from the radio era to a highly more modernized and efficient broadband internet model. If you happen to arrive when sessions are closed, you may listen in on pre-recorded lessons, with interpreters on site to help you with translations and to field any questions.

The Alice Springs Desert Park offers the opportunity to experience the main desert environments in Australia. Wander through sand, woodland and river deserts and learn about their different plant and animal inhabitants. You will also learn about the traditional owners of the land, the Arrernte.

Animals rarely seen in the wild are on display in the nocturnal house which mimics the night desert offering a peek at rare and endangered animals that only come out in the dark like bilbies and carnivorous ghost bats.

The aquarium offers you a look at the animals you might find in a waterhole including fish, yabbies, burrowing frogs and turtles.

The Royal Flying Doctors Service is the largest air medical response team in the world. The doctors fly an average of 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers) a day attending to sick people in the remote outback of Australia. They have 53 aircraft operating out of 21 bases with 964 staff and attend to around 750 patients a day.

Alice Springs houses the Central Operations of the service and at the visitors center you can learn all about the incredible history of the RFDS and how it has shaped life in the outback. There is an interactive museum where you can find out what it is like inside the planes, you can even fly one in the flight simulator. Experience life in the early days of the service and try your hand at the Traegar pedal-powered radio which was the primary means of communication for many years.

One of the twelve stops along the overland telegraph route the Alice Spring Telegraph Station Historical Reserve is a great place for a picnic. The reserve has walking tracks, swimming holes, a cycle path and shady spots to rest. There are also free electric barbeques. Several colonies of rock wallabies share the reserve with plenty of other native wildlife and some pet camels.  

Many of the buildings in the old Telegraph station have been restored and offer a look at how messages were sent across Australia in the days when the trip took weeks by horse. In the Post and Telegraph Room you can still post a letter and send a telegram (email) to a friend. In the cooler months (May - Oct) the wood-fired oven is lit and damper ('outback bread') and scones are served.