Melanie and Gavin's Travels

The West McDonnell Ranges & Alice

A few days ago Kelly and I went driving outside of Alice Springs, it's pretty rural and quite stark and beautiful. We went to Simpson's Gap (that's me with a fly net over my face!) and Glen Helen. The landscape is orange mostly, with rock lines along the horizon however far you look. That Range runs through Alice Springs and then East again, it was caused from water millions of years ago. That's Kelly with the gum trees behind her, out at the first Telegraph Station.

Alice is in the middle of Australia so it became a major route between Darwin in the north and Adelaide in the south. It takes about 20 hours to drive in either direction and 4 days to drive East to the Coast with Brisbane etc. There are about 23,000 people in the town and a very large Aboriginal population. I hadn't experienced a lot of the country's original culture before and have been checking out the art galleries and asking a lot of questions. There are still some Aboriginals who live in the Outback and survive off the land and old customs but most don't. They have a similar history to our Natives in Canada - some were slaughtered, others were part of the 'stolen generation' and moved away from their families when children and sent to schools. Considering they lived here first they were treated horrendously. There have been a lot of problems and controversy with the cultures mixing (mostly in smaller places like here I think) and most people will agree the government needs to come up with a better idea for a long term solution.

posted by melaniewilkes @ 4:31 PM