Owen Springs Self Drive

Welcome! 1. Milne’s Hut The Owen Springs Self Drive This area became the site for takes you along a 50km stretch the new homestead after the old of road, steeped in pioneering homestead was abandoned in the Wildlife Watch history. You can either start 1950s. All that stood here in the from Larapinta Drive and early days was the hut, a bore Red-tailed Black-cockatoos head south, or begin from the and water troughs for the cattle. flying overhead Stuart Highway, and make Betty Thompson and her husband like the Central your way north through the Ron worked here in 1950. Ron Bearded Dragon sitting on Reserve. Each point of interest was a ringer, and Betty looked old wooden fence posts is clearly marked on the map after the hut. Betty says, “I would Euros (Hill Kangaroos) on found at the back of this leaflet, not see anyone for 2 weeks or the rocky slopes of Lawrence and the drive takes about 1½ more at a time… During the day Gorge hours one-way to complete. I pumped water so the cattle Budgies flying at high speed could drink, collected wood for in the open grasslands For your Safety the stove, and looked after my one year old baby.” Conditions A sunning itself on A high-clearance 4WD is were very basic compared to the warm track essential to drive through the today’s standards. There was Major Mitchell Cockatoos Reserve. The track contains no electricity and the kitchen perched high on an Acacia some sandy sections that may comprised of a wood stove, a be difficult to pass, particularly If you are lucky you might bench, a Coolgardie safe, a 44 after rain. Please ensure you even see a well camouflaged gallon drum of flour and a cast are aware of how to operate a Australian Bustard iron kettle for boiling water. 4WD, and carry appropriate Betty slept on the verandah, recovery gear. Drivers should although she was used to sleeping engage 4WD to minimize the on the ground, so the hut was risk of becoming bogged. “like a mansion to me.” Introduction to the drive As you drive through the Reserve, you will be immersed in the stories of those who helped open up the Territory to settlement. Travel the path taken by explorer John McDouall Stuart, who made his way up the Hugh River on one of his three epic expeditions to cross from south to north. Visualise the endless kilometres of wire of the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL), as the morse-coded messages snaked their way through Lawrence Gorge. You can almost smell the sweat from the horses and hear the rumble of hooves as a mob of cattle is rounded up into the old Milne’s Hut 1950 yards on one of the earliest cattle stations in Central Australia.

Parks & Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory Simpsons Gap Ranger Station Regional Office - Arid Zone Research Institute Ph: (08) 8955 0310 South Stuart Highway ALICE SPRINGS NT 0870 PO Box 1120 ALICE SPRINGS NT 0871 www.nt.gov.au/parks Ph: (08) 8951 8250 Fax: (08) 8951 8290 Owen Springs Self Drive

The last family to manage Owen 3. The Airstrip Springs as a cattle station was the The airstrip was built in about 2000. Brumby family (1965 to 2002). In 2000, It was used fairly regularly for work floods devastated Central Australia, on and around the station (a plane and all of this area was under water. was hired from Alice Springs). The Shane Brumby was the Manager at Alice Springs Aero Club also used the the time, “The floods in 2000 were airstrip for flying training and made pretty scary…we lost everything, cars, regular landings and take-offs from the furniture, everything went”. The water airstrip. The land east of the fence line level rose 6 to 8 inches (15-20cm) is now used by the NT Government through the buildings and Shane had to to trial initiatives to improve the evacuate his family in the early hours productivity of the cattle industry. of the morning to higher ground. Australian Ringneck Parrot 2. Aboriginal Stockmen’s 4. Down the Road… Barnardius zonarius Quarters All the old yards and fence posts that you can see scattered throughout the Reserve The two old tin buildings by the Hugh (including the bronco branding yard just 6. A River Somewhere River were used by the Aboriginal north of the old homestead) were mainly stockmen and their families. The Over time, the Hugh River’s usually made from the hard River Red Gum buildings here include living quarters, dry creek bed has slowly chiselled out wood sourced from trees growing in the a shower shed and a toilet. Aboriginal a path, providing water and refuge for surrounding country. It was only later people have worked on cattle stations a range of plants and . The river that steel yards were built. Much of the across the Northern Territory from the presents visitors with ample wildlife vegetation you can see along the roadside very early days of the pastoral industry, spotting opportunities. Some of the more was eaten by cattle. In dry times, and without them, the industry would common birds you might see include cattle will often eat bark and leaves off have struggled to survive. Just like migrant Rainbow Bee-eaters (August shrubs and trees (known as topfeed). old Milne’s Hut, living conditions through April), or local Australian of topfeed include Mulgas, for the Aboriginal families were very Ringneck (Port Lincoln) Parrots, Black Whitewoods and Eremophila species. basic in the early days, with none and Whistling Kites, and Red-tailed of the modern household comforts Black-cockatoos. Other animals that you that we now take for granted. 5. The Old Homestead may spot while driving through include In 1873 two log huts were built on Red Kangaroos and the occasional this site by William Gilbert... the first Black-footed Rock Wallaby. Those with homestead in Central Australia. Since a keen eye will glimpse a here and Gilbert, two names synonymous with there on the track or on a nearby rock the pastoral industry have owned Owen catching some of the sun’s warming Springs Station. Sir Thomas Elder and rays. More common species include Sir Sidney Kidman both owned the the Central Bearded Dragon, and the station in the late 1800s, with Elder Long-nosed Dragon. Sand Goannas attempting to breed horses for the and , the largest lizards in Indian Army. From 1896 to 1901, Sir Australia, are also found in the Reserve. Sidney Kidman and his brother Sack In the days before Owen Springs became mustered horses off Owen Springs and a Reserve, it was not uncommon for sold them to southern markets at great settlers to look to wildlife to supplement profit. The Hayes family bought Owen their food supplies. Bustards and Springs in 1907, sold it in 1930 and Kangaroos for example would have then re-acquired it in 1936. William made good eating. Once in 1950, when and Mary Hayes first came to Central Betty Thompson ran out of food for Australia in 1884 transporting wagon the ringers working on the Station, she loads of steel posts to replace the cooked up a meal of ‘bush chicken’. timber ones on the OTL. The stone When asked by the men where she had buildings here today are thought to found a chicken out here she confessed have been built during 1886-1887 just that the meat was actually from some after Elder purchased the station. Galahs that she had shot the day before. Central Bearded Dragon vitticeps Owen Springs Self Drive

7. Haunted Tree Bore entire length (36,000 poles in total!) Further reading: How many trees can you see that have This site was used as a cattle camp for ‘Explorations in Australia: The the potential to become telegraph poles? drovers, who sometimes encountered Journals of John McDouall Stuart.’ trouble while camped here with their The service track along side the OTL (1984) Hesperian Press. stock. The cattle always seemed to became the main road to Alice Springs. Thomson, A. (1999) ‘The Singing Line: be spooked, although there was no It wasn’t until 1898/99 that the OTL The story of the man who strung the apparent reason for it, hence the name was re-routed through Heavitree Gap at Telegraph across Australia, and the Haunted Tree Bore. Bores like this Alice Springs, and the old line passing woman who gave her name to Alice one are essential sources of water in through Owen Springs was dismantled. Springs.’ Chatto and Windus, London. land that receives less than 300mm of rain on average each year. Bores 9. Redbank Yard: Life on a Bailey, J. (2006) ‘Mr Stuart’s Track: were scattered throughout the station Cattle Station The forgotten life of Australia’s greatest and water was originally pumped to explorer.’ Macmillan Australia. On average the Brumby’s ran 8000 to the surface using wind power. Now 10,000 head of cattle, and sometimes www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/stuart.htm pumps are powered by diesel engines, as many as 16,000. The workers would and underground water is still used to For even more information about people spend three to four months each year supply the ranger station. The bore and such as Kidman, Elder and Stuart visit: away from the homestead in stock camps water tank that sat here were destroyed http://adb.anu.edu.au/ around the station. “An average day by the same flood that inundated the you’d be up at 4.30 in the morning, and A fact sheet about Owen Springs Reserve station homestead in 2000. Look closely you’d go all day and if you got back is available from Parks and Wildlife at some of the trees in the river and for lunch you’d be lucky. But it was NT or Tourism Central Australian. you will notice the height of the debris, daylight till dark”. All the work was indicating the level of previous floods. done on horseback, in all extremes of weather. “It didn’t seem to make a lot 8. Stuart and the Overland of difference because you were there, Telegraph Line you were in it all the time, the heat and Stuart’s expeditions across the centre of that. We didn’t have air conditioned the continent ultimately paved the way vehicles and stuff like that, I guess you for the construction of the Overland just grew used to it.” Shane Brumby. Telegraph Line (OTL) and then the expansion of the pastoral industry as more land became available. On the 11th of April, 1860, Stuart first visited what was later named Owen Springs. The waterhole he camped at was not in fact a spring, rather a temporary waterhole in the river. It was named after an SA Member of Parliament, and supporter of Stuart’s expedition, William Owen. It was only on his third attempt (1862) in crossing the continent from the south to the north that he actually succeeded. He was paid £2,000 pounds for his efforts. Unfortunately his health suffered as a result of the hardships of his experiences and he died at the age of 51 in 1866. His funeral was attended by only seven people. Much of the OTL was surveyed along Stuart’s original expedition path. The line was constructed between 1870 and 1872, with telegraph poles (firstly The Old Homestead - following Heritage Conservation works in 2011/12. timber from alongside the path of the OTL, but as this got eaten by termites they were replaced with metal poles) placed every 80 or so metres along its Owen Springs Self Drive

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# Self Drive Reference

Information 3 Bush Camping Numbers 4, 6, and 8 do not have a designated stopping place. Historical Ruins

Dogs on Leads 4

No Pets

4WD Track Sealed Road

5 6

Haunted Tree Bore 7

Dogs are only permitted south of Waterhouse Range 8

Redbank Yard

Redbank 9 Waterhole

A/02/2020PWCNT Information Sheet For more information visit www.nt.gov.au/parks or contact Tourism Central Australia 1800 645 199 or (08) 8952 5800 www.discovercentralaustralia.com