“A string of geological attractions that feature significantly in the culture of the Arrernte Aboriginal people”
ANCIENT RANGES
The MacDonnell Ranges stretch more than 600km in a series of parallel ridges east and west of Alice Springs. They cover an area of 39,300sq.km and include the five tallest mountains in the Northern Territory. Explorer John McDouall Stuart named them during his 1860 expedition in honour of Sir Richard MacDonnell, the Governor of South Australia at the time.
The spectacular red quartzite formations were created about 350 million years ago, then folded and fractured by tectonic forces. Time allowed ancient rivers to carve their way through gaps and gorges on their relentless journey to floodplains in the south.
In 1870, the ranges were crossed at Heavitree Gap by a party of surveyors led by William Whitfield Mills, while he was following the Todd River as a possible route for the Overland Telegraph Line.
Alice Springs straddles the Stuart Highway just north of the Gap, and makes an excellent base from which to explore these magnificent rangelands. While not as well known as their western counterparts, the East MacDonnells are easily accessed by the Ross Highway, which leads from the Stuart to a string of geological attractions that feature significantly in the culture of
