A land such as this, with its great loneliness, its dearth of life, and its enshrouding atmosphere of awe and mystery, has a voice of its own, distinctly different from that of the ordinary Australian bush.
- Ernest Favenc, Voices in the Desert , 1905

 

Set in what is just about the geographical centre of the continent, Alice Springs has a population of just 25,000, yet is still the largest settlement of the Australian interior. A clean, modern and compact town in the midst of the MacDonnell Ranges, it makes an excellent base from which to plan trips into the surrounding countryside.

The Red Centre , a marketing term coined to describe the area to the south, west and east of Alice Springs, is an historically rich and scenically spectacular region. It includes the lands inhabited by the "Anangu", the more easily pronounceable name for the Aborigines from the Uluru region. The Aborigines around here were fortunate in being among the last to come into contact with white settlers. As a result of this and the necessary strictness of desert nomads' laws, they and their fascinating but arcane culture have survived relatively unscathed. Here, as much as anywhere in Australia, some Aborigines are living the life of their choice on their traditional homelands, and dealing with the neighbouring white culture on their own terms.

Ayers Rock - known to the Anangu as Uluru - is Australia's most famous and most visited natural spectacle, and still the primary reason why most people come to the Red Centre. At first sight, even jaded "seen-it-all" cynics will find it hard to take their eyes away from its awesome bulk. But there's much more here than just the Rock, and it's rare in Outback Australia to find such a large region crammed with worthwhile and accessible places of interest. The West MacDonnells , a series of rugged ridges cut at intervals by slender chasms or enormous gorges, start right on Alice's doorstep. In the other direction, the Eastern MacDonnells are less visited but no less appealing, with the remote tracks of the Simpson Desert to the south attracting the intrepid. To the west, Palm Valley , now linked to Kings Canyon via a good dirt road, can add a few days to a trip which, including the Rock, makes for probably the most memorable tour in the Outback. While most of these places certainly don't need a 4WD vehicle to get to, there are a few enjoyable and easy off-road tracks that can be fun in a rented 4WD.