Culture, Nature and the Night Life in Alice

 

Araluen Precinct – Art Gallery

With the car in the shop for its service and check we decided to spend the time in the Araluen Cultural Precinct which includes the Araluen Arts Centre, the Museum of Central Australia, the Central Australian Aviation Museum and Central Craft.  Unfortunately Central Craft was closed the day we were there, but on the positive side we were able to take in the Desert Mob exhibition at the gallery.

As the car was booked in at 8AM, we started the day with breakfast at Yaye’s Café (the helpful staff at Alice Auto Repairs even dropped David back off too us).  Even while waiting for brekkie Mr L started working on his school project (indigenous art in the places on our trip). 

Mr L is using a large Clifford Possum Mural on the wall of the gallery as inspiration.

We hadn’t timed everything perfectly as the gallery didn’t open until 10.  Fortunately we were able to explore the outdoor sculptures and the boys did find the excellent playground just next door.

Having been to the East Macs we had an understanding of the importance of caterpillar dreaming.  This sculpture was beautiful inside and out.

The inside of the sculpture is full of paintings and information.

So 10 actually came and went while playing continued.  Finally we prised the boys away from the playground and into the gallery.  The gallery is not extensive or as diverse as many (remembering that we are Canberrans and extremely fortunate to have Australia’s National Gallery as our local, so we have a high standard to compare to).  But we loved it.  Firstly, we were allowed to take pictures, even of the art 😊 (made me happy).  We could look at original Namatjira’s in the Namatjira gallery (they look even more detailed have such depth ‘in person’). 

But best of all we had arrived while the Desert Mob exhibition was on.  The advertising described it as: 

 “ Desert Mob is one of the most anticipated and important Aboriginal art and cultural events in the nation, bringing together Desert – member art centres from across vast regions of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.  Desert Mob is a unique annual gathering of artists, artworks and audiences, in the heart of the region, Alice Springs.”

There were three galleries full of art from Central Australia and Western Desert.  It was a fantastic opportunity to look at the range of styles across this large area and the boys (big and small) were enthralled.  The wide range of art completely captured them – they especially liked many of the sculptures and the three dimensional art (particularly the art on car parts).  We came up with many ideas for new projects to try at home.

The Foyer has a lovely range of stained glass including one spectacular large window which is based on a painting, ‘Arrernte Country’, by Wenten Rubuntja (interpreted by Jenny Green).  “The window is like a large map of Arrernte country around Alice Springs”.  It is the lead photo for this post and was truly beautiful.

The Museum of Central Australia

After the gallery we went to the museum.  This is a small museum featuring exhibits of the natural and geological history of the region and incorporates the Strehlow Research Centre (which researches indigenous culture and artefacts from the region).  Most of the museum is taken up with exhibits showing how the regional landscape and fauna occurred– it turns out there are quite a few meteorite craters not too far from each other around here (remembering that distances out here are much longer than in cities).  There is an audio tour available and it is free.  If you make it here just ask at the front desk. 

This is one of the meteor impact craters ‘nearby’ – Gosse’s Bluff (it will feature in the next post).

 
Central Australian Aviation Museum

The final part of the precinct we visited was the Aviation Museum. Again this was much smaller than the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach, but it was still interesting.  It tells the story of the local airline formally known as Connellan Air and is located in a former Connellan hangar.  But as you can see this gets abbreviated, even by them, as Conn Air.  Conn air covered routes across the Northern Territory and used to fly into Uluru.  From what we learnt their airport was literally next to the rock itself (mmm I can see how the traditional owners had some issues with the white people that took the land their sacred rock was on and then landed planes smack next to it).

One of the cool things in the museum is an old documentary they play about Connellan Air – but they play it in an old airplane. 

You can sort of see from this picture - there is quite a slope to get to the front row.

But where are our drinks and nibbles - obviously a budget flight!

Other than the gallery, which really did have an amazing exhibition of Central Australian art, I am not sure we would have paid entry for the other attractions (interesting though they were).  Very sensibly there is a single charge that you can pay to see everything.  We found this to be good value for money.

Todd Mall Night Markets

Reunited with our car again and full of knowledge and culture we headed for the centre of Alice, the Todd Street Mall and some shopping.  Like the museum and gallery – there is not a lot here but there are some interesting shops and the indigenous galleries and tourist shops are quite cool.

 

We went on a market night so there were stalls through the main block of the mall.  We had our dinner from the food stalls – Indian curry, Korean savoury donuts and Chinese an eclectic mix.  There were even mini table tennis tables – who could resist those.

We may have picked up a present or two and I lashed out and bought all my boys new hats.  I think they look cool and you will see them on show in many of our future photos.

Alice Springs Desert Park

Just out on the Western edge of Alice is the Desert Park.  This park is like a cross between a zoo and a botanical garden.  The Park has 3 km of walking tracks that take you through three re-created desert habitat areas – Desert Rivers, Sand Country and Wooland.  The park is nestled into the foot of the West Macs as they come into Alice Springs – a perfect backdrop for this fantastic park.

Along the walking tracks are a range of animal enclosures (some like the kangaroo one you can walk in others are just for looking) and walk in bird enclosures.  There are a range of activities that take place regularly throughout the day – the boys wanted to do the bush tucker talk and ‘helped out’ making fire in the traditional Arrernte fashion.

Not sure we will give up our gas lighter just yet.

We had lunch at the café (nothing special but OK sandwiches and COLD drinks – much appreciated).  Whilst we sat a beautiful superb blue wren ran around the tables (too quickly for a decent photo) and a friendly lizard kept a watchful eye on our lunch eating.

The totally best part of our desert park experience I have no pictures of to show you – we got a day/night pass so we could do the nocturnal tour as well.  Back we came at 7:15 eager and ready for this experience and we were not disappointed.  It turned out that we were the only ones on the tour (something to be said for this off season travel).  We went to a different part of the park and for the next hour or so were taken on this amazing walk spotting bilbies, echidnas, bandicoots, betongs, stick nest rats and mala (no longer able to be seen in the wild unfortunately).  We had a zoo keeper and a guide who were helpful and informative.  They answered all our questions and made sure we had an amazing time.  I have recommended this experience to a few families we have met on our travels and I recommend it again to anyone reading this blog and coming to Alice.  As a family it was one of the best ‘zoo’ experiences we have ever done.

Anzac Lookout

Our final night in Alice we picked up some takeaway and went to Anzac Lookout for the sunset.  There were no clouds but the sunset was nice anyway and it was good to see it setting behind our next destination – the West Macdonnell ranges.