Place Names Register Extract

Alice Springs

Extract date: 20/04/2024

Name Alice Springs
Type Designation Town
Place Id 10219
Place Type Feature
Status Assigned
Date Registered 31 August 1933
Location (Datum GDA94)  
Latitude: -23° 41' S (Decimal degrees -23.6994)
Longitude: 133° 52' E (Decimal degrees 133.8807)
Locality / Suburb  
  Alice Springs
Local Government Area  
  Alice Springs Town Council
History/Origin It is understood the Alice Springs waterhole was discovered and named by Government Surveyor W.W. Mills in March 1871, when he explored the MacDonnell Ranges during the Overland Telegraph Line construction.

Mills named the pool after Mrs Alice Todd, wife of the Superintendent of Telegraphs, Sir Charles Todd, and the daughter of Mr E. Bell of Cambridge.

The waterhole became the site for the Alice Springs Telegraph Station.

Government Surveyor David Lindsay surveyed the township in 1888 and named it Stuart after John McDouall Stuart the first European to blaze the trail from SA across the centre of Australia to the north coast.

After the railway arrived in Stuart in 1929, the town grew and a new post office was opened in Railway Terrace in 1932. The post office was still called Alice Springs and the town Stuart. However, the following year (CG 50 of 31/08/1933), the town was gazetted as Alice Springs.

Register & Gazettal information

Date Gazettal Comment
31/08/1933 CG 50

The Northern Territory Gazetteer is maintained by the Place Names Section,
Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.
GPO Box 1680, Darwin NT 0801. Ph 08 8995 5333.
place.names@nt.gov.au

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