Northern Territory Travel Guide - Adelaide River to Wauchope, Elsley National Park, Wauchope, Tennant Creek

From Adelaide River To Wauchope

Adelaide River is a wee settlement 112 kilometres southeast of Darwin. During World War II, Australian and American soldiers gave the town a population of 30 000. It’s now less than 300, one of whom is Charlie the buffalo that was hypnotised in the film Crocodile Dundee. The War Cemetery, just north of town has 434 servicemen buried there.

112km south of Katherine, on the Stuart Highway is Mataranka, home of We of the Never Never. There’s a thermal pool in nearby Elsley National Park.

Wauchope is pronounced ‘War-cup’, while a town by the same name in New South Wales is pronounced ‘War-hope’. There’s a truckstop, a pub, a swimming pool and a population of 7 people, and it’s the nearest bit of civilisation to the Devils Marbles (8 kilometres away). Here there’s not just one or two marbles, there’s a bagful. There are thousands of boulders up to six metres in diameter, many balanced precariously on top of each other. They are said to be the fossilised eggs of the Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal Dreaming, which is far more interesting than an ‘eroded granite extrusion’. Allow a couple of hours to scramble about – you are allowed to climb them.

Tennant Creek began life as a temporary telegraph repeater station. These were the days when messages were sent by Morse code and could only travel so far before they began to fade and had to be re-keyed to continue their journey.

About 1000 kilometres south of Darwin and 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs, Tennant Creek remained an isolated outpost until gold was discovered in the 1930s. Visitors today can try their luck at a public fossicking area about 50 kilometres out of town, or take a tour to a mining lease where equipment is included.

The township, now located about 10 kilometres south of the old telegraph station, is a modern town of around 3500 people. There’s a limited range of clean and comfortable accommodation places, and several cafes and restaurants, including the historic Tennant Creek Hotel, which won the Northern Territory’s best restaurant award in 1996 and 1997.

Legend has it that a territory pioneer founded the hotel where a wagon loaded with beer broke down in 1934, and the town grew around it. Who am I to get in the way of a good story?

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For more information about the Northern Territory:

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• Top End
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