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On This Day - March 11th 1871
The springs after which Alice Springs, central Australia, was named are discovered.
The city of Alice Springs is located 1524 km from Darwin and 293 km north of the South Australian border. It is the second largest city in the Northern Territory, with a population of over 25 000.
In 1862, explorer John McDougall Stuart's third expedition succeeded in finding a route through the Centre of Australia to the north coast, navigating and mapping the country for white settlement. The construction of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin was completed in 1872, making it viable for pastoralists to take up leases in the Red Centre. The springs after which the town was named were discovered on 11 March 1871 by the team building the Overland Telegraph Line. They lie to the north-east of the town and were named after the wife of Charles Todd, the man instrumental in securing the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line for South Australia. Surveyors William Whitfield Mills and John Ross both claim credit for the discovery of the springs.
Alice Springs was the name given to the telegraph repeater station which operated from 1872 to 1932. The actual town, originally surveyed in 1888, was 3km south of the telegraph station. Until the early 1930s, the official name of the town was Stuart. However, this created confusion for administrators in Adelaide, so on 31 August 1933 the township of Stuart was officially gazetted Alice Springs.