In 2019 we made our third visit to Australia, and each time it has been a great trip.  We have now experienced three distinctly different and very interesting regions.  We ran a conference in Brisbane and then flew to the very center of the country (called the Red Centre) to experience the world’s most famous rock:  Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta, both sacred to Aboriginal people, and then visited the very remote outback town of Alice Springs.

Brisbane Botanic Gardens

City Hall and Clock Tower

Brisbane River

Story Bridge

Brisbane is a lovely town, very modern but with a heritage dating back to the 1820’s when it began as a British penal colony.  England had a problem with overcrowding of jails and the loss of American colonies in the War of Independence led the English to establish a penal colony in the new land of Australia.  A central feature of Brisbane is the river, with fleets of water taxis that are heavily used by commuters.  We spent a week getting to know Brisbane.

Our rental car license plate

After that, we took a 3 hour plane ride to the center of the country deep into the Outback.  We landed in a dust storm and the rental car agent told us to watch out for the wild camels:  The dust storm had caused them to get closer to the roads and “They don’t know what they are doing!”  Apparently the British brought camels from Afghanistan 150 years ago to help explore the interior and these were the descendants of those that escaped.  We were disappointed that we didn’t see one, but the weather cleared up nicely that afternoon

Sunset dinner on Tali Waru dune, with Uluru in the background.

We did a sunset dinner with local entertainment and local food, having driven out to the dunes in a monstrous all-terrain vehicle.  The sunset was spectacular and an astronomer then gave us a guided tour of the Southern Hemisphere constellations.

Gourmet dinner on the dune, sampling lots of local food, including ants – a great source of protein

The classic view of Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Uluru, the world’s largest monolith, was “discovered” in 1873 by Europeans but the local Anangu people had already been there at least 22,000 years.   Long called Ayers Rock, it was returned to its Aboriginal owners in 1985 and reassumed its original name.  It was named as a World Heritage site in 1987.

Alice Springs Telegraph Station – World-Changing Technology: The Electric Telegraph

Deep in the center of Australia we discovered technologies significant to both John and Paula.  John’s was the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) completed in 1872 by the British-Australian Telegraph Company, which was the last link connecting the underwater telegraph cable from Singapore and Indonesia to the cities in south Australia and considered one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th Century.  It reduced the time to get a message to or from London from many months to 24 hours by use of multiple repeater stations along the way.  Alice Springs was created as one of those repeater stations.

Paula’s technology: Royal Flying Doctors Service

Another attraction in Alice Springs is the headquarters of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, established in 1928 to bring basic medical services to the remote areas of the Outback.  That technology was a bit more interesting to Paula.

Hiking at Standley Chasm in the West MacDonnell mountain range.