Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Mt Ebenezer Stop

Mt Ebenezer Stop

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Tue 29 Mar 2016 22:07

Mt. Ebenezer Rest Stop

Another hour and a half on the road and our second rest stop was Mt. Ebenezer Roadhouse, Outback, Northern Territory.

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I nipped across the road as I saw an information board about the area.

It read: This is Australia calling. Welcome to Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse, which is owned by the Imanpa Aboriginal Community. The Imanpa Gallery located here features unique art and wood carvings produced by members of the community. The retailing of art through the Gallery plays a significant part in the community’s livelihood although selling the artifacts is only one reason for the extraordinary artistic output.

Artistic _expression_ is an important form of communication for Aboriginal people. Art is a means for Aboriginal people of the central desert to carry on stories, to know and learn about family and their country and to share this knowledge with non-indigenous people.

This place is also linked to another form of early communication – the telegraph. Mt Ebenezer, which is located nearby here, is named after Ebenezer Flint who was involved with the early establishment of the Overland Telegraph.

When South Australia was founded in 1936, the need to discover new pastures led quickly to northerly explorations revealing the fringe of the desert. Explorers Edward John Eyre and Charles Sturt made attempts to move further north to uncover the vast unknown interior, but their attempts were foiled by impassable terrain. It was was John McDouall Stuart who took a more westerly longitude and discovered grassy plains, creeks and abundant water holes and ultimately made it to the north coast in 1862.

Once this stop had been forged, South Australia moved quickly to annex the Northern Territory and build an overland telegraph line to connect Adelaide to Darwin and consequently Australia with the rest of the world.

This overland line project was completed in less than two years in 1872 with an almost 2,000-mile strand of wire (2900 kilometres) on 36,000 poles at the staggering cost of 300,000 Pounds. Eleven repeater stations were installed along the route to relay the traffic, each station staffed by two telegraphists and four linesmen.

Charles Todd, the Superintendent of Telegraphs had the honour of sending the first telegraphic message over the 2,000-mile line. He tapped out the message: “We have this day, within two years, completed a line of communication two thousand miles long through the very centre of Australia, until a few years ago a terra incognita believed to be a desert.

Activity: Take time to explore the art gallery and workshop. You might be in a desert landscape but this place is certainly not culturally barren! With a history tied closely to the opening of links between Australia and the rest of the world through telegraph, today this area continues to make connections between people of different places and cultures through the art of the Imanpa community.

This photo was taken in September 1870 when the first pole was planted of the Overland Telegraph near Palmerston, NT. Among those present were: Mr Palmer, Mr Burton, Dr Furnell, Dr Millner, D.D. Daly, Miss Douglas, Mr & Mrs W.T. Dallwood, Willie Douglas, A.T. Childs, Captain and Mrs Douglas, E.W. Dallwood, Miss Douglas, W. McMinn, Miss B. Douglas, Mr James Darwent, J. McKinlay, Mr Grey, Mr E, Holthouse, Mr Davis, Mr Paquelin.

Source: Spillett Collection, Northern Territory Library. We think some of the ladies would have swooned in the heat, just look at all their clothing.

Outside on a tree we saw several galahs and a few tiny finches, there was a smashing One Careful Owner by the main door.

It was polite not to take photographs in the gallery but this local artwork was on the wall leading to the toilets.

On a notice board near the gallery were some great old photographs: Travel in Central Australia was difficult in the 1930’s.

Young Englishman, W.W. Mills, surveyed sections of the Overland Telegraph Line south of Alice Springs. Bill Liddle arrived in the centre in 1907 to work at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station before establishing Kings Canyon and Angas Downs. Digging for water – the camels look on.

Bill Liddell and his camel buggy.

Back on the bus after a great cup of tea and two fly nets under our arms, we saw a wonderful looking Aboriginal man crossing the road, what a face.

Not long after we were back on the road, we saw our first wild horses.

The scenery around Mt Ebenezer.

I had wanted a real Aboriginal painting since our first visit eighteen months ago. Many temptations in Sydney but they wanted a hundred dollars. At the Uluru Cultural Centre they wanted several times that. On our return stop at Mt Ebenezer it sprung at me – a goanna. None in the gallery, my gorgeous man with the beard told me to ask the ladies painting outside. Sherry had just the thing and she wanted twenty dollars, how thrilled am I. Framed my pair of chaps look rather handsome next to Bear’s stunning Darren Germain. Marvellous. Bear sad that the flash obliterated Tasmania....... Oops.