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Tennant Creek Tourism Guide
Tennant Creek Tourism & Travel
Tennant Creek Australia
Nearly 500 kilometres, 312.5 miles from Alice Springs and around 650 kilometres, 406.2 miles from Katherine, Tennant Creek is an excellent stopover point when travelling between South Australia and the Northern Territory. For travelers between Queensland and the Northern Territory, Tennant Creek is 187 kilometres, 116.88 miles west of Barkly Homestead which is 272 kilometres, 170 miles west of Camooweal in Queensland. Tennant Creek is an old gold mining town, home to the largest open-cut gold mine in Australia up until 1985 when mining stopped.
Tennant Creek History
Tennant Creek township, in Warumungu country, population 3856 was established in the 1870s, the site chosen for a telegraph station on the Overland Telegraph Line.
Legend has it though, that the town was created when a beer wagon broke down at the site!
Gold and copper discoveries in the area helped the town to grow and develop as the centre for the Barkly Tablelands that it is today.
Tennant Creek Today
The telegraph station, 12 kilometres, 7.5 miles north of Tennant Creek township, is now a museum, and so is the Tennant Creek Battery Hill, crushing ore to extract the gold.
Just out of town, cool off in Mary Ann Dam, also ideal for boating.
Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve
The Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve is approximately 104 kilometres, 65 miles south of Tennant Creek in Warumungu country. The marbles are a collection of huge, spherical, red granite boulders, scattered across a shallow valley in the Davenport Ranges, regarded by the traditional owners as the eggs of the powerful Rainbow Serpent.
Devils Marbles, or Karlukarlu, as they are known to the traditional owners are particularly beautiful at sunset when they glow a deep red. In 1999 the rock was handed back to the traditional owners, represented by the Central Land Council, after a long period of negotiation. That rock now lies back in its sacred place at Karlukarlu, welcomed back by its custodians.