Arltunga

Arltunga is an historic mining town Located about 110 km east of Alice Springs in the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges. Now a ghost town, many of the original stone buildings remain in good condition, having been preserved by the dryness of the surrounding desert. Arltunga was officially Central Australia's first town, is now located within the 5000 hectare Arltunga Historical Reserve. The town was named after a subgroup of the Arrernte people who had been living in the area for at least 22,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans.

Like many Australian towns, Arltunga was the product of a gold rush. The South Australian explorer David Lindsay passed through the Arltunga area during his trek from Port Darwin to the South Australian coast in 1887, and noted that there appeared to be 'rubies' in the area. In 1887, alluvial gold was discovered in a dry creek bed downstream of Paddy's Rock hole. Miners were attracted to the area where they found both alluvial and reef gold which they worked for a few years in the early 1890s. The town was deserted soon after but it enjoyed a renewed lease of life with the construction of the Government Battery and Cyanide Works in 1898, which kept the town active until about 1916. By 1896 the alluvial gold in the area had all but disappeared. Miners successfully petitioned the South Australian Government and two years later the new works were opened and ore was being crushed. At its height, Arltunga supported a population of 3000 people. The population of the town in 1911 was 56 and this had dropped to 25 in 1933. The problems of the town are still clear - lack of water, isolation and the difficulty of access - which all conspired to make permanent settlement difficult.