Tennant Creek

Tennant Creek Facts and Figures

The Tennant Creek region covers an area stretching from the old Telegraph Station at Barrow Creek in the south, to the historical town of Newcastle Waters in the north, and east to the Queensland border. It lies at the junction of two great highways, the Stuart Highway and the Barkly Highway, and is steeped in colourful history and culture. The township of Tennant Creek is a modern outback gold mining town and the centre of the Barkly pastoral industry, and is located 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs and 1,000 kilometres south of Darwin on the Stuart Highway.

The creek after which Tennant Creek is named lies l2kms north of the town where the Overland Telegraph Station was built in 1872. The historic stone buildings are still standing today. Tennant Creek and the Barkly is not in an arid desert region as is Alice Springs and Central Australia to the south. The surrounding vegetation is open shrubland and the average rainfall is 422mm (16.6 inches). Temperatures in Tennant Creek range from 5 degrees Centigrade to the mid-30's in winter and from the mid-20s to low-40s in summer.

Since its rugged early days, Tennant Creek has developed into a thriving regional centre. It has a population of 4,000 and is the main supply and service centre for the Barkly Tablelands pastoral industry. It has a range of comfortable hotels, motels, backpacker accommodation, camping sites, pubs, well stocked supermarkets and restaurants, a major regional hospital, schools, banking and vehicle servicing facilities and, air and coach line services linking Alice Springs and Darwin.

The Tennant Creek region is traditional Warumungu country, though many Aboriginal language groups make it their home today. Nyinkka Nyunyu is an indigenous art and cultural centre in Tennant Creek which offers visitors an opportunity to learn about Aboriginal life and history in the region.

Tennant Creek has a warm climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. Most rain falls from December to March, when temperatures are at their highest. Temperatures fall during the dry months with sunny days and mild nights. Average annual rainfall is 426 mm. Average day temperatures range from 24 degrees to 38 degrees, with an average of only 22 days per year exceeding 40 degrees. Day time minimum temperatures range from 25 degrees in the hotter months to 12 degrees in the middle of the year. Residents of Tennant Creek enjoy from 9.1 to 10.4 hours of sunshine per day with an average of 155 clear days per year. Prevailing winds are from the east to south-east.

Tennant Creek History

Tennant Creek is named after a watercourse named by John McDouall Stuart in 1860, in acknowledgment of assistance he received from pastoralist John Tennant of Port Lincoln, South Australia. Stuart was the first explorer to successfully cross the Australian continent from south to north. This enabled the subsequent construction of the Overland Telegraph line, which linked Australia with the rest of the world. Australia's last great goldrush saw the development of an outback settlement in the 1930s which became the town of Tennant Creek today.

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station
The historical Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is located about 12km north of the Tennant Creek township. Interpretive displays relate the story of the epic of the telegraph's construction in Northern Territory history. Several graces of early pioneers are also situated at the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station.

Tuxworth-Fullwood Museum
This National Trust Museum in Tennant Creek was built by the army in 1942 as an army hospital. Today it houses the old jailhouse, mining displays and equipment, and an archive collection of photographs of Tennant Creek and its people. Some of the region's early pioneers are still resident in Tennant Creek today.