Attractions

Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert is real frontier country. It's still as wild and untamed as it was for the first European pioneers 150 years ago. With undulating sand dunes and challenging desert tracks, this is 4X4 outback country at its best.

Most of the Simpson Desert's attractions are within a day-trip's range south to south-west of Alice Springs, but their vast, rugged beauty will keep you in the region as long as your itinerary allows.

160 kilometres south of Alice Springs, Chambers Pillar rises as a solitary beacon out of the vast red plains and captivates your imagination of how the early pioneers used this as a navigational landmark. When you clamber up the hill to this 50-metre sandstone pillar's base, you'll be inspired by the markings made by nineteenth-century explorers who carved their names into the soft sandstone.

An easy stop on the way to Chambers Pillar is the Ewaninga Rock Carvings Conservation Reserve. These rock carvings and petroglyphs provide a fascinating record of many important beliefs preserved by the local Arrernte people.

Also in this region and 22 kilometres off the Stuart Highway 75 kilometres south of Alice Springs is Rainbow Valley, a spectacular sandstone bluff with rainbow-like bands, best seen by the late afternoon sun.

Only 35 kilometes past the Rainbow Valley turnoff is the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve containing twelve craters which were formed when a meteor hit the earth's surface, 4,700 years ago. The Henbury Meteor, weighing several tonnes and accelerating to over 40,000 km per hour, disintegrated before impact, and the fragments formed the twelve craters.