July 26th, Australia Day 155

These are the photos I took of Alice Springs on my first day in the Northern Territory and the heart of Australia.

Inside the airport near Alice Springs, a small but picturesque one, there is this compass which gives the bearings and distances to various locations around Australia from that point.

The people of Alice Springs pride themselves on being near the center of Australia. A recent soap opera about the area titled "The Alice" ran with the caption, "Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everything" and that's pretty much how the people there feel. To honour this ideal, the people of Alice Springs erected this post which gives the bearings and distances to various cities around the world.

This is ANZAC Hill in Alice Springs which I climbed to get a good view of the surrounding area.

This is a memorial atop ANZAC Hill which honours all those from the area who fought and died while serving in the Armed Forces, particularly those from the ANZAC Corps.

This is the flag of the Northern Territory. The constellation on the left is the Southern Cross, the stylized version which appears on the Australian flag and the thing on the right is some sort of flower; I never found out which one. The orange colour on the main part of the flag represents the colour of the land.

These hills are the MacDonnell Ranges outside Alice Springs.

This, and the next 2 photos, are a panorama of Alice Springs and some nearby escarpments. The pointed one in the middle of Photo 2 even had snow on top of it one particularly chilly winter.

Photo 2

Photo 3