Alice Springs is about half-way between Adelaide and Darwin. It provides the commercial nucleus for the whole Alice Springs and Barkly Regions of the Northern Territory. These regions involve many Aboriginals and Europeans living and working in isolated areas.
The Alice ls a fast-growing town that boasts modern facilities and progressive development readily seen by the
many new supermarkets, shops, medical centres and office buildings.
Fortunately, the characteristic outback flavour has managed to survive all this modernization, and a touch of the
old pioneering spirit still lingers. At the turn of the century Alice Springs was just a quaint little outpost serving the epic overland telegraph. By 1980, however, the population was nearing the 17,000 mark and was conservatively predicted to continue growing at the steady rate of at least four per cent each year.