Expeditions led by John McDouall Stuart who later joined Charles Sturt in 1844 to find an inland sea, locate the centre of Australia and cross to the north coast. Stuart actually travelled with his party some 50 kms to the west of Alice Springs in April 1860 having named the MacDonnell ranges after South Australia's Governor, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell.

"There was a big cloud of dust coming up over the horizon and it could be seen from where the people were standing. Everyone wanted to know what was making that big cloud of dust. So a few men were sent to go over and look at what was making the dust come up like it did. The men said that when they got closer that they could see a big unusual looking animal...like a big grub...moving along there. They moved even closer and saw that this big grub was moving along but there were little things moving around too. These little things even had arms, legs and a head unlike anything they had ever seen before and they looked like they had white ashes all over them." - Willie Rice Ngale 1985

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