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     A large sandstone mountain in central Australia, 208 miles southwest of Alice Springs. There are many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. It rises to a height of 1142 feet, and is nearly six miles in circumference. Various bats and other marsupials dwell on or near the rock, along with many reptiles.

      While of course known to the aborigines for thousands of years, Ayers Rock was discovered by Europeans in 1872 (during surveys for the Overland Telegraph Line). The area is an aboriginal reserve; no tourists have ever visited Ayers Rock (until 1936). The local aborigine tribes do not climb onto Ayers Rock, and consider various areas around the base of the rock to be taboo. Most of these taboos are gender-specific.

Alice Springs

     The narrow-gauge Commonwealth Railways line didn't reach the town of Stuart (from the south coast at Adelaide) until 1929. Much of the development in the area followed a gold strike in 1887. The town, with a population of just over 500 (only 50 or so of them whites; and another 50 or so being Pathan cameleers and their families), has a few stores, a post/telegraph office, a police station, a hotel (the Stuart Arms), a few pubs, a couple of churches, a tin-roofed mosque (for the Pathans), a police station and gaol, a hospital (Adelaide House, the only hospital in Central Australia) and a telephone system. Settlers, miners and other rugged rural sorts from all over Central Australia come to Alice Springs for supplies, communications, medicine, etc. 

     There is a landing strip, and an airplane passes through every other day in each direction (from the south coast to the north, carrying mail). The aircraft, operated by QANTAS, are single-engine DH.61 Giant Moth biplanes; the cabin can accomodate eight passengers (with 800 pounds of luggage and air mail).

      The hospital has an ambulance, the police have two simple autos, the railway depot has a truck, and several of the better-off residents own their own automobiles or pickups. Some of the miners and settlers come and go in simple trucks or cars, but horses (and some camels) are still the main means of transport outside of Alice Springs.

     The name was changed from Stuart to Alice Springs on August 31, 1933.

Weapon Restrictions

      This goes here until we start an Australia page.

      The first national control on weapons was introduced by a Customs Proclamation in January of 1923. At that time, most firearms laws were the responsibility of the individual states; the Commonwealth (national) government only had jurisdiction about importation. This new law gave the Minister For Trade And Customs the authority to prohibit the importation of all goods which in his opinion "may be regarded as weapons of a dangerous character and therefore a menace to the community." Certainly handguns, rifles and shotguns were not restricted in ownership or importation; I expect cannons and machine guns would run afoul of the Customs Proclamation.

      In 1935 weapons were included in Item 18 of Schedule 2 of the Regulations, at the request of Police authorities. Item 18 controlled dangerous concealable weapons such as swordsticks, knuckle dusters, sling shots, bludgeons etc.
     In 1946, the control was extended to cover dangerous goods, specifically those goods that in the opinion of the Minister were of a dangerous character and a menace to the community. Daggers, flick knives, concealed knives and star knives and blowpipe darts tipped with poison were also controlled under Item 18. I can therefore presume that these weapons were NOT prohibited prior to this date.

       Most uniformed officers don't regularly carry handguns in the cities, except perhaps on night patrol. Detectives normally carry handguns. Of course, this varies across the states, rural areas and cities.