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This is the real Central Australia. The one you
came to see. Its most spectacular landmark is the Devils Marbles -
thousands of huge, precariously balanced boulders the Aboriginal
people believe are the eggs of the Dreamtime'' Rainbow Serpent.
Tennant Creek is an outback town with a rich mining history it is
fiercely proud of. This is where Australia's gold rush happened in
the 1930s, and there's still plenty more gold to be found. Names
of mines founded here are almost folklore. Did you know the famous
Peko mines were named after a small dog, and that small, faithful
dog lived right here.
The town's new Visitor Centre at Battery Hill features displays
and films focusing on the rich mining, pastoral and droving
history. Its pride is the Gold Stamp Battery, still thundering and
pounding, where miners brought their ore to be crushed and smelted
into gold bars. Find out what it was like down a lamp-lit mine in
the old days.
At night, listen to mining yarns around a campfire, or if you have
the nerve go on a haunted mine tour. For more of the real outback,
you can eat a hearty stockmans breakfast in the bush before
mustering cattle on horseback.
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