Photos of the Tennant Creek region, Northern Territory, Australia

Tennant Creek, about 510 kilometres north of Alice Springs along the Stuart Highway, is a small mining town that offers tours of its mines. There are hotels and a caravan park, and it is an excellent base to explore the area’s natural wonders. Nearby Devils Pebbles, a weird collection of boulders, is a short drive from the town. But the most remarkable sight is Devils Marbles, south of “Tennant” and visible from the Highway.

The Devils Marbles are known as Karlu Karlu in all four local Aboriginal languages. A site of significance to the Aboriginal people, it features precariously balanced boulders, huge rocks that seem cut with a knife, the action of heat erosion. There can be significant differences in temperature during the day and night. Geologically, the marbles were formed from an upsurge of molten rock that cooled and became solid beneath a sandstone layer. The solidifying granite caused vertical and horizontal fractures, creating rectangular blocks. Over time, water infiltrated the cracks, breaking down the sandstone and then the granite. In a ceremony held here on 27 October 2008, ownership of the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve was officially given back to the site’s Traditional Owners.

The Stuart Highway follows the old Telegraph Line, and about 170 kilometres south, on the way to Alice Springs, is the turnoff to Ali-Curung (Alekarenge) community, formerly Warrabri, a name made up from the names of the two main Aboriginal groups living here: the Warramunga (Warumungu) and Wailbri (Warlpiri). North of Tennant Creek is Three Ways, where the long road to Queensland goes east, and the Stuart Highway continues north towards Katherine, almost 800 kilometres from Tennant Creek.