Destinations / Tennant Creek / Tennant Creek the township
Battery Hill Mining Centre
At the Battery Hill Mining Centre in Tennant Creek you can relive some of Tennant Creek’s gold mining past. See the gold stamp battery, the only operating ten-head stamp in Australia, on a guided tour. Other attractions are a native plant walk, minerals museum and an underground mine tunnel.
Lake Mary Ann
Lake Mary Ann, five kilometres from Tennant Creek, is a great place for a swim and a picnic. The lake can be reached from the township by a walking and cycling track or by road via the Stuart Highway. Barbeque facilities, safe swimming areas, bushwalking tracks and wildlife watching areas are all available.
Tennant Creek Telegraph Station
Built in 1872, the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is a collection of historic stone buildings that functioned as an important part of the Overland Telegraph Line that linked Australia with the outside world. The Station, 11 kilometres from town, has a self-guided walk with interpretative signage on the region's telegraph communications and pastoral history.
Nyinkka Nyunyu
The Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in Tennant Creek features an award-winning interpretive museum and art gallery that provides visitors with insights about the life and culture of the local Warumungu people. Art from the Barkly region is showcased through a program of changing exhibitions, which can be purchased through the museum's store.
Pink Palace
Originally built as a hostel for stockmen and their families, today the Pink Palace is home of the Julalikari Arts and Crafts program, acting as a meeting place where Aboriginal women gather to paint traditional and contemporary artwork. Located on the northern outskirts of Tennant Creek, the centre welcomes travellers who can purchase artworks direct from artists.
Tennant Creek is a small township of about 3500 people, located 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs and 1000 kilometres south of Darwin.
It’s a place shaped by Aboriginal culture, gold mining and pastoralism. The surrounding area is called the Barkly Tablelands, a region characterised by wide grassy plains, endless blue sky and massive cattle stations.
The traditional Aboriginal owners of the area surrounding Tennant Creek are the Warumungu people. Their culture and stories are showcased at one of the country’s best art and cultural centres called Nyinkka Nyunyu.
Tennant Creek is also known as the ‘Golden Heart of the Northern Territory’ – a name that refers to the warm personalities of its people and because it is the site of Australia’s last major gold rush in the 1930s. People initially looked for gold in quartz, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that they discovered that the gold was still in the ironstone.
The town’s goldmining history remains, and is captured at sites around the town such as the Battery Hill Mining Centre. In fact, it’s thought that there is still plenty of gold to be found, and mining for this and other valuable minerals, like manganese and copper, remains a vital economic contributor for the region.
Until the 1930s gold rush era, the repeater station, built in 1872 for the Overland Telegraph Line, was the only building that stood in this area, alongside the creek. The Telegraph Station is located 11 kilometres north of the town, and travellers can explore the buildings and grounds to get a feel for life here 130 years ago.
Explore Tennant Creek & surrounds
