Located in the Northern Territory, the
isolated town of Tennant Creek is about 500km north of Alice Springs in the Barkly region of Australia.
Tennant Creek is famous for its gold mining history, Aboriginal culture, and wonderful fauna and fauna.
Warumungu People and Home To Nine Aboriginal Groups
The remote Barkley region is home to nine Aboriginal groups including the Warumungu, Walpiri, Kaiditch and Alyawarr people.
The Warumungu Aboriginal
Reserve, 10 km north of Tennant Creek along the Stuart Highway, was established in 1892, lasting until 1934.
The anthropologists Francis James Gillen and Walter Baldwin Spencer are known for their seminal work, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899). Both men kept journals and notebooks and took photos and film recordings of Aboriginal people and their beliefs and customs.
Gillen and Spencer photographed and
recorded important aspects of culture, such as a Rain-making ceremony and a Warumungu burial ritual (1901), showing Aboriginal people displaying body decorations, which
symbolise their totemic ancestor, Wollunqua, a giant snake. See photos below.
According to the stories of the Warumungu people, the famous Devil's Marbles (Karlu Karlu), which are about a four-hour drive from Tennant Creek, are the eggs of the rainbow serpent.
The telegraph station is near a sacred site called "Jurnkurakurr", which is home to a Dreamtime being called "Jalawala", a black-nosed python.
Today, Tennant Creek is the urban centre of Warumungu country.
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| "Natives at Tennant Creek dressed for a corroboree", Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 3 October 1903 |
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| Aboriginal people near Tennant Creek, NT, lay their dead to rest on platforms in trees. Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 16 October 1936 |
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| Designs used during the performance of a snake totem ceremony (pub. in The commonwealth of Australia; federal handbook, prepared in connection with the eighty-fourth meeting of the British association for the advancement of science, held in Australia, August, 1914 by George Handley Knibbs. |
Ceremonies, songs and dance, which are integral to Aboriginal culture, differ according to region. Dance may be performed as part of the spiritual beliefs, to bring food sources, to teach traditions, dreaming and stories, or even, to communicate war or welcome.
1860s
The explorer, John McDouall Stuart, was the first European to walk on the land of Tennant Creek during his expedition in 1860. Warumungu people attacked Stuart's exploration party with boomerangs and by lighting bushfires.
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| John McDouall Stuart in 1860, The explorations of Stuart led to the Overland Telegraph |
The
explorations of Stuart led to the Overland Telegraph.
Stuart then named the creek after John Tennant, who sponsored his expedition. Tennant was the father of the South Australian pastoralist and politician Andrew Tennant.
1870s
The first Europeans
to live at Tennant Creek were the workers on the Overland Telegraph Line, a 3200 km telegraph line completed in 1872 (follows the steps taken by John McDouall Stuart in 1862), providing a communication link between Australia and the rest of the world.
The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station was built in 1872 from stone quarried from nearby. Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is about 16 kilometres north of Tennant Creek
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| Staff of the Tennant Creek Overland Telegraph Line, NT, nd. |
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| Buildings at Tennant Creek telegraph station, circa 1906. P.D. |
1890s
By the 1890s more than 100 Aboriginal people were living at the telegraph station and it was declared an Aboriginal Reserve.
1900s
Walter Baldwin Spencer, Director of the Melbourne Museum, embarked on an anthropological expedition f
ollowing the Overland Telegraph Line with his collaborator, Francis James Gillen, in 1901.
Spence and Gillen worked among Aboriginal groups for weeks at a time. They recorded Aboriginal songs and speech using a wax cylinder recorder and made some of the earliest ethnographic films. This resulted in their second major publication
The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (1904).
Spencer’s Diary from the ‘Spencer and Gillen Expedition’ 1901-1902
September 8. Camp 44. Tennants Creek
It has been rather warm today. I printed off a few photos early in the morning and came back in the middle of the day to find the film melted off. We spent the morning in the bough wurley with the Walpari gentlemen who came in yesterday. They could not in the least understand why we wanted to know things about them but they were very pleasant. In the afternoon we had still yet another of the inevitable snake ceremonies. The evening we spent writing for the mail and developing one or two photographs.
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| Deocration for the snake ceremony (Warramuuga). Spencer and Gillen Expedition, NT, Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 7 December 1901 |
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| Drawing of Wollunqua, also written Wollunka or Wollunkua, the snake-god of rain a Warramuuga, Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 7 December 1901 (When speaking of the Wollunqua snake in public, the name urkulu nappaurinnia is used, because if they were to call it too often by its real name they would lose control and it would come out and devour them all. It can place the rainbow in the sky at will) |
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| Snake ceremony (Warramuuga). Spencer and Gillen ExpeditionLeader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 7 December 1901 |
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Ceremony of knocking out a tooth, THE SPENCER-GILLENETHNOLOGICAL
EXPEDITION. By PROFESSOR BALDWIN SPENCER (Central Australia). Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 28 September 1901 |
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| Spencer and Gillen Expedition 1901-1902, Critic (Adelaide, SA : 1897-1924), Saturday 5 April 1902 |
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| TENNANT CREEK TO POWELL CREEK 451 and customs. Image from page 460 of "Across Australia" (1912). Ceremony of yam totem. PD. Internet Archive Book Images |
WWI
Albert Borella travelled 1,000 kilometres in 1915 from the Tennant Creek area to Darwin. He continued on to Townsville by ship to enlist in World War I. Borella fought at Gallipoli and the Western Front; was wounded,
commissioned on the battlefield, and awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest honour for valour in combat.
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| Albert Borella travelled 1,000 kilometres, from the Tennant Creek area, NT, to enlist, Bendigonian (Bendigo, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), Thursday 21 November 1918 |
1920s; Gold!Gold was discovered in 1926 by J Smith Roberts, three miles north of
today's town of Tennant Creek.
Charles Windley, a telegraph operator, found gold in 1927. This would become Tennant Creek's first mine, The Great Northern.
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| Tennant Creek Hotel, owned by Jack Nobel at this time, 1920s. P.D. |
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| Aboriginal children from Tennant Creek, NT, Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 18 September 1926 |
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| Aboriginal people at Tennant Creek, NT, News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Tuesday 18 September 1928 |
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| STONE CHURINGA OF THE ARUNTA, KAITISHA, AND WARRAMUNGA TRIBES. (an object considered to be of religious significance by Central Australian Aboriginal people). 1, la, Churinga, enclosed in human hair string and carried about together, Arunta tribe; 2, Churinga of euro totem, Arunta tribe ; 3, Churiiipa of water totem, .Arunta tribe ; 4, Churinga of witcherty grub totem, Arunta tribe; 6, 7, Churinga and feather covering of the Warramunga tribe ; S, d, Churinga of the Raitisha tribe. Churinga are sacred stones or tablets. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 13 February 1929 |
1930s:
Australia's Last Great Gold Rush
In 1932, Tennant Creek was the site of Australia's last genuine gold rush, after numerous gold finds in the area. Charles Henry Windley was the first man to register his gold find at Tennant Creek.
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| AN OUTBACK POLICE STATION. Constable Cameron's station at Tennant's Creek, seven miles from the goldfields. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 21 June 1934 |
Tennant Creek has a hot climate and is generally arid, and so water supply was a problem for settlers in the region.
Many of the people who made the trek to the remote area to try their luck at finding gold had to live in tents. But in 1936, 50-gallon drums of water were available for purchase. Many people also began building more
solid homes using "ant-bricks", which involved collecting termite mounds from the bush and mixing them with earth and water to make bricks.
In that year of 1936,
Tennant Creek had an ice plant to provide ice for the ice chests that kept food cold. There were four grocery stores and two fruit shops. Most people cooked outside and used lanterns and candles for lighting. The Northern Territory provided a doctor and many of the settlers paid a subscription which entitled them to a certain amount of medical care.
The story of Two miners
The story of two miners, Jack Noble and his friend Wiliam Weaber, is almost legendary in Tennant Creek, as this pair found some of the richest mines in the region – and they only had one eye between them!
One-eyed Jack and William Weaber, a cattleman from the Kimberly, who had lost his sight while mustering cattle (he sold his 12,000 cattle and carted his family to Tennant Creek to try his luck finding gold) pegged their claims – all on the same day, 2nd March 1934. These claims became the mines: Nobles Knob, Weaber's Find, Kimberly Kids and Rising Sun
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| The Australian Inland Mission Welfare Club with A.I.M. painted on the roof and the English Scottish and Australian Bank next to it. Tennant Creek, NT. P.D. |
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| The art of "Nat Blackboy" from Tennant Creek, NT, (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 17 December 1932 |
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| In Tennant's Creek lives "Nat Blackboy" who is a drover, who likes to draw (with his family). Nat is the black-bearded man third from the right. Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 17 December 1932 |
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| At Tennant's Creek station in 1933, NT, Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Sunday 11 June 1933 |
Joe Kilgarriff built the Goldfields Hotel at Tennant Creek. This hotel was operated by Jim Maloney in the early days. While the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank opened a branch at Tennant Creek in 1935. However, due to the problem of white ants, the bank building was "constructed of galvanised iron affixed to an iron frame embedded in concrete". It was the only bank in Australia with a floor of natural earth. When the bank opened, 750 ounces of gold, which had been mined locally, was the first deposit.
Cecil Armstrong arrived at Tennant Creek in April 1935, and the next day he began baking bread. In 1937, he built Armstrong's bakery and cafe, which he operated for twenty years.
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| Tennant Creek, NT. Delivering stores to Armstrongs Cafe and Bakery, 1930s |
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| Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Friday 6 October 1933, |
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| Tennant Creek Hotel, NT, circa 1934 |
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| Gold rush at Tennant Creek, NT, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 20 January 1934 |
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| Mining camp at Tennant Creek, NT, Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Saturday 20 January 1934 |
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| Native corroboree witnesses by visitors north of Tennant's Creek Telegraph Station, NT, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 30 May 1935 |
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| ONLY BANK AT TENNANT'S CREEK.Utility rather than adornment characterises the only bank at Tennant's Creek, which has just been opened by the E.S. & A. Bank. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 30 May 1935 |
"At Tennant's, town sites have been
bought and sold at prices from £5 to
£60. There are 50 women and chil
dren in a field population of 600.
Luxuries, such as fresh sausages, can
be bought from the butcher. You
may have an orange drink with fresh
well water served in glasses which
came from a city sundae shop."1935 'The Centre Quest ....', The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954)
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| Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 27 November 1935. "Major E. G. Clerk, D.S.O., a crippled airman, in his 'plane,through which he hoped to establish amail service between Tennant Creek andMount Isa. Thisproject, though badly needed, was not practical financially, and the Major and his sister stayed to follow the lure of gold." |
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| News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Thursday 30 May 1935 |
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| The bakery at Tennant Creek, NT, Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Tuesday 12 February 1935 |
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| Gaol at Tennant's Creek, NT, Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Monday 20 May 1935 |
Tennant Creek State opened in 1935 with 20 pupils. Mr Allen was appointed schoolmaster.
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To cope with the increased transport requirements in Central Australia, following the openinrg up of the Tcnnant Creek goldfield, this five-ton Diesel truck left Melbourne recently carrying nearly a ton of Shell fuel oil. This is the fifth Diesel unit to be put into operation for the transport of machinery and supplies between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, a distance of 330 miles. Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), Saturday 3 October 1936 |
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| The Rev. Thos. C. Rentoul receives a send-off from the students of the Methodist Home Mission Training College, Melbourne, when leaving for Tennant Creek, North Australia, with an Internationalambulance unit. Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 23 August 1936 |
According to a newspaper article, the Journey from Sydney to Tennant Creek by lorry and train took ten days in 1936.
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The
Entrance to one of the mines at Tennant Creek, NT, in theSunday Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 23 August 1936, |
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| Catholic Church, Tennant Creek, NT. The church was built in Pine Creek circa 1908 and later dismantled and carted to Tennant Creek in 1936. |
Alice Springs was the nearest railhead, and the goods and supplies had
to be carted over 300 miles of atrocious roads.
Tennant Creek had a population of about 700, including 30 women, who were in great demand (
1.).
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| A.I.M. Club House, Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. between 1912 and 1951. National Library of Australian The Australian Inland Mission in Tennant Creek. AIM Welfare Club opened 11 July 1936 |
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| Living in a mia-mia at Tennant Creek, NT, Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 15 August 1936 |
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| Some of the miners who came straight from the diggings at Tennant Creek, NT. Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 11 August 1936 |
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Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 11 August 1936: "desert chiefs of
the Warramulla tribe" |
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| Ariel view of Tennant Creek in 1936, NT, Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 11 August 1936 |
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| A team of 47 donkeys at Kulgera Station, Northern Territory, making for Tennant Creek to carry water for the mining population. They had been eight months on the road from Western Australia when the picture was taken. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 18 March 1936 |
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| The Main Street of Tennant Creek, NT, Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 11 August 1936 |
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| The old Rectory at Tennant Creek, NT, in 1937. P.D. |
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| Tennant Creek Catholic Church, NT, date unknown |
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| The headframe of the Juno Mine near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia |
According to Tennant Creek historian, Pam Hodges, the Pioneer Open Air Theatre, in Paterson Street, Tennant Creek (known as the old picture theatre) operated from 1935 to 1974. Reuben and Theodore Delaware, whose occupations were listed as “Showmen” in Rockhampton, QLD, were the theatre's
original owners, who brought the “Talkies” to Tennant Creek.
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| Tennant Creek Rugby team, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 August 1938 |
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| The Pioneer Open Air Theatre, Paterson Street, Tennant Creek NT (known as the old picture theatre) 1938 Cinema Treasures |
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| BEER STRIKE AT TENNANT CREEK. A meeting in the main street of Tennant Creek at which a beer strike was declared because the local publicans refused to reduce the price of ' handles ' from Is. 6d. to Is. Subsequently a compromise at Is. 3d. was reached. Right : One of the notices posted about the field by the strikers. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 25 May 1939 |
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| Main Street of Tennant Creek, NT, Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Friday 23 September 1949 |
1940s and WWII
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| The Blue Moon mine near Tennant Creet, NT. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 22 February 1940 |
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| Tennant Creek floods, NT. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 7 March 1940 |
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| THE MAIN STREET IN TENNANT CREEK, NORTHERN TERRITORY IN 1941. A GROUP OF NO 4 MILITARY DISTRICT, AMF, SIGNALS PERSONNEL AND PMG LINESMEN WERE UPDATING THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH LINE BETWEEN ALICE SPRINGS AND DARWIN WHEN THE PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN. |
Tuxworth Fullwood House, a hospital built in 1942 during World War II, was handed to the Australian Army as the 55 Army Camp Hospital. It became the Tennant Creek Hospital Outpatients Department after its decommissioning as a war hospital in June 1945. The building became a museum in 1978.
The Phillip Creek Native Settlement was established by the government in 1945 as a temporary settlement for Aboriginal people. Later moved to Warrabri.
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| Miners quarters at Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, ca. 1946. National Library of Australia |
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Car being refueled at Williams' general store with a dog in the foreground, Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, circa 1946. P.D.
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| Jackie the black tracker of Tennant Creek police having siesta, NT, Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 9 October 1948 |
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| Mounties from Tennant Creek police, NT, Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 9 October 1948 |
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| Peter the drover, helps bring 1300 cattle from Inverway Station, 500 miles away, safely into Phillips Creek (43km north of Tennant Creek). Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 9 October 1948 |
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| MAIN STREET at Tannant Creek is the Stuart Highway — which links Adelaide and Darwin Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Friday 23 September 1949 |
1950s
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Tennant Creek, NT, in 1950. Star Theatre is the dark, taller building on far left
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| Main Street, Tennant Creek, N.T. - 1950s, Aussie~mobs |
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| Edna Zigenbine (her father, well known NT drover, Harry Zigenbine), was Australia’s first female boss drover at age 22. She was twice belle of the ball at Tennant Creek’s StPatrick’s Day gal and worked as a housemaid at Tennant Creek Hospital. Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Wednesday 18 April 1951 |
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| A one-armed man, Mr. H. M. Barker, of Tennant Creek, NT, has invented a wool press. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 19 August 1954 |
1960s
The terminal facilities at Tennant Creek Airport were built during the 1960s, although the airport itself was used during World War II.
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| Goldfields Hotel, Paterson Street - Tennant Creek, Northern Territory ( Postcard 1966) |
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| Main street, Tennant Creek, Goldfields Hotel, NT, 1969 (Public Domain) |
1970s
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| Aerial view of Tennant Creek, Northern Territory - 1970s, Aussie~mobs |
1980s
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| Noble's Nob gold mine in Tennant Creek, NT, in 1980 |
2000s
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| Warumungu dancers at Tennant Creek, NT, 2013 |
Around Tennant Creek
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| The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station, NT, was built in 1872 |
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| Tennant Creek Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, NT. Brian Yap |
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| The Battery Hill Mining Centre, Tennant Creek, NT, is located 1.5 kilometres from the town |
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| The Tennant Creek Hotel today, NT |
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| Tennant Creek Telegraph Station NT |
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| Tennant Creek Overland Telegraph Station, NT |
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| Tennant Creek Overland Telegraph Station, Coolroom, NT |
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| Graves of Tom Nugent, the owner of Banka Banka Station, who died in 1911, and the other is of Archibald Cameron, an employee of the telegraph station who died in 1918, NT |
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| The Church of Christ the King, Tennant Creek, NT. The church was relocated from the historic mining town of Pine Creek. With parts of the church spread between the two towns during the move, it was once known as the "longest church in Australia". Opened about 1937 |
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| The Battery Hill Mining Centre is 1½ kilometres from the Tennant Creek town centre along Peko Road |
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Tennant Creek, NT
 | | Karlu Karlu - Devil's Marbles, Tennant Creek area, NT |
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Things To Do and Places To Go
