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Anna's Reservoir Conservation Reserve
| Source: |
Go to the NT Heritage Register for more information. |
| Identifier: |
7 |
| Location: |
NT Portion 1281, Aileron Station, 165 km north of Alice Springs. |
Local
Government: |
Not Available |
| State: |
NT |
| Country: |
Australia |
Statement of
Significance: |
Anna's Reservoir Conservation Reserve has historical significance to the Territory. The rockhole, Anna's Reservoir, was of critical importance to the explorer John McDouall Stuart, who discovered, described and named it in April1860. He visited it on the forward and return journeys of each of his three attempts to reach the north coast. On Stuart's return from his last, and successful, trip in September 1862, the availability of water and grass at Anna's Reservoir at a time when Stuart himself was critically ill and the surrounding area dry, enabled the successful completion of the journey. The Reservoir once again played an important part in the epic overland journey from 1879-1880 by Alfred Giles, overlanding 8000 sheep and cattle to establish Springvale near Katherine. Giles took advantage of Stuart's description of the water at Anna's Reservoir and forced the sheep over a dry stage of 108 miles from Colyer's Creek (north of Alice Springs) to the Reservoir. This was the only reliable water source in that dry year between Colyer Creek and Tea Tree Well. The homestead ruins within the Reserve are also highly significant due to their association with the Barrow Creek Pastoral Company venture, the most ambitious enterprise of its kind in Central Australia. Billy Benstead, manager of the station homestead. This homestead was the venue for one of the few documented cases where Aboriginal resistance actually forced a withdrawal of white settlement. As such the ruins are important as evidence of that settlement process. Anna's Reservoir is also important as a wildlife watering hole. |
| Description: |
The main historic elements within the Reserve are a rockhole (Anna's Reservoir) and the ruins of a station homestead comprising the remains of the rectangular three roomed plan of the original homestead building, three small isolated piles of stone, the remains of the blacksmith's hut and a fence or yard post about 90m south of the blacksmith's hut. |
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