Located 506km south of Darwin on the Sturt Highway and with a population of 3,800, Tennant Creek is the only other town of real size other than Katherine, between Darwin and Alice Springs. Tennant Creek was established as a gold mining town and has unearthed an incredible four billion dollars worth of gold. Mining is still carried out here, visitors can experience some of this through the Government Gold Stamp and Mining Museum. Here you can tour through an underground mine tunnel, pan for gold or watch ore being crushed and gold being poured.

 

Devils Marbles
Courtesy Tourism NT

The town is also a good base to visit the Devil’s Marbles, located 104km to the south. The Devil’s Marbles are a collection of giant boulders scattered on either side of the Sturt highway. Aboriginal legend says that they were placed there by the Rainbow Serpent and are a sacred site.