Monday 28th June 2021
We left early this morning and travelled NNW to Daly Waters.
We finally got some reception in the small town of Elliot, where we stretched our legs and updated our family on our trip.
We arrived at Daly Waters just after Midday to a very busy single street country town. There were people and caravans everywhere.
We checked in to 1 of 8 remaining powered sites for the night.
After lunch we went for a walk through the Historic Pub and the Towns Street.
We returned to the Pub and Madeline enjoyed a waist deep dip in their pool.
We returned to the van, had showers and then cooked dinner.
Tomorrow
We are driving to Mataranka and hoping to stay a few nights at a station stay. Due to the school holidays, they don’t take bookings. It’s first in best dressed.
Daly Waters
Daly Waters is a town and locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 620 kilometres south of the territory capital of Darwin at the intersection of the Carpentaria Highway and the Stuart Highway.
History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area had been inhabited by the Yangman Aborigines for over 40,000 years.
The name Daly Waters was given to a series of natural springs by John McDouall Stuart during his third attempt to cross Australia from south to north, in 1861–62. Stuart named the springs after the new Governor of South Australia, Sir Dominick Daly.
The third journey left Adelaide in October 1861 and reached Daly Waters on 28 May. The party had been pushing through difficult lancewood scrub and harsh terrain at a little over a kilometre a day. This journey was successful, reaching the north coast near modern Darwin on 24 July 1862.
Stuart’s Tree, which is in Daly Waters, has an ‘S’ carved into it by Stuart during his journey.
The traditional owners of the area became the fourth Indigenous group in the Northern Territory to gain native title over both the townsite and ten surrounding pastoral leases covering an area of 30,000 square kilometres.
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