Originally known as No 8 Bore Newcastle Waters, this town was named uniquely after an Army Lieutenant, “Snow” Elliott, who established No 7 Australian Personnel Staging Camp in the area.  In the census carried out on 7^th December 1940, three officers and 81 ranks were recorded on site.

Elliott was used as a luncheon point only for northbound convoys on their third day out of Alice Springs and travelling between Banka Banka Staging Camp and Larrimah.  It was an overnight stop on the first day for southbound convoys from Larrimah.

The highway virtually ran through the middle of the staging camp, separating the truck parking area from the administrative buildings.  The camp had a capacity to shelter 1,500 men and due to the availability of bore water, contained a vegetable garden. A field bakery company detachment ensured a ready supply of fresh bread.

A small signals section was maintained to report on road traffic, particularly in the wet season when holdups were frequent and rescheduling essential.

Due to heavy traffic experienced through Elliott, a salvage sections and workshops were established to collect and repair broken down vehicles and equipment. Refuelling facilities were established to service the convoys and it was around this important function that the town grew. 

Experience the atmosphere of the driving days. Take a detour three kilometres west, a couple of kilometres north of here, to the historic township of Newcastle Waters, a town sited on the junction of three major stock routes.  Until about 30 years ago, when cattle were walked overland across the Territory in the Murranji, Barkly and North South stock routes, Newcastle Waters was the great gathering place of the drovers, where they could stock up and have a break before heading on.  

Visit the Drover’s Memorial Park, and the Junction Hotel, with a colourful history of the 1988 ‘Last Great Cattle Drive’ from Newcastle Waters to the Longreach Stockman’s Hall of Fame.  The National Trust’s historic Jones store, built in 1934 is now a museum.  The town remains an historic component of the famous Newcastle Waters Station which was established in 1884. 

Established in mid-1942, the facility was one of seven Camp Hospitals located along the Stuart Highway throughout the war years. The hospital dealt with a wide range of medical ailments, but as its staff comprised of only two doctors and four nurses, those patients requiring special car were sent to the hospital in Katherine or to the nearby 135^th Medical Regiment at the American base at Birdum. 

On of the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) staff at the hospital remembers

“We were six hundred miles north of Alice Springs and over a hundred miles south of Darwin.  We loved the climate and everything about our service.” 

“There were two Medical Officers and four Sisters plus nine V.A.s when I was there.  In this small unit one felt part of the team.”

“Every Sunday night we had a unit dance in our mess, which was like a garden summer-house with a wooden frame covered with branches. Sometimes a RAAF orchestra came along to play for us, and occasionally we were invited to nearby units.  We had pictures once a week at first and, when the Americans came, we had them more often.  Cat calls from the boys, dog fights among the strays and sudden storms were a regular feature of our picture show.”

“We slept in tents with hurricane lamps for lighting although later electric light was installed.  The men made cupboards for us and we made curtains to brighten them.  We were always too busy to be lonely.  The men driving the trucks to Darwin came as far as Larrimah and stayed overnight.  Many a sick man was left with us at the camp hospital.”

By late 1944, the site included an operating theatre, two large wards, mess, power house and kitchen; accommodation for staff was established in a tented camp.  The facility later closed down and moved to Elliott. All buildings were eventually sold by the Commonwealth Disposals Commission to the Daly Waters publican, W.T. Pearce, in the early post war period. 

Just north of here, at the George Redmond high level causeway over Newcastle Creek, you’ll notice a startling change in the vegetation.  In many respects this marks the real boundary between the Top End Tropics and the Red Centre desert landscape, rather than the Tropic of Capricorn, some 700 kilometres south of here. 

If you’re travelling north, say goodbye to the distant horizons.  You’ll soon drive past impenetrable lancewood and bullwaddy forests set within savanna woodland.  For those heading south, welcome to the wide open spaces of the outback.

The landform and soils also change from east to west.  To the east are the cracking clay soils of the Barkly Tableland, and to the west are the extensive sandplains of the Tanami Desert. 

Approximately 35 kilometres south of Dunmarra the Frew Ponds Overland Telegraph Line Memorial Reserve as a tribute to the construction teams building the Overland Telegraph Line.  It was near this point that crews from the south and from the north met, thus completing the line in 1872. 

Some 500,000 square kilometres of rich cracking clay plains as far as the eye can see.  In the wet, the soil is a thick and swampy quagmire of fine fertile mud.  The dry winter sees the soil shrink and gaping cracks appear.  Any plant roots growing across these cracks are soon ripped apart.  The adaptable Mitchell Grass has long vertical roots that are left unbroken on the treeless plains.  

Stuart and his party discovered that they may not have been the first Europeans to have made contact with the local Aborigines. He believes he saw wheat growing, saw an Aboriginal boy with a paler complexion, and when one man curiously removed one of Stuart’s shoes and socks he replaced them and tied the shoelace in a bow.    

Ref: Jan Holland Priceless Rest Areas and Campsites in the Northern Territory, Priceless Publishing 2003.