Aileron Roadhouse

Aileron Roadhouse

A bit over an hour north of Alice, this dusty truckstop is about to have a makeover. Of sorts. Well, some grass, anyway.

Big Man Walk, Aileron Roadhouse

Picture Alice Springs on a map of Australia. If you're as geographically challenged as I didn't think I was, you'll probably put it much further south than it is. Even though I've been there several times before, I honestly hadn't realised how far north it is until I drove up the Stuart Highway. It's only about half an hour out of Alice that you cross the Tropic of Capricorn. Yes, that tropic – the line that runs through Rockhampton and cuts the west coast between Exmouth and Carnarvon.
Another 40 minutes or so up the road and you come to Aileron Roadhouse. In many ways it's barely distinguishable from any of the other roadhouses up this way – a dusty area to park your van or tent, a few rooms to rent, a bar (of course – this is the NT afterall), a general store, and some standard pub fare. Actually, the food is better than most (the roast chicken was a huge feast and quite delicious) and the rooms aren't bad, although mine needed some serious airing when I got there (it stank).

Big Blackfella, Aileron Roadhouse

But it has an incredible 17m high statue of an Anmatjere man, holding his spear, at the top of a hill behind the roadhouse. Costing about $120,000, the statue was built by Mark Egan and erected in 2005. There's a short little climb up the hill at the back (a leisurely 20 minutes return), which is worth it because it offers a great view over the surrounding plain. You'll also find out how big the AILERON letters are near the Big Blackfella, and see how impressive a figure he is.
In 2008, Mark added a huge woman and child, hunting goanna, down beside the roadhouse.

Woman and child hunting goanna

A working cattle station, Aileron has a couple of other great features that you can explore. From the top of the hill you can look over the old racetrack, built 1940s, or explore it via the bush tracks. It's still used for the Aileron Bush Weekend, held 4-5 April next year, which includes a rodeo. And if you haven't been to a bush rodeo yet, make sure you put it on your bucket list, as they are extraordinary spectacles.
Strangely, I felt like a run, so went out to the track and ran a few miles. I didn't whinny though.
Two other things happened during my brief overnight stay there earlier this month: the owner revealed that Aileron is getting a more secure water supply, which means they will endeavour to grow some grass to keep the dust down and some more plants to pretty the place up a little (although they've been warned by regulars not to change it too much); and photographer Heath Holden and I were lucky to witness the full lunar eclipse in those clear skies.

Blood moon and the Southern Cross, from Aileron Roadhouse

Through our camera lenses we played with the blood-orange moon and a windmill for a while, then walked up the hill and experimented with the statue looking at the eclipse. All good fun, but the best bit was putting away the cameras up that hill, pulling out a couple of cold XXXX, and just watching the eclipse beside the Big Blackfella, from his vantage point watching over the whole region.
Ahhh. That's NT bliss.