[4] The area is also known locally as Mparntwe to its original inhabitants, the Arrernte, who have lived in the Central Australian desert in and around what is now Alice Springs for tens of thousands of years.

[10] In 1861–62, John McDouall Stuart led an expedition through Central Australia to the west of what later became Alice Springs, thereby establishing a route from the south of the continent to the north.

[17] A settlement named after Stuart was necessitated ten years later with the construction of a repeater station on the Australian Overland Telegraph Line (OTL), which linked Adelaide to Darwin and Great Britain.

It was not until alluvial gold was discovered at Arltunga, 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the present Alice Springs, in 1887 that any significant European settlement occurred.

A gold rush in Tennant Creek in 1932 kept the wheels of the Alice Springs economy turning until the outbreak of World War II.

When Darwin was bombed by Japanese air forces, a large number of military personnel and their heavy equipment were rapidly moved south to Alice Springs.

The war-related operations left behind thousands of pieces of excess military equipment and vehicles and a marked increase in Alice Springs' population.

Alice Springs has many historic buildings, including the Overland Telegraph Station, the Old Courthouse and Residency and the Hartley Street School.

It is a well-appointed town for its size, with several large hotels, a convention centre, and a good range of visitor attractions, restaurants, and other services.

The Simpson Desert, southeast of Alice Springs, is one of Australia's great wilderness areas, containing giant, red sand dunes and rock formations, such as Chambers Pillar and Rainbow Valley.

[41][42] Located just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the town of Alice Springs straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges.

[51] As it is the largest town in central Australia, there are also speakers of Warlpiri, Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarre, Luritja, Pintupi, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, Pertame, Eastern, and Western Arrernte among others.

Americans in Alice Springs are also known to participate in a variety of associations and sporting teams, including baseball, basketball and soccer competitions.

[54] Several small immigrant communities of other foreign cultures have found a home in Alice Springs, including Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Sudanese and Indian ethnic groups.

[60] Yirara College is a co-educational secondary boarding school catering for around 200 Aboriginal students run by the Finke River Mission.

The Centre for Appropriate Technology was established in 1980 and provides a range of services to encourage and help Aboriginal people enhance their quality of life in remote communities.

The name means "shedding both light and understanding" in the local Arrernte language, and the festival aims "to celebrate the oldest continuous cultures in the world through the latest technology".

It featured a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) stretch of light installations; musical acts Dan Sultan, BARKAA, and King Stingray; and a retrospective of the work of Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton.

The festival featured the artwork which women artists of Mutitjulu had created for the Uluru Statement from the Heart,[68] led by Rene Kulitja, as a huge immersive light installation.

Central Australia is the home of some of the most prominent names in Aboriginal art, including Emily Kngwarreye, Minnie Pwerle, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Albert Namatjira, and Wenten Rubuntja.

[82] AIATSIS Central Australia provides access to the major online repositories held by the Canberra-based Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, including family history, photographs, and other publications and artefacts.

Alice Springs has a high rate of participation in many different sports, including Australian rules, baseball, basketball, boxing, cricket, football, golf, hockey, rugby and tennis.

The local stadium, Traeger Park, has a 10,000 seat capacity and was designed to host (pre-season) AFL and was the home to the Northern Territory Thunder until 2019.

The Central Australian Rugby Union administers a four team competition based in Alice Springs with matches played between October and March at ANZAC Oval.

The course record of 64 is held jointly by, amateur members, Leigh Shacklady and Kerryn Heaver, beating professional Stuart Appleby's 65.

The Traeger Park sporting complex also hosts tennis, baseball, boxing, swimming, canoe polo, hockey, basketball, squash, badminton, gymnastics and skateboarding.

The annual Camel Cup is held in July at Blatherskite Park, part of the Central Australian Show Society grounds.

It attracts spectators, who camp along the whole length of the track, and roughly 500 competitors, buggies and bikes, every year, making it the biggest sporting event in the Alice Springs calendar.

[90] In September 2017 12 people were injured when burning fuel sprayed from a drag-racing car onto a crowd of spectators at the Red CentreNATS competition.

[110] Flights from Alice Springs Airport to Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney are operated by Airnorth, Alliance Airlines, Qantas and Virgin Australia.