The Bungalow

In July 1913, Senior Constable Robert Stott in Stuart (now Alice Springs) wrote to the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs Atlee Hunt describing the need for a government school in the town.

The Administrator agreed to this, and authorised the building of an iron shed and Topsy Smith was placed in charge of it under the supervision of Sergeant Stott and, by November 1914, she was caring for 16 children.

Living conditions behind the Stuart Arms Hotel were far from ideal and, despite the great effort of both Topsy Smith and Ida Standley, to keep the place clean and the children clothed.

When the waitresses and cooks used to bring it out to the chooks, they'd give it to us because they knew we were starving in the institution and when we couldn't get anything to eat there, we'd go hunting all over the hills - or to Anzac Hill - there was miles of rabbits and goannas, and all sorts of things in them days - and berries - we'd go round scrounging everywhereAboriginal women from around the region, possibly looking for their children, would also drop off food when they could.

[5] Additionally toilet and washing facilities were primitive and there were few proper beds, with the residents huddling together on the floor in winter and camping outdoors, and under the trees, in summer.

[1] An additional concern was what would happen to the girls living at The Bungalow with the influx of construction workers to Stuart working on the approaching railway line.

However, ultimately the plan was rushed as government officials were concerned what would happen to the girls living at The Bungalow with the influx of construction workers to Stuart working on the approaching railway line.

[3] The Reverend W Morgan Davies spent three days there and described it as "a standing disgrace to any civilised government" in a letter to his Bishop in July 1929.

[8] In 1932, The Bungalow moved to the old Alice Springs Telegraph Station, was proclaimed an Aboriginal reserve on 8 December 1932 with an area of 273 ha (670 acres);[9] this made the land officially "off-limits" for non-Aboriginal people.

The site had been vacated by the telegraph staff in the months before and significant alterations were made to the buildings and genuine effort was put in to making it comfortable with, amongst other additions, a large corrugated-iron dormitory was built with rows of double bunks where girls slept in the eastern wings and boys in the western and, for the first time, flushing toilets were available.

[3][10] In 1934 the Superintendent of The Bungalow, Gordon Keith Freeman, who had been appointed in 1930, was arrested for the rape of a 16-year-old girl in the dormitories late at night.