Bloods Range (or Blood's Range) is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in central Australia, stretching roughly east to west across the border between the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It consists of several sets of hills, separated by valleys; the two main valleys are formed by the Hull and

Docker River Kaltukatjara, also known as Docker River, is a remote Indigenous Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is southwest of Alice Springs, west of the Stuart Highway, near the Western Australia and Northern Territory border. ...

s. There are numerous

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

s and gorges all throughout the hills. Bloods Range connects with the Petermann Ranges at its western end. In the centre are Mounts Harris (840 m) and Carruthers (1000 m), which are the highest peaks. Further east, the range splits into several branches, including the Rowley Range, McNichol's Range and the Pinyinna Range. Bloods Range was given its name on 14 March 1874 by the explorer

Ernest Giles William Ernest Powell Giles (20 July 1835 – 13 November 1897), best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer. He led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Early life Ernest Giles was born in Bris ...

, when he sighted it from the top of

Mount Curdie Mount Curdie is a mountain in the Northern Territory of Australia, with an altitude of . It is the highest peak in the Curdie Range, which is a section of the Petermann Ranges. The mountain is located on the southern bank of the Hull River, ab ...

. He named it for his friend John Henry Smyth-Blood (died 1890) of

Beltana Beltana is a town north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased. The town's history began in the 1870s with the advent of copper mining in the area, construction ...

, owner of an early pastoral station and pioneer on the OT line. On 12 June 1889, Giles' second-in-command, William Tietkens, returned on his own expedition and surveyed the range. He named the two highest peaks

Mount Harris Mount Harris, also named Boundary Peak 156, is a mountain in Alaska and British Columbia, located on the Canada–United States border in the Takhinsha Mountains. In 1923 ''Boundary Peak 156'' was named Mount Harris in honour of D. R. Harris, a ...

(for surveyor C. H. Harris) and Mount Carruthers. From the top of Mount Harris, he recorded that in the distance could be seen

Kata Tjuṯa Kata Tjuṯa (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ), also known as The Olgas and officially gazetted as Kata TjutaMount Olga, is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern par ...

, the Petermann Ranges and the

Tomkinson Ranges The Tomkinson Ranges is a mountain range in the northwest corner of South Australia. The range consists of sandstone hills, surrounded by spinifex grasslands. The range was named after politician Samuel Tomkinson (1816–1900) by the explorer ...

. It was later found that Mount Harris had been previously named Mount Unapproachable by Giles.

References

External links

Bloods Range Formation
at Geoscience Australia Mountain ranges of the Northern Territory {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub