Emily Gap / Anthwerrke is a natural attraction and significant cultural site to the

Arrernte people The Arrernte () people, sometimes referred to as the Aranda, Arunta or Arrarnta, are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the Arrernte lands, at ''Mparntwe'' (Alice Springs) and surrounding areas of the Central Australia regi ...

in the East

MacDonnell Ranges The MacDonnell Ranges, or Tjoritja in Arrernte language, Arrernte, is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory. MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australia ...

, eight kilometres to the east of Mparntwe/

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

, in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 ...

. Various sections of the Gap include

Aboriginal rock art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, ro ...

. It is a registered sacred site and sits within the Yeperenye / Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park.

History

Adjacent to Jessie Gap, Emily Gap is a significant site for the dreaming stories of three ancestral caterpillars, Yeperenye, Utnerrengatye and the Ntyarlke. The caterpillar dreaming is one of the most important creation stories for Mparntwe/Alice Springs and the surrounding region. Many Arrernte people conceived in Alice Springs consider themselves direct descendants of these caterpillars. From 1 April 1872 Emily Gap became part of the Undoolya Station pastoral lease and, when cattle first arrived as part of an overland droving trip from

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

in March 1873 they first camped here. In doing so they did not realise or acknowledge that they were camping at a very sacred site and Stuart Traynor says that: Emily and Jessie Gaps are apocryphally thought to have been named for the daughters of Charles Todd, however the true basis of the names remain unknown.

Gallery

File:Emily Gap.jpg, Emily Gap, 1900 File:Dowling_199.jpg, Cattle in Emily Gap, 1938 - 1948 File:George_Bastian_005.tif, A close up of cattle in the Gap, c1937 File:Pauline_Sweet_064.jpg, Man looking at rock art in 1941 File:Pauline Sweet 068.jpg, The stock fence on the northern side of the Gap, 1941 File:Pauline Sweet 067.jpg, The waterhole at the southern side of the Gap, 1941 File:Jessie_May_Gunn_047.tif, Emily Gap in 1946

Geology

Around 300-350 million years ago a mountain building event created the MacDonnell Ranges. Since that time, folding, faulting and erosion have shaped the range and created numerous gaps and gorges, of which Emily Gap is one. The ranges are composed of many rock types, but are most famous for their red

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

peaks and gorges. Other rock types include

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

. Some of the valleys of the range contain fossil evidence of the inland sea that once covered central Australia.

References

{{coord, -23.7388, 133.9510, format=dms, type:landmark_region:AU-NT, display=title Canyons and gorges in the Northern Territory Tourist attractions in Alice Springs