Alice Springs and Santa Teresa
Thousands of years before Captain Cook or any other Western explorer reached the shores of the Australian continent, the Arrenrte had settled the district within which the town of Alice Springs now nestles. The Arrenrte had developed their language and culture in ways that enabled them to live healthy, highly active and meaningful lives. The first Westerner to disturb their routine - however briefly - was Captain McDouall Sturt, who on his third attempt in 1862 crossed the continent from south to north, a distance of 3,600 kilometres. Crews, who built and maintained the Overland Telegraph Line, roughly along the trail blazed by McDoual Sturt, were a greater disturbance. The greatest disruption, however, came with the cattle and mining industries. From 1880 drovers moved their cattle, at first the occasional herd during a good season, through Arrente land. Gradually, and increasingly after World War I, pastoralists began to lay claim to tracts of land on which they let their cattle roam, 'following the grass'. As the number of herds increased the cattle competed for grass with the kangaroos, wallabies, other smaller marsupials and emus hunted by Arrenrte men as well as for "bush tucker" gathered by the women. Arrente patterns of subsistence formed and solidifies over thousands of years were eventually disturbed in ways and to a degree that life, as lived in the pre-contact era, was lost and, as long as the cattle remained, could not be regained. Mining, beginning with the discovery of gold at Arltunga, had a more localised but equally disrupting effect.
"Sturt," as the town was first called, was given a new name " Alice Springs " in the 1930's. Alice Springs grew as a service centre for the fledgling cattle and mining industries and, after the arrival of the railway link to Adelaide, as a transport hub. Hence, Bishop Francis Gsell of Darwin appointed Father James Long MSC the first parish priest of Alice Springs, arriving on 25 May 1929 and lodging with a Mr Joe Kilgariff, owner of the Stuart Arms Hotel and whose family, together with the Hennan family, proved a great support for the missionaries. Father 'Paddy' Maloney MSC replaced Father Long in 1933, immediately taking an active interest in those Arrenrte people, who by this time had begun to abandon their tribal lands to settle around Alice Springs as "fringe-dwellers". While the Arrenrte were permitted to enter the town during daylight to work for white townspeople, they were required to exit the town for their campsite by sunset. For whatever employment they gained they were paid "rations" - food and clothing - in place of wages.
Father Maloney began visiting Charles Creek, which the Government had designated the Arrenrte campsite. Frank McGarry, a lay missionary who joined Father Maloney, began working with the Arrente people as his prime responsibility and, together with the help of Brother Ed Bennet MSC, they founded the Mission of the Little Flower in 1935.
On 5 February 1938 three Sisters of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart arrived in Alice Springs . They were joined by three more in July, which enabled the sisters to take over the school in town for all children, regardless of race or colour, as well as for boarders, children from outlying cattle stations, and to start a small school at Charles Creek for Arrenrte children. Both schools have grown into an extensive Catholic education network located in Alice Springs and in Santa Teresa.
A major development took place during the World War II, when the Army commandeered Alice Springs , making it the base for the movement of men and materiel up to Darwin and beyond. When an Arrenrte schoolgirl was admitted to Alice Springs Hospital with Meningitis, the next day the Army decided to move the Charles Creek camp to Arltunga, the abandon gold mine, 100 kilometres east of Alice Springs . The following morning all the Arrenrte people living in Charles Creek were loaded onto trucks and driven to Arltunga. The journey took the whole day with nothing prepared for their arrival. For the next eleven years (1942 - 1953) Arltunga was home to the Catholic Arrenrte Community, eventually with a church, school, hospital and other necessary amenities established at no small cost. In many ways it was an ideal location, yet an insufficient water supply forced a move in 1953 to the present location, Santa Teresa, about 80 kilometres southeast of Alice Spring .
Meanwhile in Alice Springs the parish, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, has grown into a vibrant Catholic community with the complete range of organisations and services found in any modern parish. Central Australia too has become a tourist destination for the world with Alice Springs as its service centre, in addition to the cattle and, to a lesser degree, mining industries. From a missionary perspective, however, the greatest challenge is again the movement of Aboriginal people, especially Arrenrte people, into the many conflict-burden camps that have sprung up around Alice Springs .
The Divine Word Missionaries came to Central Australia in 2000, when Bishop Collins, the Bishop of Darwin, appointed Father Peter Tam SVD the assistant to Father Bernard Lund MSC, parish priest of Santa Teresa. When Father Lund took home leave in Germany in 2001 and, due to deteriorating health could not return to Central Australia, Bishop Collins appointed Father Tam parish priest. Father is still the hard working parish priest of Santa Teresa (February 2007). In 2003 Father Asaeli Raass SVD from Fiji was appointed to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Alice springs with a special responsibility for the Catholics in the town camps and 19 Catholic communities outside Alice Springs, the furthest away begin Yendemu at 300 kilometres. The beginning of 2006 saw Father Michael Loki SVD also taking up residence in Alice Springs as an assistant priest. Because of the dwindling availability of priests, Bishop Collins has officially asked the Divine Word Missionaries to take full responsibility for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish, which took place on 8 July 2007 .
The small Divine Word Missionaries community in Central Australia have put together the following missionary vision to motivate and guide them:
Following His active compassion for the most disadvantaged, we commit ourselves in particular to our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, knowing full well that we will receive more than we can ever give. 