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 arise ...
in central Australia, stretching roughly east to west across the border between the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
and
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. 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 bord ...
s. There are numerous
ravine
A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.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 who 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. 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
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
and pioneer on the OT line. On 12 June 1889, Giles' second-in-command,
William Tietkens
William Harry Tietkens (30 August 1844 – 19 April 1933), known as "Harry Tietkens", explorer and naturalist, was born in England and emigrated to Australia in 1859.
Tietkens was second in command to Ernest Giles on expeditions to Central Au ...
, 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 su ...
(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 / The Olgas (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ) is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. Uluṟu / Aye ...
, 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 W ...
. It was later found that Mount Harris had been previously named Mount Unapproachable by Giles.