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, is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory. MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an interim Australian bioregion broadly encompassing the mountain range, with an area of .< ...

, eight kilometres to the east of Mparntwe/

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

, in Australia's

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 ...

. Various sections of the Gap include

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

. 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 Undoolya Station is a pastoral lease east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It has been managed by the Hayes Family since 1906. It is currently managed by Ben and Nicole Hayes. Early history Central Aranda people hav ...

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 state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

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.

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 which 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 tect ...

peaks and gorges. Other rock types include

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) 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 cools and solidifies undergro ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

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.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

. Some of the valleys of the range contain fossil evidence of the

inland sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait, or "arm of the sea". An inland se ...

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