Current Tennant Creek Situation

Hi garytee,
It is certainly possible to stay a few nights at Tennant. There is a caravan park and a couple of motels, nothing 5 star, but comfortable. There is a gold mining museum (Battery Hill), Kelly's Ranch for horse riding, and you'll get a fantastic paella at Fernanda's Restaurant, plus heaps of great county to explore.
Cheers, AllanK

last year we stayed at the pebbles about 20km from tennant creek. there is a toilet there and we had a pleasant couple of days.this is a free camp area so you do need to be self contained

Know what you are talking about, but not an issue at the Caravan Park on Pekoe Rd - nice enough place - has a pool and the grounds and facilities are quite ok - as mentioned, the mining museum a bit further down the road is well worth a tour. One of the local aboriginal blokes did a campfire talk in the tourist season (few years back - might still) - for a gold coin donation - that was good. Should be posts here (search) on that CP from a year or two back.

We stayed in the caravan park on the highway a few years back and there were people yelling and screaming off in the distance for a lot of the night. It wasn't enough to keep us awake but you could hear it. I must say I didn't feel comfortable at all going to the ATM after dark because of people just lingering around close to it watching you. Having said that, we didn't actually have any problems.

Did you search in the Places section of ExplorOz? I have added the link to the Tennant Creek Caravan Park listing from Places to the top of this post (which will send you an email to let you know I've done that too).

All of Australia is covered in terms of Places - just use the site menu at the top of the page (just under the scrolling pictures) and go to "Places". You can use this from your phone (mobile site) or from your desktop computer. Some Places (by name) will ahve a few entries - each one is dependent on what TYPE of place it is - so Tennant Creek the place, is on a different page to Tennant Creek caravan park etc. At the top of each Place page is a list of facilities/services there, and any businesses will links to their email, website, contact details etc. Travellers can add photos, and reviews about places they've been so be sure to read up in Places when you are planning trips to see what others have said or what information is there.

Hope this helps.

Hi ALL

Spent the June 2013 long weekend in Tennant Creek, my wife and I flew up from Alice Springs so she could be the town midwife for a few days.

Tennant Creek is fine, the biggest thing is the Indigenous are just a bunch of vocal folks. Takes time to get used to it.

Peko road caravan park is absolutely fine, I've stayed there a few times...quite safe.

Here are a few pointers as I recall.

1) Dont leave your car parked in a back street at night, its not going to end well especially if you look like a tourist. Mainstreet parking is absolutely fine.
2) Memo club is a great place to eat, very lit carpark, no issues in stopping there for dinner. Best of all, Coronas are $6 !!!!
3) Wok's UP in the mainstreet is a VERY good feed, once you step inside you could be in Newtown or Lygon st :-)
4) Top of town coffee shop on the northside, excellent coffee and cake.
5) Red rooster on nth side, quick and cheerful feed, definitely the place to fuel up (BP nthside). Tyre pressure gauge (only working pump in town) has a broken gauge, make sure you have your own to check pressure.
6) Mary Anne Dam nth of town is FANTASTIC, lots of shade and water in the dam, excellent to walk around. We walked there from town along the bike path, was just great but dont walk there from town in summer, you'll fry.
7) Fernando's restaurant at the old squash court, A plus for food
8) Tennant Creek foodland, not bad prices, some fruit there is cheaper than in Alice Springs !
9) Goldfields Hotel, good place to stop in for a cheap counter lunch though I'm not sure I'd go in there at night as it has a large "animal bar" out the back. We had a coffee there and played some pool, pretty darned good. There is a pub directly opposite Goldfields Hotel, personally I wouldn't go in, it was definitely on edge when we were there.
10) The graveyard south of town is interesting to walk through, some interesting reads.
11) Got to drop into the railway station, take your photo against the sign. Its only a small pen and locked up but fun none the less :-)
12) Little Pebbles, turn left nth opposite the Telegraph station. Personally its overated however VERY VERY popular with BIG caravans trying to get a free night. If I were the ranger I'd limit the size of vans as it gets ugly in a small camp/parking lot.
13) Telegraph station nth of town, go for a wander, great place.
14) Tennant wouldn't be the same without a stop 25km nth at 3ways. Wander around the place, have a beer or a coffee, take a photo, iconic place.
15) ATM is safe until dusk, probably wouldn't use it late at night unless you are there with a few bouncers.
16) Telstra 3G has great coverage in Tennant, good speeds. No 3g at 3ways...

We found and were told, the town is safe to walk up and down the main road until 10:00pm at night and then it turns a little messy. We never felt "unsafe", just walk in lit areas at night, don't freak out if the local next to you screams and smacks the other indigenous next to them, its just how it works up there. If you come across a fight, walk around them or a drunk on the footpath, step around them....

Dont be frightened of the place, we had 4 nights in town, would definitely go back..

Pete in Alice