Alice Springs Travel Guide

Adelaide House Museum

Located in Todd Mall next to the John Flynn Memorial Church, the impressive and historical Adelaide House was opened as a hospital-hostel in 1926. Sister Jean Findlayson was the brainchild behind the centre, setting it up so that patients did not have to travel to Oodnadatta by wagon. Adelaide House was the only medical centre in Central Australia until the opening of the hospital in 1939 and, during its peak, catered for a population of 950 people. In 1983 it was restored as a museum of local history and a radio room at the back of the house is where the first test radio transmission was received from Hermannsburg by Maurie Fuss in November, 1926, when Flynn and Traeger were experimenting with radio for the Flying Doctor Service. The museum has some fine displays including the story of the Australian Inland Mission, early journals, maps and a vast collection of historic photographs.