Hello... my first post here.
I have lived in Alice Springs since 1988.
I just had to join and enlighten you on the circles. There is no great mystery, ufo landing pads or links to the Incans.
Regarding the circles, there really is no mystery attached to them. Whenever any person flies in or out of Alice Springs, you will see many of them in
the vicinity of Alice Springs. They can also be found to the north around the vicinity of the small town of Ti Tree located about 200 kilometres
north. East of Alice Springs towards Ross River on a couple of cattle stations you can see many more.
Some are quite old and some more recent.
They are created to restore ground that has been subjected to soil erosion. To plow straight lines and seed it with native vegetation, the result is
that either wind or flowing water or both will just erode the soil further. The circles are made as they do not provide an erosional path and
subsequently have the capacity to trap wind blown seed and also wind blown soil.
Another method used is to lay out a grid pattern of squares where the exterior of the square is slightly elevated (mounded up levee banks). At the
eastern end of the Alice Springs airport, you will see a combination of both circles and squares. The method of squares is to trap and hold water like
mini-dams.
What you see at the corner of Hatt Road and Stuart Highway (the road to Pine Gap) is where a road construction camp was located with many heavy
vehicles coming and going. (it is one of several along the highway between Alice Springs and the turn-off to Ayers Rock some 200 kilometres south). At
those locations, after the road work gangs left, the areas were void of all vegetation and when the winds blew (Predominately from the west), it was
common place for sand drifts to reach across the road creating a "speed bump" which subsequently was a traffic hazard.
Other methods used to prevent soil erosion is to spread clumps of spinifex grass around but this is not so effective in high wind as the clumps would
blow away.
At some former work camps, no effort was made to restore the damaged land. Around the airport, the need to prevent erosion is more critical because of
danger to aircraft. There is a very wide exclusion zone around the airport where no cattle are permitted to be grazed and no earthworks permitted.
In the deserts here in Central Australia, we experience a weather phenomenon called "dust devils" or "willy winds". They are like a mini tornado where
they only form a diameter of a few metres at best, but they suck the dust into the air forming a snake like spiraling tower sometimes several hundred
metres into the air. Several tonnes of dust can be sucked up in these wind spirals.
www.ziplink.net...
www.youtube.com...
These are hazardous to jet engines.
The corner of Hatt Road and Stuart Highway is the flight path of planes coming and going from Alice Springs.
Sorry to burst your bubble. There is no mystery.
edit on 28-1-2011 by NTresident because: correcting spelling and typo errors
. 
