Tennant Creek, town in north central Australia, in the interior of the Northern Territory, at the northern end of the Murchison Range. Tennant Creek is at the center of the Northern Territory's richest mineral reserves. It is also the main town of a cattle ranching area in a dry, sparsely populated region. Silver, copper, mica, and tin are extracted locally and processed at Tennant Creek's smelter. The town is near the intersection of the Stuart Highway, which runs from Darwin on the Timor Sea south to Port Augusta on Spencer Gulf, and the Barkly Highway, which runs from Mount Isa in Queensland to just north of Tennant Creek.
The region was explored in 1860 and sparsely settled in the 1870s, but it was not until the 1930s and the discovery of gold that Tennant Creek became properly established as a settlement. Other minerals were discovered in the 1950s. Population (1991) 3,114.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Tennant Creek Information info
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