Alice Springs was the name given to the waterhole that was discovered and named by Government Surveyor William Whitfield Mills in March 1871, while exploring the MacDonnell Ranges during the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line. He named it after Alice Todd, wife of the Superintendent of Telegraphs, Sir Charles Todd. The Alice Springs Telegraph Station was built adjacent to the waterhole.
Then in 1885 a ruby field was discovered by David Lindsay some distance to the east of the telegraph station. As miners flocked north, many of them congregated on the banks of the Todd River adjacent to the telegraph station while travelling to the fields or when waiting for supplies. The South Australian government decided to have David Lindsay survey a town immediately north of the Heavitree Gap. The town of Stuart was declared on 29 November 1888, and the first blocks sold the following January. Meanwhile the rubies turned out only to be garnets. The rush was ended. However with so many miners in the vicinity their interest turned to the traces the gold that had been previously discovered in the Centre. The Arltunga goldfields to the east of Stuart developed as a result. The town of Stuart became the centre for the supply of the gold fields.
The town's dual identity as Alice Springs/Stuart was finally resolved in 1933 through the persistent efforts of the townspeople who had long preferred Alice Springs to the official name of Stuart. On 31 August 1933 the township of Stuart was officially gazetted Alice Springs.
