Anna's Reservoir Conservation Reserve

Anna's Reservoir was discovered, named and described by explorer John McDouall Stuart in April 1860. Stuart named the rockhole after the youngest daughter of one of his sponsors, Mr James Chambers, and visited it on each of his three attempts to reach the northern coast of Australia.

Early travellers and the Overland Telegraph construction team also relied on the reservoir for water.

In the 1880s Billy Benstead chose this site to set up a homestead in what was to be a 51,800km² station operated by the Barrow Creek Pastoral Company.

You can visit the homestead ruins, comprising the remains of the rectangular three roomed plan of the original homestead building, three small isolated piles of stone, the remains of the blacksmith's hut and a fence or yard post about 90m south of the blacksmith's hut. Camp out under the stars in the designated bush campsites. The waterhole, however, is sacred and camping and driving in this area is not permitted.

The reserve also offers bushwalking and photography opportunities and it is an important site of European settler history.