Wycliffe Well
A roadhouse on the Stuart Highway that called itself Australia's UFO capital, built on a sightings record kept by servicemen during the Second World War. The book was stolen in 1990 and the site was abandoned after a flood in 2022.
Field Guide Entry
A watering point that became a garden
Wycliffe Well started in the 1860s as a watering point on the stock route beside the Overland Telegraph Line. During the Second World War it was turned into a market garden supplying troops moving through the Northern Territory, which put a small permanent population in an otherwise empty stretch of country.
The servicemen stationed there began recording lights they saw at night in an old binder. That book, kept by bored soldiers in wartime, is the origin of everything the place later sold.
The book, and the loss of it
The original journal was stolen in 1990. A replacement has been kept since, recording sightings from the 1990s onward, which means the documentary record for the site's founding period no longer exists and is known only through people who remember it.
Lew Farkas bought the roadhouse in 1985 and spent roughly $4 million over 25 years turning it into a destination: alien murals, fiberglass figures in the garden, a sightings board, and the claim to be the UFO capital of Australia. He sold in 2009.
Closed
The property changed hands twice more and was bought by United Petroleum. A major flood in 2022 finished it, and the roadhouse, caravan park, and displays have been abandoned since.
The figures are still standing in the grass beside the highway. The pumps do not work.
Visiting Information
This one is a drive-by. The roadhouse, caravan park, and fuel are closed and have been since the 2022 flood, so it is an abandoned site beside the Stuart Highway rather than a stop with services.
That matters more here than it would elsewhere. This is a long, empty run of the Northern Territory between Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, and the next fuel is a serious distance in either direction. Fill up before the stretch rather than during it, and carry water.
Wauchope and the Devils Marbles, Karlu Karlu, are the nearby stops still operating, and Karlu Karlu is worth the detour on its own terms. Check current road and fuel conditions with NT road reports before setting out, since this route floods.
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