Anna's Reservoir Conservation Reserve

The first European person to discover, name and describe Anna's Reservoir was explorer John McDouall Stuart in April 1860. Naming the rockhole after the youngest daughter of one of his sponsors, Mr James Chambers, he 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.

Anna's Reservoir played an important part in the epic overland journey from 1879-80 by Alfred Giles, who took 8000 sheep and 4000 cattle to establish Springvale near Katherine. Giles took advantage of Stuart's description of the waterhole and forced the stock from Colyer Creek north to Anna's Reservoir, a distance of about 175km. In that dry year this was the only reliable source of water between Colyer Creek and Ti Tree Well.

The homestead ruins situated within the reserve are highly significant due to their association with the Barrow Creek Pastoral Company venture, the most ambitious enterprise of its kind in Central Australia. Billy Benstead, manager of the venture, early in 1884 chose Anna's Reservoir as the site of the station homestead for their vast station (51,800sq km) and built a three-roomed stone house and blacksmith's hut.