to have been the first to have confirmed the Western Arrernte name of the river, which was actually "Lara Beinta", which means "Salt River". This translation is now widely accepted because the Finke contains certain waterholes that are constantly salty (one of which is named "Salt Hole" in English). The legend of its derivation from the serpent is nonetheless held by the local people. The original spelling was a deliberate choice used for the main exit road west from Alice Springs, Larapinta Drive, as it leads to the Finke River at Hermannsburg; the name was also used for an Alice Springs suburb and the Larapinta Trail. (Larapinta, Queensland may have a different derivation.) Antiquity of the Finke River The Finke River is frequently cited as the oldest river in the world. Its age has been deduced from observation and analysis of various factors in the geology of the area. In places such as the James Range, the Finke flows through deeply incised meanders. Because meanders only form on flat plains, the river must have formed before the ranges were pushed up; this happened in a mountain building event referred to as the Alice Springs Orogeny which peaked between 400 and 300 million years ago (Devonian to Carboniferous Periods, both within the Paleozoic Era). It is not possible to say with absolute confidence that it is the very oldest river, but it is certainly one of the oldest rivers in the world. However, southern parts of its course must be much younger, because the areas where the Finke now flows near the southern edge of the Northern Territory, and further south, were under the sea during the Mesozoic Era, part of the Great Artesian Basin. The antiquity of the Finke River is not unique, but applies equally to other large mountain-sourced river systems in central Australia, such as the Todd and Hale Rivers and many others, because most of the central Australian mountain belts formed at around the same time. There are other eroded mountain ranges of equal or greater age to the MacDonnell Ranges, both in Australia and on other continents, so present rivers in those areas may have evolved from ancestral streams of equal and greater antiquity than the Finke. See also Geology of Australia List of rivers by age Massacre of Running Waters References Rivers of the Northern Territory Rivers of South Australia Lake Eyre basin