intermittent river in south-central Northern Territory, Australia. It rises in the MacDonnell Ranges and flows southeast for 200 miles (320 km), passing through Heavitree Gap and the town of Alice Springs and across sandhill country, eventually disappearing in the Simpson Desert. Its principal tributaries are the Trafina and Giles creeks. Surveyors for the Overland Telegraph Line named it in 1870 for Sir Charles Heavitree Todd, then postmaster general of South Australia.