A TV crew who were filming for the ABC in a riverbed at Alice Springs have been attacked by two women who set upon staff at the hotel the group retreated to.

The crew were getting footage about 6.30pm (CST) Wednesday evening for a documentary to be titled Dumb, Drunk and Racist, which had been commissioned by ABC 2.



Sydney-based journalist Joe Hildebrand, who was involved in the documentary, told ABC radio the group had been filming near the Todd River when they were confronted by two Aboriginal women.



One tore a leg from a camera tripod and the crew retreated to their hotel, Hildebrand said.



The women followed the crew and were reported to have attacked two hotel staff, one of whom was taken to Alice Springs Hospital with head injuries.



"We didn't realise they had followed us into the hotel at all," Mr Hildebrand said today.



General manager of the Aurora Hotel, Ron Thynne, told the ABC one of his staff probably saved the life of a cameraman by dragging him away to the back office.



"Tomo, who got pounded across the head with a metal bar off a tripod off one of the cameraman's cameras, got the okay from hospital about midnight last night," Mr Thynne said.