The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is located within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, [1] four kilometres north of the Alice Springs town centre in the Northern Territory of Australia. Established in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide, it is the original site of the first European settlement in central Australia. It was one of twelve stations along the Overland Telegraph Line. [2]
European exploration of central Australia began in 1860. John McDouall Stuart successfully crossed the continent from north to south on his third attempt in 1863. He passed through the MacDonnell Ranges through Brinkley Bluff, although the terrain was considered to be too rough for the Overland Telegraph Line. The site of the Alice Springs Telegraph Station was first recorded by surveyor William Mills in March 1871, who was in search of a suitable route for the line through the MacDonnell Ranges. It was officially recorded that, while surveying, Mills came across a waterhole, which was a significant camping and ceremonial site for the Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group who still occupy Arrernte lands around Alice Springs. Known as Turiara. The creation story of this waterhole, known as Atherreyrre, [3] describes an old Arunga (euro) man walking along the river and scratching out the waterhole. [4] Mills named it Alice Springs after Alice Todd, the wife of his employer Charles Todd, the head of the overland telegraph project at the time.
There is, however, an alternative story, recalled by Errumphana [Ampetyane] to his granddaughter Amelia Kunoth, that he was among a group of warriors who came across the group at Honeymoon Gap and, in the spirit of friendship led them to the waterhole. He remembered being unsure, when first seeing the group, whether the strangers and their horses had blood or not. Errumphana was later called King Charlie by the Telegraph Station men. [3] [5]
Construction of the telegraph station began adjacent to the waterhole in November 1871 under the supervision of Gilbert Rotherdale McMinn. [2] A number of structures were eventually built, including a harness room, buggy shed, police station, blacksmith's workshop, telegraph office, kitchen building and station master's residence. Supplies arrived from Adelaide just once per year, so self-sufficiency was critical. Stockyards and a large garden area were also developed. While the waterhole supplied the settlement with water, a well was later sunk to maintain supply during drought periods. [4] After completion, the telegraph station operated for 60 years.
| Postmasters | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Johannes Ferdinand Mueller | 1 July 1875 | 31 August 1879 |
| Ernest Ebenezer Samuel Flint | 1 September 1879 | 17 July 1887 |
| Joseph Skinner | 1 September 1887 | 30 November 1892 |
| Francis James Gillen | 1 December 1892 [6] | 31 March 1899 |
| Thomas Andrew Bradshaw | 1 April 1899 | 1908 |
| John McKay | 17 July 1908 | 1916 |
| Frederick Alfred Price | 1916 | 1924 |
| Ernest Allchurch | 1924 | 1932 |
Additional Details:
The station closed in 1932 following the construction of a new post office. [16] It was then used as an institution for "half-caste" Aboriginal children known as The Bungalow, which was moved there from Jay Creek. An area of 273 hectares (670 acres) including the telegraph station was proclaimed an Aboriginal reserve by the Department of Native Affairs on 8 December 1932. Its purpose was to provide residence and education services to part-Aboriginal children ("half-castes"). [4]
The Freemans were the first Superintendent and Matron at the new location. [17] It closed in 1942 when children were evacuated south in response to World War II. [18] The majority of the children from the institution were sent south to Mulgoa in New South Wales and Balaklava in South Australia. The buildings were taken over by the Australian Army. [4]
During World War II parts of the station were used by the Australian Army between 1942 and 1945. [2] It was used as the Native Labour Headquarters. It was returned to the Native Affairs Department in 1945 after the war. [4] The station became an Aboriginal Reserve until 1963, when many Aboriginal people moved to Amoonguna, an Aboriginal Community southeast of Alice Springs. [19]
The station is on land proclaimed as a reserve on 5 June 1962 and now part of the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve. [20] A number of stone buildings have now been restored. The historical reserve was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate in 1980. [21] It was listed on the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 19 April 2004. [22] It is now operated as a tourist attraction, cafe and mountain biking destination. [19]
Alice Springs is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; the third largest settlement after Darwin and Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd. Known colloquially as "The Alice" or simply "Alice", the town is situated roughly in Australia's geographic centre. It is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin.
The Finke River, or Larapinta in the Indigenous Arrernte language, is a river in central Australia, whose bed courses through the Northern Territory and the state of South Australia. It is one of four main rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin and thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world. It flows for only a few days a year. When this happens, its water usually disappears into the sands of the Simpson Desert, rarely if ever reaching Lake Eyre.
Gwoya Tjungurrayi, also spelt Gwoja Tjungarrayi, Gwoya Jungarai, and Gwoya Djungarai, and also known by his nickname One Pound Jimmy, is known for being the first Aboriginal person to be featured on an Australian postage stamp, in 1950, although his name was not used to describe the image on the stamp. A survivor of a 1928 massacre in the Northern Territory, he later became an elder and lawman of his people.
Arltunga is a deserted gold rush town located in the Northern Territory of Australia in the locality of Hart about 110 kilometres (68 mi) east of Alice Springs. It is of major historical significance as the first major European settlement in Central Australia.
Hetty Perkins was an elder of the Eastern Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group from Central Australia. Several of her descendants have had prominent careers in various fields, both in the Northern Territory and in other states and territories.
Simpsons Gap is one of the gaps in the West MacDonnell Ranges in Australia's Northern Territory. It is located 18 kilometres west from Alice Springs, on the Larapinta Trail.
Owen Springs Station, now known as Owen Springs Reserve is a former pastoral station and now a 1,570-square-kilometre (606 sq mi) nature reserve west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Hugh River and Waterhouse Range run through the reserve. It also features the first pastoral homestead built in Central Australia.
Jose Petrick OAM is a British-born Australian historian and community advocate living in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Charles George Alexander Winnecke was an Australian explorer and botanist best known for leading the Horn Expedition to Central Australia in 1894.
Erlikilyika, known to Europeans by the name Jim Kite or Jim Kyte or Jim Kite Penangke, was an Aboriginal Australian sculptor, artist and anthropological interpreter. He was an Arrernte man, born into the Southern Arrernte or Pertame language group in Central Australia. He was the first Central Australian artist to be nationally recognised for his artistic talent, in particular his carvings of animals in soft stone, illustrations and sculptures, after an exhibition of his work was held in Adelaide, South Australia in 1913.
The Pioneer Theatre, also known as "Pioneer Walk-In Theatre" and "Snow Kenna's Walk-In Picture Theatre", was a theatre in the Northern Territory of Australia located in Alice Springs. The building was built by Leslie 'Snow' Kenna in 1942 and closed, as a theatre, in 1984 and now operates as the Alice Springs YHA.
William Hurle Liddle was a pastoralist who established Angas Downs Station, in Central Australia, taking up the first pastoral lease in 1929.
Gerhardt Andreas Johannsen was a stonemason, builder and pastoralist in the Northern Territory.
St. Mary's Hostel, formerly Mount Blatherskite Hostel (1946–47), commonly known simply as St Mary's, was an Australian Board of Missions hostel in Alice Springs from 1947 to 1972. Its residents were mostly Aboriginal children, including some who were taken as wards of the state because they were half-caste. In 1972, coming under new management, it was renamed St Mary's Children's Village (1972–1980).
Simon Rieff was one of the first miners to open up The Granites goldfield in the Northern Territory of Australia before moving to Alice Springs to become a property developer and business man.
Gloria Ouida Lee or Siew Yoke Kwan, also known as Gloria Purdy-Lee was a Chinese-Australian miner. She was the daughter of Alice Springs Chinese Market gardener Ah Hong and his Western Arrernte wife Ranjika. Lee travelled between Australia and China and experienced discrimination because of her mixed parentage. She is included in the archive collection of the Women's Museum of Australia, formerly known as the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame. Her oral history is held at the National Library of Australia.
Ah Hong was a Chinese market gardener who spent most of his life in Alice Springs, and was a well regarded figure in an era of considerable prejudice towards Chinese people in Australia.
William George Murray was a constable in the Northern Territory Police force who, in 1928, led a series of punitive expeditions against Aboriginal Australians that became known as the Coniston massacre.
Winifred Doris Blackwell was an Australian memoirist. She was the co-writer of Alice on the Line.
Amelia Kunoth née Pavey was an Aboriginal Australian woman who developed well-known cattle stations in Central Australia, including Utopia, Bond Springs, Hamilton Downs and Tempe Downs.
