Water sources known to Aboriginal people largely determined the route of the Overland Telegraph Line through the dry interior of Australia and, two decades later, the Central Australia Railway
The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was an electrical telegraph system for sending messages the 3200 kilometres (2000 miles) between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Completed in 1872 (with a line to Western Australia added in 1877), it allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. When it was linked to the Java-to-Darwin submarine telegraph cable several months later, the communication time with Europe dropped from months to hours; Australia was no longer so isolated from the rest of the world. The line was one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century Australia and probably the most significant milestone in the history of telegraphy in Australia.[1][2][3]
Planting the first pole on the Overland Telegraph line to Carpentaria
By 1855 speculation had intensified about possible routes for the connection of Australia to the new telegraph cable in Java and thus Europe. Among the routes under consideration were either Ceylon to Albany in Western Australia, or Java to the north coast of Australia and then either onto east coast, or south through the centre of the continent to Adelaide.[4]
Competition between the colonies over the route was fierce. The Victorian government organised an expedition led by Burke and Wills to cross the continent from Menindee to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860. Although the route was traversed, the expedition ended in disaster. The South Australian government recognised the economic benefits that would result from becoming the centre of the telegraph network. It offered a reward of £2000 to encourage an expedition to find a route between South Australia and the north coast.[4]
John McDouall Stuart had meanwhile also been endeavouring to cross the continent starting from the northern Flinders Ranges, and was successful on his sixth attempt in 1862.[5] Stuart had the proposed telegraph line in mind as he travelled across the country, noting the best places for river crossings, sources of timber for telegraph poles, and water supplies. On 24July, his expedition finally reached the north coast at a place Stuart named Chambers Bay, after his early sponsor, James Chambers. South Australian Governor Richard MacDonnell gave his strong support to the project.[6]
In 1863 an Order in Council transferred the Northern Territory to South Australia, aiming to secure land for an international telegraph connection.[7] Now with a potential route, South Australia strengthened her position for the telegraph line in 1865 when Parliament authorised the construction of a telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Augusta, 300km to the north. This move provoked outrage in Queensland amongst advocates of the Darwin–Burketown route.
The final contract was secured in 1870 when the South Australian government agreed to construct 3200km of line to Darwin, while the British-Australian Telegraph Company promised to lay the undersea cable from Banyuwangi, Java to Darwin. The latter was to be finished on 31December1871, and severe penalties were to apply if the connecting link was not ready.[4]
Construction
The South Australian Superintendent of Telegraphs, Charles Todd, was appointed head of the project,[8] and devised a timetable to complete the immense project on schedule. Todd had built South Australia's first telegraph line and extended it to Melbourne.[7] The contract stipulated a total cost of no more than £128,000 and two years' construction time.[7] He divided the route into three sections, each of 600 miles (970km): northern and southern sections to be handled by private contractors, and a central section which would be constructed by his own department.[4] The telegraph line would comprise more than 30,000 wrought iron poles, insulators, batteries, wire and other equipment, ordered from England.[9][10] The poles were placed 80m apart and repeater stations separated by no more than 250km,[11] a major criterion being year-round availability of water.[12]
Planting the first telegraph pole, near Palmerston (Darwin) in September 1870.
Darwent & Dalwood, who won the contract for the northern section of 600 miles (970km), arrived in Port Darwin aboard SSOmeo in September 1870 with 80 men, 80 draught horses, bullocks, equipment and stores. Stephen King Jr. was their surveyor and explorer. The northern line was progressing well until the onset of the wet season in November1870.[9] Heavy rain of up to 10 inches (250mm) a day waterlogged the ground and made it impossible for work to progress. With conditions worsening, the men went on strike on 7March1871, rancid food and disease-spreading mosquitoes amongst their complaints.[9] On 3 May 1871, Overseer of Works William McMinn[17][18] cancelled Darwent & Dalwood's contract and sent all the workers back to Adelaide, on the basis of insufficient progress (they had erected poles to a distance of 225 miles (362km) and strung wire for 129 miles (208km) to that date) and the insurrection of the men. This last, the workers claimed, was exaggerated; they only refused to work after they had been sacked.[19] These actions were certainly within his powers, and spelled out in the contract, but he was dismissed on his return to Adelaide in July 1871. Joseph Darwent had protested the original appointment of McMinn, who had submitted a losing tender, but was overruled. William T. Dalwood was eventually awarded compensation of £11,000.[20]
The South Australian Government was now forced to construct an extra 700km of line, and threw every available resource into its completion, down to purchasing horses and hiring men from New South Wales. It was another six months before reinforcements led by engineer Robert C. Patterson[21] arrived in Darwin. As the central and southern sections neared completion, Patterson decided to take a different strategy with the construction of the northern section. It was divided into four sub-sections with the majority of the men on the most northerly section.[22] The undersea cable was finished earlier than expected,[7] with the line from Java reaching Darwin on 18November1871 and being connected the following day.[22]
Because of the problems still facing the northern section, the Queensland Superintendent of Telegraphs called for the abandonment of the project, and for the line to connect to the terminal at Burketown, but Todd was adamant and pressed on.[22][23] By the end of the year there was still over 300km of line to erect.[22] A storm system impacting South and Central Australia caused significant interruptions on the line in January 1872.[24] By May 1872, the line was substantially in use with horse or camel carrying messages across the uncompleted section.[25] During this time, Todd began visiting workers along the line to lift their spirits.[7] The message he sent along the incomplete line on 22May1872, took 9 days to reach Adelaide.[22]
Running more than seven months behind schedule, the two lines were finally joined at Frew's Ponds on Thursday, 22August1872.[26] Todd was given the honour of sending the first message along the completed line:
WE HAVE THIS DAY, WITHIN TWO YEARS, COMPLETED A LINE OF COMMUNICATIONS TWO THOUSAND MILES LONG THROUGH THE VERY CENTRE OF AUSTRALIA, UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO A TERRA INCOGNITA BELIEVED TO BE A DESERT +++
The requirements of nineteenth century telegraphy meant the Overland Telegraph Line required repeater stations, a maximum of 250-300km apart, to boost the signal. The repeater stations contained two primary batteries: the line was powered by a (c. 120 V) bank of Meidinger cells — a variation of Daniell cell, "recharged" by replacing the electrolyte — as well as Leclanche cells for the local equipment.[28] Although repeater stations have been run by a single telegraphist, usual staffing was four to six, including a station master, telegraphists and a linesman. The job of a telegraphist was to record each message received, with the time of day, and to re-send (relay) it further along the line.
Within the first year of operations 4000telegrams were transmitted.[11] Maintenance was an ongoing and mammoth task, with floods often destroying poles, and a range of other incidents disrupting the line. In the 1880s, wooden poles were replaced with Joseph Oppenheimer's patented telescoping poles.
In February1875, a small contingent of Overland Telegraph employees left Port Darwin for Adelaide on the ill-fated SS Gothenburg. A few days later, at least ten were among the hundred-odd who lost their lives after she encountered a severe storm, and was driven into the Great Barrier Reef and sank.[29]
A chain of repeater stations
The southern section of the line included repeater stations at Beltana, Strangways Springs and the Peake. Traces and remains of these repeater stations can still be seen today along the Oodnadatta Track in South Australia.
The central section of the line included repeater stations at Charlotte Waters and Alice Springs. Charlotte Waters was operational until the 1930s; today there is very little left at the site.
The northern section of the line included repeater stations at Barrow Creek, Tennant Creek, Daly Waters, Powell Creek, Katherine, Yam Creek and finally a terminus point in Darwin. In Darwin, there was also considerable infrastructure to manage and maintain the undersea cable/s to Europe.
Remains of the Overland Telegraph line at Tennant Creek converted into telephone circuits.
On 22 February 1874, eighteen months after the line opened, a group of Aboriginal men attacked the staff of the repeater station at Barrow Creek, killing linesman John Frank, mortally wounding stationmaster John L. Stapleton, and seriously wounding two others, one an aboriginal youth employed at the station. Contemporary press reports described the incident as the "Barrow's Creek outrage".[31] A punitive expedition resulted in the death of several Aboriginal men believed to have been involved.
Twentieth century First Nations accounts tell a very different kind of story about what happened at Barrow Creek, and how to make sense of the conflict.[32]
A major break
Numerous interruptions to service occurred in the early days. Tribal Aboriginals discovered that splendid fishing hooks could be fashioned from the galvanised iron wire conductors (same as #8 fencing wire), spearheads and other implements could be made from shards of insulator, and hatchets from iron baseplates attached to some of the poles, keeping the linemen busy. Atmospheric disturbance from solar flares induced interfering signals in some sections of the line, and lightning strikes were not uncommon.[12]
These breaks were as nothing compared with the flooding event involving the Peake and Strangways Springs stations in 1895. On 20 January the telegraph line was washed away by the Warrina Creek, a few miles north of Strangways Springs,[33] and full service was not restored until 24 January. Improvised communication included carrying paper copies of the messages by rail between the Peake and Oodnadatta. The flood at the Peake was unprecedented, but Todd authorised replacing the 23ft (7.0m) steel poles with 30-footers, set in concrete and reinforced with struts.[34]
Decommissioning the line
When Darwin was bombed in World War II the line was deliberately cut just before the attack.[7][8]
Connecting the Overland Telegraph Line to the rest of the world
In 1870 the British Australia Telegraph Company (BAT) was formed to link Australia directly to the British telegraphic cable system, by extending the cable from Singapore via Java to Port Darwin. In 1873, three British companies, The British India Extension Telegraph Company, The BAT and The China Submarine Telegraph Company were amalgamated to form the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company (EET Co). The driving force behind the British cable companies was a Scottish born entrepreneur Sir John Pender, founder of Cable and Wireless.
On 19 November 1871, Australia was connected telegraphically with the rest of the world after a cable was laid by BAT from Banyuwangi (Banjoewangie), at the eastern end of Java, to Darwin.[36] This coincided with the completion of the construction of the overland telegraph cable from Adelaide to Darwin. The first message sent directly from London to Adelaide occurred on 22 October 1872. A second submarine cable from Java to Darwin was laid in 1880 to provide redunancy. The site in the intertidal zone where the cables come ashore in Darwin, where they are still visible during very low tides, was heritage listed in 2020.[37]
This cable was laid to increase security in communications by avoiding disruption from seismic activity that kept breaking the Banyuwangi to Darwin cables. The contract for the cables called for the manufacture of 970 nautical miles of cable containing a single galvanised copper core with 220 nautical miles being brass sheathed, laid by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company for the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company, by the SS Seine. The operation took only 10 days and was completed on 26 February 1889. These were all British companies.[citation needed]
Cable Beach is named after this cable that connected Java to Cable Station, that served this purpose until March 1914. After operating for 25 years it closed due to the opening of more competitive, cheaper-to-run stations; most cables were subsequently recovered.[39]
Cable Station was left empty, and in 1921 it was purchased and transformed into its current use as the Broome Court House, which was placed on the Western Australian State Register of Heritage Places in 2001 as it is the only station that is still standing in Australia.[40][41]
The original cable station, Broome, Western Australia
In 2007, the ABC produced Constructing Australia, a three-part miniseries, which included the 55-minute "Wire through the Heart" on the Overland Telegraph Line.[50] A 6-minute excerpt, "Todd Completes Telegraph" may be viewed on this project page from the NFSA.
Sir Charles Todd worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory 1841–1847 and the Cambridge University observatory from 1847 to 1854. He then worked on telegraphy and undersea cables until engaged by the government of South Australia as astronomical and meteorological observer, and head of the electric telegraph department.
The All Red Line was a system of electrical telegraphs that linked much of the British Empire. It was inaugurated on 31 October 1902. The informal name derives from the common practice of colouring the territory of the British Empire red or pink on political maps.
Pine Creek is a small town in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory, Australia and is situated just off the Stuart Highway; it is 90kms north of Katherine. As at the 2021 Census there were 318 residents of Pine Creek, which is the fourth largest town between Darwin and Alice Springs.
Barrow Creek is a very small town, with a current population of 11, in the southern Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the Stuart Highway, about 280 km north of Alice Springs, about halfway from there to Tennant Creek. The main feature of the town is the roadhouse/hotel. A number of mining companies are currently exploring in the area, although none of the current residents are involved in the mining industry.
Beltana is a town 540 kilometres (336 mi) north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased. The town's history began in the 1870s with the advent of copper mining in the area, construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and The Ghan railway and began to decline in 1941 with the beginning of coal mining at Leigh Creek. The fortune of the town was sealed by the 1983 realignment of the main road away from the town. The town, adjacent cemetery and railway structures are now part of a designated State Heritage Area declared in 1987.
Central Mount Stuart is a mountain peak situated in the southern Northern Territory of Australia. It is a prominent landmark easily seen from the nearby Stuart Highway, which at closest approach lies about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to the southeast. The dark red sandstone that comprise the peak, referred to by geologists as Central Mount Stuart Formation, form part of the Georgina Basin. Around it is the Central Mount Stuart Historical Reserve. It lies within the traditional lands of the Anmatyerre people.
Charlotte Waters was a tiny settlement in the Northern Territory of Australia located close to the South Australian border, not far from Aputula. It was known for its telegraph station, the Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, which became a hub for scientists travelling in central Australia in the late 19th and early 20th century. Aboriginal artist Erlikilyika, known to Europeans as Jim Kite, lived there. Only a ruin remains today.
Australia was a relatively early adopter of electrical telegraph technology in the middle of the nineteenth century, despite its low population densities and the difficult conditions sometimes encountered in laying lines. From 1858 onwards, the major capitals were progressively linked, culminating in the addition of Perth in 1877. Australia was linked to the rest of the world for the first time in 1872, through the Overland Telegraph which ran some 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from Adelaide through to Darwin. The network continued to expand in size and sophistication until 1959 and in heavy usage until 1945, after which time telephone usage began to erode public patronage of telegraphy services. The final publicly provided telegraphy service was closed in 1993.
William McMinn was an Irish-born Australian surveyor and architect, based in Adelaide in the colony of South Australia.
Alfred Giles, born in Datchet, England, was a South Australian bushman, drover and explorer who crossed Australia from south to north seven times, mostly in connection with the building of the Overland Telegraph Line 1870–1872.
Oppenheimer poles are galvanised iron telegraph poles. They consist of three oval sections that collapse into each other telescope-style for transportation. Once extended, the joints between the sections are clamped with collars. The pole is fixed to a base for support with a u-bolt.
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is located within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, 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.
Gilbert Rotherdale McMinnCE, SM, was an Australian surveyor born in Ireland noted for his work in the Northern Territory surveying the Overland Telegraph Line. His middle name is occasionally spelt "Rutherdale".
The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is an historical site about 16 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia.
William Whitfield Mills, usually referred to as "W. Whitfield Mills" or "W. W. Mills", was an English surveyor of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line who is best known for naming a waterhole in Central Australia Alice Spring, from which the town of Alice Springs now takes its name. He also named Heavitree Gap as a tribute to his old school in Devon, England.
Darwent & Dalwood was a partnership of Joseph Darwent and William Dalwood put together expressly to tender for work on the Overland Telegraph Line.
Richard Randall Knuckey, often referred to as R.R. Knuckey and popularly known as Dick Knuckey, was a surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line in central Australia from 1871 to 1872. He later became chief officer at the electric telegraph department in Adelaide.
The Peake is an abandoned ruin on the banks of the Neales River in far north South Australia, near the mound springs complex known as Freeling Springs. The Peake was established initially as an outstation on the Mount Margaret Station, before becoming the main homestead in the late 1870s. It was a supply depot for the construction teams building the Overland Telegraph Line in 1870–1871, and also served as a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line from 1870 to 1891. It was a vital part of Australia's telecommunication network in the nineteenth century. Today it is part of the William Cattle Company holdings.
Powell Creek Telegraph Station was a repeater station for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and it sat between the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station and the Daly Waters Telegraph Station. It was one of the more important telegraph stations along the line as inland weather conditions were so favourable that not all stations where required to support the line.
Alexander James Mitchell was a British born surveyor, mining engineer and businessman who played a critical role in the development of Darwin and the completion of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line in 1872.
↑ "Obituary". The Chronicle (Adelaide). Vol.LXVII, no.3, 539. South Australia. 19 July 1924. p.56. Retrieved 22 March 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑ Giles, Ernest (1889). Australia twice traversed: the romance of exploration, being a narrative compiled from the journals of five exploring expeditions into and through Central South Australia, and Western Australia, from 1872 to 1876, Volume 1. S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Limited
↑ Diary of G. R. McMinn, Surveyor and Overseer during construction of the Overland Telegraph Line to Port Darwin held by State Records of South Australia GRG 154/9
↑ Official journal of Robert C. Patterson, Engineer in charge of construction of the northern section of the Overland Telegraph Line held by State Records of South Australia GRG 154/9
1 2 3 4 5 Exploring the Stuart Highway: further than the eye can see, 1997, p. 26
↑ Taylor, Peter (1980). An End to Silence: the building of the overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin. Methuen.
↑ The Wreck of the Gothenburg (1875). On her voyage from Port Darwin to Adelaide. Printed by J. H. Lewis, Printer & Publisher, Adelaide.
↑ "Cable Communication". The Weekly Times. No.1, 330. Victoria, Australia. 2 February 1895. p.9. Retrieved 17 March 2024– via National Library of Australia. (Placenames replaced with modern spelling)
↑ Koch, Grace; Koch, Harold, eds. (1993). Kaytetye Country: an Aboriginal History of the Barrow Creek Area. Alice Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development Publications.
↑ Cable and Wireless Archives, London - Correspondence with the Colonial Office, Agents-General , in reference to the Banjoewangie-Roebuck Bay Cable 1888 – 1889
↑ Engineers' Final Report &Appendices, dated 7 June 1889: Eastern Extension, Australasia, and China Telegraph Company, Limited, Banjoewangie and Western Australia Cable 1889, provided by the Historical Society, Broome
↑ Heritage Council of Western Australia, Register of Heritage Places – Assessment Documentation Broome Court House, 28 August 2001.
↑ Broome Cable Station 1889 – 1914 by Max Anderson
↑ Cable and Wireless Archives, London – Copies of Relevant Correspondence as provided through the Historical Society, Broome
↑ Institution of Engineers, Australia, Nomination of the East – West Telegraph for a National Engineering Landmark, June 2001.
↑ G. R. M. Garrat – A History of Technology Volume IV 1958
↑ Vagg, Stephen (10 August 2019). "Unmade Cinesound". Filmink.
↑ Evans, Richard; West, Alex (2007). Constructing Australia: a companion to the ABC TV Series. The Miegumyah Press, Imprint of MUP, Melbourne.
Bibliography
Exploring the Stuart Highway: further than the eye can see. West Beach, South Australia: Tourist Information Distributors Australia, 1997. ISSN 1326-6039
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