Australian Overland Telegraph Line
The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a 3200 km telegraph line that joined Darwin with Port Augusta in South Australia. Completed in 1872 the Overland Telegraph Line allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. It was one of the great engineering feats of 19th century Australia.[1] It followed the route discovered by the explorer John McDouall Stuart in 1862. It was probably the most important milestone in Australia's telegraphic history.[2]
Because of the limits of technology, the telegraph messages could only travel about 300 km along the line.[3] Repeater stations were built at regular intervals so that the messages could be resent. Some of the stations became the start of cities such as Alice Springs or Tennant Creek, while others became forgotten ruins, such as the Peake Repeater Station built near Freeling Springs in South Australia.[3]
Australian Overland Telegraph Line Media
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
Planting the first pole on the Overland Telegraph line to Carpentaria.
Planting the first telegraph pole, near Palmerston (Darwin) in September 1870.
Repeater station at Alice Springs, c. 1880
Remains of the Overland Telegraph line at Tennant Creek converted into telephone circuits.
The original cable station, Broome, Western Australia
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References
- ↑ W.A. Crowder’s diary: the Overland Telegraph Line National Library of Australia.
- ↑ Wendy Lewis, Simon Balderstone and John Bowan (2006). Events That Shaped Australia. New Holland. p. 66. ISBN 9781741104929.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station". Friends of Mound Springs Newsletter, 7 July 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
Other websites
- A Wire Through the Heart An ABC movie on the Telegraph Line