|
|
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
OVERLAND TELEGRAPH LINE.
Up to 1872 the mail-service between Australia and Europe was carried on once a month by the Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Company, heavily subsidized by the colonial governments. The lack of a more speedy means of communication with Europe was a great restraint on business, and negotiations were therefore initiated by Queensland, and by South Australia (which then controlled the Northern Territory) with the British-Australian Telegraph Company; in the end the South Australian proposals were accepted, and in June 1870 the company made an agreement with the government of the day to lay a cable from Java - which was already connected with Europe - on condition that a land line was constructed from Port Augusta to Port Darwin.
The whole line, by land and sea, was to be opened for use on 1 January 1872. At this time the South Australian population was little over 180,000; but they cheerfully accepted the task of constructing what was then estimated at 1500 miles of telegraph-line through a country which up till then been only once traversed from south to north by John McDouall Stuart. The ultimate cost was over 300,000 pounds. The only hills worthy of mention on the route chosen for the line are the MacDonnell Ranges, and a pass was known through them. It was decided that the construction of the line should be devided into three sections, No. 1 proceeding due north from Port Augusta, No. 3 from Port Darwin due south; No. 2, through the ranges was looked on as the most difficult.
The supervision of the line was entrusted to Charles Todd (q.v.), postmaster-general and superintendent of telegraphs, an Englishman who had been appointed in 1855 to establish a telegraph system in the colony. Section No. 1 was constructed by Edward Meade Bagot under contract, and was completed in 15 months; the central section, undertaken by the government, was also finished within little more than the estimated time, although in both these sections immense difficulties were caused by lack of water and suitable timber, the absence of roads, and the great distances over which material and stores had to be hauled. Section 3, which was let to an Adelaide firm, was unexpectedly found to be the most troublesome owing to the swampy nature of the country, the annual rainfall in that part of the Northern Territory being about 70 inches.
No time was lost in starting. The contractors planted the first pole at Port Darwin on 15 September 1870, but progress was so slow that the government official in charge of the section found it necessary to terminate the contract. An engineer with a party of 80 men was sent up on 27 July 1871 from Adelaide, but the flooded country baffled him also; and it was not until Todd, with another large party, came to his aid, after the difficulty had been vainly attacked from the Roper River, that a route was found which, owing to the partial drying of the swamps, admitted of slow but steady progress.
On 22 May 1872 Todd sent the first message from Port Darwin to Adelaide, but as part of the third section was still incomplete - it had to be conveyed horseman for considerable distances, and did not reach the capital until 20 June. On 22 August the line was completed and the first message from Port Darwin was received. The cable company, however, had its own difficulties, and before the land line was completed the cable from Java was interrupted, so that the first through message from London did not reach Adelaide until 22 October.
On the 30th Todd returned to Adelaide and reported that he had inspected the line for the entire distance from Port Darwin to Adelaide, and that it was constructed in a substantial manner, but required iron poles in many places where timber was liable to destruction by white ants or bush-fires.The line has since been entirely repoled with iron poles. The line took 23 months to build. Some 36,000 telegraph-poles, weighing 5000 tons, were used, some being carted to a distance of 350 miles; a large number of iron poles were hauled from 400 to 500 miles, and over 200 tons of other materials were carried into the interior. Several thousand sheep and cattle were driven an average of 500 miles to supply the constructors with food; the scrub timber had to be cut, grubbed, and cleared for an average width of 50 feet over some 500 miles; large quantities of building-stone, sand, etc. for the permanent stations had to be carted inland, and a reeceiving station of 22 rooms for the cable and land lines was erected at Port Darwin. The other telegraph-stations, which are about 200 miles apart, were completed some time afterwards. Fortunately, the natives along the route gave very little trouble, and not a single white man was killed during the construction.
