TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE
PIONEERS IN AUSTRALIA.
W.J.CRACKNELL.
William John Cracknell,
E.C.'s brother, was born in London and was appointed stationmaster
at Ipswich in 1861 and he was superintendant of telegraphs in Queensland
from 1863-80. It was the beginning of a significant tradition of
family service in communications in Australia that blossomed in each
colony and state and has remained a distinctive feature of communications
to the present day.
W. J. Cracknell presided over
the mobilisation of a vigorous telegraph growth, pushing lines out
of Brisbane along the coast north to Bowen and Cardwell and inland
to serve the spreading pastoral settlements. He was almost successful
in having a overland line to connect to the cable from Java to Port
Darwin and had arranged an exploratory expedition to survey a route
from Cardwell to Normantown. He thought this was in the bag until
the South Australian government agreed to built the Port Darwin to
Port Augusta overland line which was shorter.
William carried out the first
telephonic experiments in the colony on 26 January 1878 beating Dr.Severn
to the post by two days. He used roughly fashioned telephones for
the experiments which were not well adapted for the purpose, even
though though fair results were obtained. W.J. was not satisfied
with his crude instruments and securing a promise of two of his improved
models direct from Professor Bell himself, informed the Queensland
parliment on 11 March 1878 that further experiments of this scientific
wonder would be made on their arrival
Text
from 'Clear across Australia by Ann Moyal (1984)
'Life in the Cities' by Michael
Cannon.
'NSW Historical Monograph No.3.'
by A.H.Freeman.
'Australian Illustrated Encyclopaedia'
(1925)
Edited by Ken Bushell.
