The Overland Telegraph Line

Transcription

1 Wire to the World Remnant of the OTL on The Woodforde, near Tea Tree, NT. Photo by Rick Moore. The Overland Telegraph Line Danger, exploration, innovation and the risk of financial ruin were all part of the construction of the 3200 km Overland Telegraph Line from Port Augusta to Darwin that would provide Australia s first electronic communication with the rest of the world. At a banquet in Sydney to mark its completion, one guest said it was: By far the most wonderful event that has ever occurred in the history of this country BY RICK MOORE By the late 1850s, telegrams had become established as the new communication technology that would break down the isolation of Australia s far-flung settlements. Commerce and government scrambled to build lines and introduce the new technology, and by the early 1860s, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane were connected by a rapidly growing telegraph network. The big challenge now was to link Australia with Home, on the other side of the globe. In January of 1870 the British-Australian Telegraph Company (BAT) was formed and proposed to lay a cable between Java and Port Darwin. From there the line could go either south via Port Augusta to Adelaide, or southeast to Burketown, and thence to Brisbane. The Queenslanders had already begun to build a section of their overland line, and competition between the two colonies to secure the project was intense. The South Australian Government, recognising the commercial benefits of the project and the opportunities it would bring in developing the Northern Territory, over which it had recently acquired control, responded by promising to pass a Bill that would guarantee and pay for erection of the overland line. It was a brave move as, at that time, the more obvious destination was Brisbane. Furthermore, the South Australian proposal undertook to open the line for traffic by 1 January South Australia eventually won the right to have the cable landed at Port Darwin, and to construct an Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) to Port Augusta, then its most northerly telegraph station. Given the line was to cover more than 3,000 km of virtually unknown territory, and that the Government had agreed to large financial penalties if it did not meet the deadline, it was a huge financial gamble for so small a colony. Australian Heritage 69

2 Overland Telegraph construction party, from left: A G Little, R C Patterson, Charles Todd and A J Mitchell, State Library of South Australia, Image No B4639. Stimulated by the success the Victorians were having technology was still being proven, and it would be with telegraph, the South Australian Government had another four years before the first long-distance in February 1855 employed Charles Todd, undersea cable would be laid across the Atlantic initially as Astronomical Observer and Ocean, establishing that telegraphic later as Superintendant of Telegraphs. communications between continents was Todd had worked at the Royal possible. Observatory at Greenwich In late June, 1870, barely two for nearly seven years and weeks after the South Australian as Assistant Astronomer bill was passed, Todd called for at Cambridge University tenders. With just eighteen Observatory where he months to complete the project, had gained experience of a great deal of planning was telegraphy. From the time required. Supplies, tools, of his appointment, Todd transport, batteries, wire had dreamed of linking and insulators all had to be South Australia with sourced. The contractors a single wire across the were to provide the poles, at continent to Port Darwin twenty to the mile (twelve to and from there to the rest the kilometre). Blacksmiths, of the world via undersea bullock drivers, linesmen, cable. When John McDouall l telegraphers, cooks, labourers, Stuart set out on his historic surveyors and storekeepers had expedition to cross the continent nent to be signed on. Specifications for from south to north, Todd had asked repeater stations had to be drawn up. him to take note of both a route and Because of the time frame, all suitable trees for telegraph poles. When preparations were urgent. The contracts he returned in December of 1862, Stuart Charles Todd ca State had tough obligations, including a penalty confirmed that an overland telegraph Library of South Australia, Image of 20 per day without right of appeal if route was possible. Worldwide, telegraph No B69996/19. the contractor did not finish the job on 70 Australian Heritage

3 time. Much was at stake for all participants. However, there were some immediate commercial side benefits for the colony. In Adelaide, a saddler made 27 sets of five-horse heavy harness, 45 pack saddles, three hundred collars and other smaller items. He used over 600 hides and worked about 40 men until midnight for six weeks. The logistics of the project were daunting. Distance, ignorance of the actual conditions the men would encounter, and the monsoon season affecting the northern section made it an operational nightmare. Water quickly became the limiting factor too little in the south and far too much in the north. Todd still had to determine the exact path the line was to take, although he had little choice but to shadow the only known European route that established 10 years earlier by John McDouall Stuart. The advance parties for the OTL, led by John Ross in the south and by G G McLachlan in the north, became explorers in their own right as they surveyed the terrain. Construction was divided into three sections that were to be built simultaneously. The northern section extended from Darwin to Tennant Creek, the central section from Tennant Creek to the Macumba River, near Oodnadatta, and the southern section linked this point to Port Augusta which was already connected to Adelaide. It was assumed that the central section 960 km through inhospitable desert terrain would be the toughest to build, and the government decided to carry that responsibility. The names of overseers of the five subsections of the central section are now incorporated into the geography of the Northern Territory Knuckey, G R McMinn (whose brother William was the overseer in charge of the northern section), Mills, Woods and Harvey. It was Mills who found a suitable pass through the MacDonnell Ranges, and located and named some nearby springs after Todd s wife, Alice. At that location one of the eleven repeater stations was built, although it was not until 1933 that the township was named Alice Springs, instead of Stuart after the explorer. Messrs Darwent and Dalwood obtained the contract for the northern section, and steamed from Port Adelaide on the Omeo for Port Darwin on 20 August On 15 September 1870, a mere six days after the Omeo arrived at Port Darwin, the first pole of the OTL was erected. Like all the other parties, they cleared the route of the line to five metres each side. In 54 days they had cleared, poled and erected 89 miles of line. But then the wet season began and conditions quickly became intolerable for work. Progress in mud was extremely slow and exhausting. Some days it rained 70 mm, others up to 250 mm. With less than a year to go, the OTL had not even reached Katherine. The men twice threatened strike action; Construction of the Overland Telegraph to Port Darwin. From a photograph by J H Nixon, engraving by Samuel Calvert, 1870? National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an Australian Heritage 71

4 Planting the first pole of the Overland Telegraph, Darwin, 5 September State Library of South Australia, Image No B4638. the government overseer, William McMinn, who had been a losing bidder for the contract, exercised his authority and cancelled Darwent and Dalwood s contract. With hindsight, this was the very worst thing to do. The immediate impact was that there was no southerly construction progress and the timeline of completion was irrevocably broken. Remembering the guaranteed finish by 1 January 1872 and the prospect of paying the daily 70 penalty (which soon ballooned to 3,000 per month), Todd sent an assistant railway engineer, Robert Patterson, to take charge. But the weather and events were against him. Patterson wrote: It is raining pitilessly, and every drop falls on my head like lead. It means ruin if it lasts, as the teams will not get through to McLachlan and Burton until too late. Plenty water now. Too much. The work is doomed. The lives of two hundred men are imperilled for want of supplies. I cannot be held responsible. I have done all that mortal man can do. Todd had to go north himself to direct matters. In a display of balanced judgement, he did not blame Patterson for the delays. Instead, he organised three vessels to take urgent supplies not to Port Darwin, but to a new location: the Roper River Overland Construction Depot and jetty, reached by sea from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Most of the northern construction party had fallen back to there, and they were desperately short of food before the ships arrived. In one of Australia s epic droves, brothers John and Ralph Milner had in 1870 taken 4,300 sheep, 160 horses, 17 working bullocks and 150 goats on the promise of a reward when they got to Port Darwin. By August 1871 they were at Attack Creek, which unfortunately lived up to its name John Milner was killed with a club there. Becoming aware as he continued northward of the desperate shortage of rations for the OTL crews, Ralph Milner sold 1,000 of his now 3,000 sheep to Patterson for 1,250, to feed the men at Roper River. Milner eventually arrived at Darwin but was never rewarded. A whole dry season was lost by the time the men and supplies were ready to continue poling. As construction was only possible in the dry season, breach of contract was inevitable. Further pressure was created when the steamers Hibernia and Edinburgh completed laying 2,004 km of undersea cable from Port Darwin to Java. Now the world was connected but not the rest of Australia. On New Year s Day 1872, roughly 650 km of the line remained unbuilt. Meanwhile, shortly after the Omeo sailed, the central section teams left Adelaide. Todd s management and operational skills came to the fore. The party for the most northerly section of the central stretch, led by Harvey, had the furthest to travel, needing to cover over 2,000 km before they commenced work. They took eight months to get there. The progress of the southern and central sections was relatively smooth, although the unfortunate telegraphist, Carl Kraegen, sent to The Roper River Jetty, in the NT, on the occasion of the opening of the Overland Telegraph Line in August The party depicted were all Overland Telegraph workers and officials. National Archives of Australia, Image no A1200, L Australian Heritage

5 Landing the cable at Port Darwin, Palmerston, for connection to overland telegraph. The Hibernia (ship) in distance, 7 November State Library of South Australia, Image No B16. be in charge of the Alice Springs repeater station, perished for want of water just before Christmas His was one of only eight deaths associated with the construction of the OTL. Eventually, construction of the uncompleted sections of the OTL resumed twelve months to the day after William McMinn cancelled Darwent & Dalwood s contract. From Daly Waters to Tennant s Creek the gap was now down to 420 km, and it was proposed to run a pony express to carry despatches for transmission between each end of the wire until the gap was closed. Thus it was that the first telegraphic message across the continent was carried on horseback by Overseer R R Knuckey, from the Elsey terminus to Tennant Creek for re-transmission south. Fortunately, at this time a supply of good quality horses appeared, with the arrival of stockman, John Lewis. Patterson immediately hired Lewis, his horses and his men, and for the first time private cabled messages were transmitted across the continent. It was perhaps a messy way to meet the contract with the British- Australian Telegraph Company (BAT), but it was effective. Then, in a peculiar form of deliverance, on 24 June 1872, as telegraphic messages were heading south from Port Darwin via wire and pony express, the undersea cable failed. For the first time, the BAT was on the defensive, and Todd, Patterson and the colony had some breathing space. By mid-july, as the line erection continued to narrow the gap, the undersea cable was still out of action. Perhaps the full The first telegraph station at Darwin, NT, National Archives of Australia, Image no: A1200, L Roper River camp, Northern Territory, The construction of Overland Telegraph Line where workers were beleagured during the wet season. National Archives of Australia, Image no: J2879, QTH309. Australian Heritage 73

6 Ruins of The Peake Telegraph Repeater Station, SA. Photo by R Moore. penalty for lateness might not have to be paid? On 9 August 1872, the last hole had been dug and the last pole set, and the crews were hard at it, completing the wiring. Two weeks later, on Tuesday 22 August, Patterson and a few men were near Frew s Ponds to make the official connection. Todd was on his way south overland to Adelaide, and would not be at the joining, and Patterson was able to claim some of the glory of a major project completed. Taking hold of the wire at one end, he attempted to make connection with the other end. But he forgot one of the basic rules of electricity, and he unwittingly acted as a conductor. Although he made instant connection, the current from the batteries made him yell out and drop the line. The next attempt was successful, and the men fired a 21-gun salute with their revolvers and broke a bottle of brownish fluid over one of the poles. They had no alcoholic spirits, so cold tea had to suffice. Six hundred and fifty kilometres to the south, Todd was camped in the centre of the continent, alongside Central Mt Stuart. He hooked onto the line and transmitted a message back to the Chief Secretary of South Australia: Many thanks for your kind congratulations on the completion of the Adelaide and Port Darwin telegraph, which, as an important link in the electric chain of communication connecting the Australian Colonies with the mother country and the whole of the civilised and commercial world, will, I trust, redound to the credit of South Australia. The next morning the Post Office in Adelaide issued a standard weather report, but for the first time ever, it included a report from Port Darwin. In the first five days after the restoration of the undersea cable, four months after it had failed, 153 messages were sent from Australia and 148 messages were received from overseas, generating 3,068, from which South Australia earned 353. Demonstrating further justification for the decisions made three years earlier, South Australian wheat growers obtained an additional 250,000 by being better able to locate markets and arrange sales. Todd had originally estimated the cost of the Overland Telegraph at 120,000, but by its completion costs had soared to 479, s 3d, which included eleven substantial repeater stations and replacement iron Oppenheimer poles that had not been in the original costings. By November 1872, all colonies except Western Australia were joined into the OTL. The line became a major reference point for exploration and development of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and for a century it provided the essential communications link between Australia and the rest of the world. On 19 February 1942, the line carried south the news of the Japanese air raids on Darwin. The underwater cable to Java had been cut to prevent its use by the Japanese, but Adelaide and Darwin were still connected. The Overland Telegraph Line continued to operate until it was finally replaced by microwave links in the 1970s, and sections of it were in use until the early 1980s. The Author Rick Moore is a member of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia and President of the John McDouall Stuart Society. Further Reading An End to Silence, by Peter Taylor, published by Methuen of Australia, Overland Telegraph, by Frank Clune, published by Angus & Robertson, Australian Heritage