History of telegraphy in Australia facts for kids

Australia was quick to adopt electrical telegraph technology in the mid-1800s. Even though the country had few people and tough conditions for laying wires, major cities were connected from 1858. Perth joined the network in 1877. In 1872, Australia connected to the rest of the world for the first time. This happened through the Overland Telegraph, a huge line about 3,200 kilometers long, running from Adelaide to Darwin.

The telegraph network grew bigger and better until 1959. It was used a lot until 1945. After that, telephones became more popular, and people used telegraph services less. The last public telegraph service in Australia closed in 1993.

What is a Telegraph?

A telegraph is a machine that sends and receives messages over long distances. An electrical telegraph uses electric current and magnetism. It changes typed codes into electrical signals. These signals travel along metal wires or cables to a far-off place.

At the other end, the signals turn into magnetic fields. These fields make a machine create a sound or move a pointer. The person at the receiving end listens to the sounds or watches the signals. They then write down the message. In Australia, the Morse code system was used for all messages.

Early Telegraph Connections in Australia

A telegram from the Binalong telegraph office in February 1901.

Australia's first telegraph lines were built in the 1850s. Each colony (which later became states) started building its own network.

Victoria's First Lines

Victoria was the first to get a telegraph line. The Victorian Government paid for it. Samuel McGowan, a telegraph expert from Canada, built the line. It connected Melbourne and Williamstown in 1853-1854.

This first line was about 17 kilometers long. It started working in March 1854. This was less than 10 years after the world's first public telegraph line opened in the USA. In its first year, 4,000 telegrams were sent.

When the line reached Geelong in December 1854, the first message to Melbourne brought news of the Eureka Stockade. Lines also connected to gold-mining towns like Ballarat and Bendigo by December 1856. By 1857, Victoria had many telegraph lines. By 1867, Victoria had 1,676 miles of lines and handled 122,138 messages.

South Australia's Telegraph Story

In late 1854, the South Australian Government looked for a telegraph expert. They chose Charles Todd. He arrived in Adelaide in November 1855. On the very day Todd arrived, a private company opened its own telegraph line from Adelaide to the Port.

In 1856, the Government bought this private line for £80 and took it down. Todd then built a government line from Adelaide to Semaphore in two months. He used an underground cable, but it failed quickly. The wires at that time did not have good insulation.

Connecting to Melbourne was very important for South Australia. In 1857, Todd and Samuel McGowan (from Victoria) planned to link their cities. They dreamed this connection would be part of a bigger link to England, through India.

The Adelaide to Melbourne line started in April 1857 and finished in July 1858. South Australia paid for its 300 km section. This line was used so much that Todd said a second line was needed. The second line opened in 1861.

Tasmania's Telegraph Connections

A telegraph line linking Hobart and Launceston was finished in 1857. Soon, lines reached other places like George Town (March 1858) and Mt Nelson (July 1858).

Like South Australia, Tasmania needed to connect to other state capitals for trade. This meant laying a cable under the sea. Discussions started between Victoria and Tasmania in 1856. Building undersea cables was new technology then, so they were careful.

Tasmania and Victoria agreed to share costs. A contract was signed in February 1858. A 117-mile cable, costing £53,000, was laid and started working on August 18, 1859. But the cable often broke down. By January 1861, it was abandoned.

A lasting cable link was built in 1869. It went from Cape Otway in Victoria, through King Island, to Launceston, Tasmania. Tasmania paid the full £70,000 cost. This cable was a big success. It was copied in 1885 and again in 1909.

New South Wales Joins the Network

NSW Telegraph Routes (in blue) in October 1885.

New South Wales started building its first telegraph line in 1857. It connected Sydney to Liverpool, a distance of 20 miles. This line opened on December 30, 1857. Edward Charles Cracknell became the Superintendent of Telegraphs in 1861.

The Liverpool line was extended to Albury on the NSW/Victorian border. This was a 200-mile extension, finished in October 1858. This line connected with Victoria's line from Melbourne. So, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide were now linked by telegraph. In 1867, a direct line opened between Adelaide and Sydney.

Queensland's Telegraph Expansion

When Queensland separated from New South Wales, it needed its own Superintendent of Telegraphs. W.J. Cracknell, brother of the NSW Superintendent, got the job. A line from Brisbane to the NSW border was planned in September 1860. It reached Ipswich in April 1861 and the border by November 1861. This connected to Sydney's line. Now, four state capitals were linked!

Lines also went north from Brisbane to Bowen, Rockhampton, and Port Denison (1866). They reached Cardwell in June 1869. Lines also extended inland to new farming areas. In 1855, the Electric Telegraph department handled over 50,000 telegrams. Messages could travel over 1,000 miles within Queensland. The last Morse Code message in Queensland was sent to Thursday Island in 1964.

Western Australia's Telegraph Start

A newspaper man, Edmund Stirling, suggested connecting Perth with Fremantle. This was a distance of 12 miles. After talking with the Government, they agreed to share the costs. Construction started on February 9, 1869, and the line opened on June 21, 1869.

A connection from Perth to Albany was very important for the colony. Many steamships from England to the eastern states stopped at Albany for supplies. If messages and news could be sent quickly to Perth by telegraph instead of a long horse and coach journey, Western Australia could gain a business advantage. The Albany link was finished in 1870. The last Morse code message in Western Australia was sent between Wyndham and Halls Creek in mid-1963.

Here is when each state got its first telegraph line:

Connecting Australia to the World

Charles Todd and Samuel McGowan both dreamed of telegraph links from Australia to England, through India. They saw the Australian network as the first step. From 1858, companies wanted to lay cables from Britain to Australia. This created competition among the Australian colonies for where the cables would land.

As early as 1854, British companies offered to land a cable at Perth, via Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). American and British businesses saw Australia as key end points for their growing overseas cables. For the next 16 years, there was a lot of talk and competition between the colonies.

Four main routes to Australia were considered:

• From Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Perth.
• From Timor Island to northern Australia, connecting to an overland line to Adelaide.
• From Java (Banjoewangi) around the Western Australia coast to Perth.
• From Port Essington (Queensland) to Morton Bay, connecting to other cables.

Queensland tried hard to get the overseas link. They explored a route from Cardwell to Burketown in 1866. Queensland thought they had a deal with the British Australian Telegraph Company. This company planned to connect their new undersea cable from Java to Port Darwin. Then, an overland line would go to Burketown.

However, South Australia wanted the line to go to Port Augusta and then to Adelaide. They offered to pay for a telegraph line from Port Augusta to Port Darwin. At that time, South Australia managed what is now the Northern Territory. This offer saved the British Australian Telegraph Company money. So, they changed their plan. Building a line across the unknown central Australian desert was a huge risk for South Australia.

The Amazing Overland Telegraph

John McDouall Stuart had explored the remote Australian outback. After several tries, he reached the northern coast on July 24, 1862. People had worried that huge inland seas might block a route. But Stuart found a path, even though the environment was very harsh.

A contract was signed in 1870 to build the Overland Telegraph. This line went from Port Augusta to Port Darwin. It was a massive physical challenge. It was finally finished on August 22, 1872. To build the line to Darwin, 36,000 poles were used to cover the nearly 3,000-kilometer gap.

Undersea Cables to the World

• 1872 - Port Darwin: The first connection from Australia to the world by undersea cable was the Java to Port Darwin link. Australia's first international message was received in Darwin on November 19, 1871. The cable broke soon after but was fixed in October 1872.
• 1876: The first telegraph link between Australia and New Zealand opened.
• 1889: A third international link arrived at Broome, Western Australia from Batavia (Jakarta).
• 1891: Brisbane was linked to New Caledonia.
• 1901: A link via the Cocos-Keeling Islands arrived in Perth. This was part of the 'Red Route', which went through only British-controlled areas around the world.
• 1902: A telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was completed. It connected Canada and Australia (landing at Brisbane) via Fiji and Norfolk Island.

The Telegraph Line to Perth

In 1874, the governments of Western Australia and South Australia agreed to pay for a line. This line would connect Port Augusta in South Australia to Albany in Western Australia. Work started in April 1875 from Albany. This area was known to have very little water.

At this time, Western Australia had only 25,000 people. Its total income was £135,000 per year. The line was estimated to cost £30,000. South Australia's part was also big. It had to build the line across the vast Nullarbor Plain. South Australia's parliament approved the money on November 4, 1874.

The two lines met at Eucla, near the Western Australia/South Australia border. The builders faced huge difficulties and challenges. The line started working on December 8, 1877. It operated for 50 years. In 1927, it closed. Newer technology and a line next to the recently built transcontinental railway replaced it.

How the Telegraph Changed Society

The arrival of the telegraph had a huge impact on society. People were very excited about sending information quickly. The biggest users were the Government, businesses, and newspapers. Before the telegraph, news and mail could take three months to reach England. The telegraph cut this down to about seven hours!

As the telegraph spread, local and city newspapers started printing sections called 'by Electric Telegraph'. Until the 1870s, overseas news was telegraphed from Adelaide. This was because Adelaide was the first port with a telegraph connection to the eastern states. This gave Adelaide a special advantage.

Charles Todd said:

For businesses, the telegraph brought new wealth. City and country telegraph offices became centers of trade. Orders were placed, banking was done, and market information was shared.

An important job of the telegraph system was to keep the nation's time. Time signals were sent to all telegraph stations in each colony every day at one o'clock. Weather reports were also sent back to the state capitals.

Science also benefited. In 1868, Todd used the telegraph to figure out longitude. He worked with government astronomers in NSW and Victoria. They linked their observatories with a temporary direct telegraph line. They observed stars and recorded them in Melbourne using the telegraph from Sydney. With more observations, Todd could set the exact border between South Australia and Victoria. By the end of the century, Australia was one of the biggest users of the telegraph.

Telegraph's Peak and Decline After Federation

After the Federation of Australia in 1901, the Postmaster-General's Department was created. Telegraph equipment got better and better. In 1905, new equipment on the Adelaide and Perth routes made sending messages faster. By 1922, the Murray Multiplex System allowed one line to send eight messages at once.

Telegram use kept growing. It reached its highest point in 1945, with 35 million messages sent each year. After that, the telephone became more popular. Telephones were cheaper and their service improved. Also, from 1954, teleprinters handled more and more messages. In 1959, an automated system (TRESS) made teleprinters even better. It allowed messages to be sent automatically to their final destination without a human operator.

The last telegraph message sent only by land line was to Wyndham and Halls Creek in mid-1963. The final message using a land line for any part of its journey was sent in 1964. By 1975, telegram use had dropped by half from its 1945 level. The last Morse Code message on the eastern coast was sent between Bombala and Sydney in early 1963. In 1993, Australia Post stopped its "letter-gram" service. These were messages typed like telegrams but delivered by post.

Images for kids

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  Alice Springs Telegraph Station

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  Planting the first pole on the Overland Telegraph line to Carpentaria

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  World map of telegraph density

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  World map of telegraph density