Australian telegraphic history

Australia was a relatively early adopter of telegraph technology in the middle nineteenth century, despite its low population densities and the difficult conditions sometimes encountered in laying lines. From 1858 onwards, the major capitals were progressively linked, culminating in the addition of Perth in 1877. Australia was linked to the rest of the world for the first time in 1872, through the Overland Telegraph which ran some 3200 km from Adelaide through to Darwin. The network continued to expand in size and sophistication until 1959 and in heavy usage until 1945, after which time telephone usage began to erode public patronage of telegraphy services. The final publicly provided telegraphy service was closed in 1993.

A telegraph is a device for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances, i.e., for telegraphy. An electrical telegraph uses electric current and magnetism to convert the manual typing of codes that represent words, into electrical impulses. These impulses are transmitted over a metallic circuit (overhead wires or underground cables) to a distant location. At the distant location the impulses are converted into magnetic fields that operate a mechanical device to make a sound or to move a visual indicator. The operator at the receiving end converts these sounds or signals into a written message. The code system used throughout Australia was the Morse code.

Australia's first telegraph line, sponsored by the Victorian Government, was erected between Melbourne and Williamstown in 1853 and 1854 by Samuel McGowan, a recently immigrated Canadian telegrapher. The line covered a distance of 17 kilometres (11 mi) and went into operation in March 1854, less than 10 years after the opening of the first public telegraph line (1 May 1844) in the world (linking Baltimore and Washington DC). 4000 telegrams were despatched in the first year (1854). When the line was extended to Geelong in December 1854, the first message transmitted to Melbourne brought news of the Eureka Stockade. Connections to Queenscliff and Port Melbourne (January and July 1855) provided notice of ships entering the harbour and arriving at port. Connections to the gold-mining centres of Ballarat and Bendigo were both completed in December 1856. By 1857 Victoria had been extensively networked by telegraph lines, including a line reaching to Portland, near the South Australian state border. By 1867 there were 1,676 miles (2,697 km) of line within Victoria, handling 122,138 messages.

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