ADELAIDE, SA. — The Overland Telegraph Line was a major feat of engineering that connected Australia to the rest of the world via a single wire. The motivation for building the Overland Telegraph Line came from the fact that a submarine cable already reached from England to Java, and the British-Australian Telegraph Company was prepared to lay a submarine cable from Java to Darwin.
Only connecting Darwin to the rest of Australia remained.
The line was to connect first with Adelaide, as Adelaide was the closest point linking to the major centres of Melbourne and Sydney. Thanks to the influence of Charles Todd, superintendent of telegraphs and government astronomer in South Australia, the South Australian government agreed to build the necessary 3200-kilometre overland telegraph line connecting Darwin with Port Augusta, north of Adelaide.
The line closely followed the route charted by explorer John McDouall Stuart on his final expedition in 1862. Scottish bushman John Ross marked out the trail prior to the construction of the line.
36,000 wooden poles were cut and transported, mainly from Wirrabara Forest (formerly Whites Forest) on the eastern slopes and foothills of the southern Flinders Ranges.
Due to the placement of the Overland Telegraph Line with its culminating receiver station in Adelaide, Adelaide was in the incredibly fortunate position of being the Australian city where the world’s news – the wire reports – from London (Reuters), France (Agence France Press) and the United States (Associated Press) were first received.
Begun on September 15, 1870, the Overland Telegraph Line was completed on August 22, 1872, when the northern and southern sections were joined. This meant that, instead of letters taking up to three months to travel from Australia to England, messages could be conveyed by telegraph in seven hours.
The first telegraph messages from overseas were received in Morse code as flags were flown and bells rang. It was a congratulatory telegraph to the Mayor of Adelaide (A.H.F. Bartels) from the Lord Mayor of London, received just seven hours after it had been sent, in the GPO building in Adelaide on October 22, 1972.
