telegraph • Find • State Library of South Australia

Telegraph Station, Eucla

1907, Photograph, B 49181

EUCLA: Three telegraph staff playing billiards at the Station; four shaded kerosene lamps are suspended over the table and three men play a game.

Peake Telegraph Station off the Oodnadatta Track in South Australia. The Overland Telegraph Line was opened between 1870-72 to open up communication between Port Augusta and Darwin. The owner of Peake Station was Ernest Courteney Kempe.

Peake Telegraph Station

c. 1880, Photograph, B 11363

Peake Telegraph Station was completed in 1872 as one of 12 repeater stations established between Adelaide and Darwin. Peake stands just south of Oodnadatta. It is estimated that 36,000 poles and 3,200 kilometres of wire were used in the making of the communication network. This photograph from the 1880's of Peake shows the blacksmith workshop, the Telegraph Station, Bagot's Station and Mount Kingston Range in the background

Peake Telegraph Station

1872, Photograph, B 11364

Peake Telegraph Station was completed in 1872 as one of 12 repeater stations established between Adelaide and Darwin. Peake stands just south of Oodnadatta. It is estimated that 36,000 poles and 3,200 kilometres of wire were used in the making of the communication network. This photograph shows groups of people standing in front of the Telegraph Station.

Telegraph Station, Pine Creek

c. 1879, Photograph, B 5791

[General description] The Pine Creek Hotel, photographed from a distance, has a lamp outside to welcome the traveller. A bearded bushman and his horse stand in the shade of its ramshackle verandah whose iron sheets are kept in place by wooden rails. Next door are the buildings of the Telegraph Station. [On back of photograph] 'Telegraph Station and Standard Hotel / Pine Creek / Northern territory'. Photographer was possibly Paul Foelsche.

Alice Springs Telegraph Station

Fisher, W., c. 1879, Artwork, B 5080

[General description] Photograph of pencil sketch on paper of a landscape including the Alice Springs Telegraph Station. Artwork signed and dated (Jan. / 79) by the artist, bottom left. [On back of photograph] 'Alice Springs Telegraph Station / 1879'.

Overland Telegraph Station Barrow Creek

c. 1879, Artwork, B 6016

Panorama of the Overland Telegraph Station at Barrow Creek, sketched in pencil, including details of two buildings, telegraph poles, a camel in the foreground and large escarpments in the background. Barrow Creek is situated about half way between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

Telegraph station, Southport

Foelsche, P., c. 1878, Photograph, B 5046

[General description] The telegraph station is a simple wooden building with a corrugated iron roof and wide verandah standing next to a clump of banana palms. A group of Aboriginal people is sitting in a circle in the foreground. [On back of photograph] 'Telegraph station / Southport / Northern Territory / June 1878'.

Telegraph Station, Southport

Foelsche, P., 1879, Photograph, B 5782

[General description] The telegraph station is a single storey building constructed from corrugated iron. Employees and family members pose on the verandah for the photographer. [On back of photograph] 'Telegraph Station / Southport, Northern Territory / In the eighteen seventies'.

Overland Telegraph Party

Adelaide Photographic Co., c. 1872, Photograph, B 10451

Overland Telegraph Party Leaders. Published in "The Overland Telegraph Line", J.B. Richards, 1914. The names of the expeditioners have been written on to the photograph. They include: William McMinn, Richard Randall Knuckey, AG Woods, WW Mills, RA Horn, Bromley, C Musgrave, T Naish.

Overland Telegraph Line rammer

c. 1870, Photograph, B 63448

A rammer used by Miss Douglas at the ceremony held for planting of the first pole of the Overland Telegraph Line at Port Darwin, September 15, 1870.

Views of the Telegraph Station and local residents of Yardea

c. 1902, Photograph, B 54058

ALBUM: Personal collection of twenty views of Yardea, the Telegraph Station, local residents.

Eucla Telegraph Station

Evans, W. R., 1905, Photograph, B 54060/12

EUCLA: The Operating Room and staff at the Telegraph Station.

Message statistics at the Eucla Telegraph Station

Evans, W. R., 1905, Photograph, B 54060/13

An employee at the Eucla Telegraph Station seated at a table on which two large stacks of messages have been placed; a sign indicating the volume of traffice passing through the station is propped up in front of the piles. The man is probably Albert Lionel Clayer - see below.

South Australian Telegraph staff with three Aboriginal people

Evans, W. R., 1905, Photograph, B 54060/64

EUCLA: South Australian Telegraph Staff with A. Dawkins as Postmaster; the three Aboriginal people in the front row are "Geelong", "Yalby" and "Yargo".

Barrow Creek Telegraph Station buildings

Bray, Theodor, 1927, Photograph, B 64383/128

The telegraph station buildings at Barrow Creek, built about 1872, 180 miles north of Alice Springs. According to a researcher, the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station was built by 13 October 1872, when Charles Todd inspected the substantial stone building including 700 yards of stone work. Mr R.C. Watson was the Stationmaster. Mr Todd spoke highly of the work and gave great praise to the mason. He formally opened the new office on the 16th. The men at the station signed an address to Todd. They were R.C. Watson, Ernest E.S. Flint, T.F. Smith, R.S. Brown, I.C. Guster, J. Forster, S. Jarvis, William Prowse, Thomas Badge, George Chalmers and T. Maddock. [More see Adelaide Observer 19 October 1872 page 4].

Charles Todd and the Overland Telegraph team

c. 1872, Photograph, B 69996/15

A note on the back of the photograph reads 'Members of the Overland Telegraph Party at Roper River, 1872. Left to right: J.A.G. Little, R.C. Patterson, Charles Todd and A.J. Mitchell. Todd (later Sir Charles Todd) was one of the great men of South Australian history. The telegraph lines which he built linked Adelaide with Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Darwin (and hence by cable with the rest of the world). Todd was the first man to pioneer the centre after Stuart's first crossing to Darwin. Alice Springs (on the Todd River) was named after his wife. This photograph, taken by Captain Sweet, is a brilliant example of early photography in Australia and is reproduced by courtesy of the South Australian Archives'.

Telegraph workers procession in Adelaide, South Australia

c. 1918, Photograph, PRG 280/1/11/174

Horse drawn carts carrying telegraph poles, cables and other equipment with staff from the Telegraph Department of South Australia staging a procession to advertise their role; the horses are decorated with insulators on the harnesses.

Telegraph staff at work

1902, Photograph, PRG 280/1/1/44

Telegraph staff at work in the operation room, Telegraph Office, King William Street.

Plan shewing the Adelaide and Port Darwin telegraph line [cartographic material] / drawn by J. Brooks, F.C. Ward and W. M. Hardy

South Australia. Surveyor-General's Office, 1872, Archival map/chart, C 1090

Map of the Northern Territory and northern South Australia showing the Overland Telegraph Line route, with sections marked A-E and contract sections. Shows the area from Port Augusta to Palmerston. Details include named natural features (mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, creeks, springs), railway lines and stations.

Overland Telegraph camp, Fort Hill

Telecom Australia, c. 1870, Photograph, B 78436

'Overland Telegraph Camp, Fort Hill, Port Darwin. 1870-72'. Written on reverse: Telecom Australia, Neg. No 213.

Survey Party camp, Overland Telegraph Line

Telecom Australia, 1891, Photograph, B 78438

Lord Kintore's Survey party near Alice Springs, showing workers resting next to a wagon. Mounted Constables Harry Chance and Charles Brookes on the left, and two Aboriginal Troopers at right. The buggy is Lord Kintore's. The expedition travelled along the Overland Telegraph Line in 1891. Written on reverse: Telecom, 28.