State Library of South Australia

Drawings of the Overland Telegraph [B 72117/5] • Artwork

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Summary

Alice Springs Station

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Physical description

Artwork (pencil on paper); 7.9 cm x 13.6 cm (image), 14.4 cm x 21.6 cm (paper)

Dates / Publication details

1875

Artist

Fisher, William

Subject

Overland Telegraph Line (N.T. and S.A.)

Catalogue record

Return to catalogue

Historical information

William Fisher was a nephew of South Australian commissioner Sir James Hurtle Fisher. William emigrated to South Australia alone in his late teens or early twenties, i.e. in the late 1850s. In 1861 he was manager of the branch of the National Bank of Australasia opened at Kadina. In 1862 he married Anne/Annie Isabel Edmonds (1842-1877) of Kadina. They left the town in 1865 when William declared insolvency. There were also allegations of misuse of bank funds (Adelaide Observer, 30 June 1866). William and his family went to Strathalbyn, where he entered into partnership with Joseph Elliott as printers and publishers, including the newspaper Southern Argus. The partnership was dissolved in 1872. William went alone to the Northern Territory to work for the Overland Telegraph Department. He brought his wife Anne/Annie Isabel, nee Edmonds (1842-1877) and their daughters Elizabeth Susan (1863-1901) and Gertrude Annie (1864-1926) to Palmerston (Darwin) for some years in the mid 1870s. His wife died at Palmerston aged 34 the following year. His daughters remained with him as he was transferred to Territory telegraph stations including Daly Waters and Alice Springs. By 1882 William Fisher was living with his family at Overland Corner, South Australia where he was the Telegraph Station Master. He retired to Adelaide in 1896 where he died in 1910. His oldest daughter Elizabeth married Archibald Maxwell Jaffrey (1848-1930) in 1885. William's younger daughter Gertrude married John Ellis Clayton Morris of Geraldton, Western Australia in 1896.

Digitisation information

Date

20/09/2016

Format

image/tiff

Resolution

5,200 x 3,450 pixels (17.9 MP)

Size

53.84 MB

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