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Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve - OTL Site
| Source: |
Go to the Register of the National Estate for more information. |
| Identifier: |
165 |
| Location: |
Arunga Park Rd, Alice Springs |
Local
Government: |
Alice Springs Municipality |
| State: |
NT |
| Country: |
Australia |
Statement of
Significance: |
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station National Park is significant to the Eastern Arrernte people as part of their tradition. The reserve contains ceremonial grounds and places significant to women (eg. Werlatyetherre).
In addition, there are significant waterholes, and natural features where, during the creation time, ancestral beings left their essence and mark.
These sites may also be significant to neighbouring Aboriginal communities when their associated story is part of a longer journey by an ancestral being (Criterion G1).
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is significant as part of a series of places associated with the construction and operation of the Adelaide to Darwin Overland Telegraph Line (OTL).
The completion of the OTL in 1872 between Adelaide and Port Darwin was one of Australia's most outstanding engineering achievements of the nineteenth century.
The Line was built over a period of one year and eleven months, stretching more than 3,000 kilometres through harsh country that the colonists knew very little about.
It provided direct and rapid communication between Australia and the rest of the world, ending the strong sense of isolation experienced by the settlers.
The building and operation of the Line represents a major milestone in Australia's history and was also significant in the development of the Northern Territory, having stimulated further expansion, gold mining and the coming of pastoralists to the region. The Line is significant for its association with Charles Todd a renowned astronomer, meteorologist and electrical engineer.
Todd played a large part in connecting Australia by telegraph and was responsible for the planning and completion of the OTL between Adelaide and Port Darwin and its connection with Britain.
Todd was knighted for his services in 1893.
(Criteria A.4, F.1 and H.1)
(Themes: 3.3 Surveying the continent, 3.7 Establishing communications, 3.14 Developing an Australian engineering and construction industry, 3.16 Struggling with remoteness, hardship and failure)
The OTL is important for its association with Stuart's 1862 successful crossing of the continent from south to north - the first successful crossing of the continent by Europeans. Information from Stuart's expedition made the OTL possible by proving that the continent could be crossed and providing important information on the location of water.
The OTL followed the route of Stuart's final expedition almost exactly.
(Criterion A.4) (Themes: 3.3 Surveying the continent)
The OTL is embedded in our sense of Australian history and is valued by Australians at large as a symbol of the developing nation and the hardships faced by colonial Australians.
The Line has been the subject of numerous studies and its route and elements along it are popular tourist destinations.
(Criterion G.1)
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is one of eleven repeater stations built along the Line to service faults and boost the feeble Morse Code signals.
The Station was an important factor in encouraging the settlement of Central Australia, and itself was the centre of local settlement until overtaken by the town of Stuart around 1930. The Station also has an association with wartime requirements in northern and central Australia during the Second World War. (Criterion A.4)
(Themes: 2.5 Promoting settlement, 3.7 Establishing communications, 7.7.1 Going to war)
The station played a significant role in black-white relations in the Northern Territory, being used for around three decades as a children's home and school for Aboriginals of 'mixed race' removed from their communities.
Known as 'The Bungalow', the institution reflected government policy of the time which was oriented toward assimilating 'mixed race' Aboriginal children. It also is of considerable significance to Aboriginal people who lived or went to school at the station and is particularly associated with Dr Kumantjayi Perkins - sportsman, public servant and Aboriginal activist - who was there as a child. (Criteria G1, H1) (6.6 Educating Indigenous people in two cultures, 7.6.7 Enforcing discriminatory legislation, 7.6.8 Administering Indigenous affairs)
The place is also associated with Frank Gillen who was station-master, magistrate and Aboriginal Sub-Protector from 1892 to 1899.
Gillen was a noted ethnologist, and collaborated with Sir Baldwin Spencer on several publications and in fieldwork.
He donated important ethnographic collections to major museums in South Australia and Victoria. (Criterion H.1)
As one of the four surviving former Overland Telegraph Stations, and one of the former principal stations, Alice Springs is important both for rarity value and as an example of this type of communications installation.
The surviving buildings, their layout and the other structures present convey many of the principal characteristics of these stations.
(Criteria B.2 and D.2)
Alice Springs Telegraph Station has important aesthetic values.
The collection of buildings and other structures forms a group notable for its commonality of stone walling and iron pitched roofing, and for a shared scale and massing. Located beside the Todd River and the original waterhole known as Alice Spring, the Station sits within a relatively undisturbed setting. The place is a significant cultural landscape.
(Criterion E.1) |
| Description: |
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station lies within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station National Park.
The Station was built close to a number of Aboriginal sacred sites and ceremonial grounds.
It was one of the principal repeater stations on the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) and is one of the four surviving repeater stations.
It contains a large collection of buildings, structures and sites relating to six decades of use as a remote telegraph station and three decades as an institution for Aboriginal children of 'mixed race' who were removed from their communities.
CONTEXTUAL HISTORY
The South Australian Government entered into a contract with the British Australian Telegraph Company on 18 June 1870 to build a single-wire telegraph line 3200 kilometres long from Adelaide to Darwin for 120,000 pounds.
It was to join with a submarine cable from Java and integrate with the world telegraph service and was to be ready for operation by 1 January 1872, within a period of 18 months. South Australia won the contract over other proposals to build the line through Queensland and Western Australia.
To Australians the project was the means of obtaining quick communication with Britain.
To the Government of South Australia it was a highly significant business deal and a political triumph.
It meant that all Australian overseas telegraph traffic would pass through South Australia, increasing revenue accordingly.
The endeavour would involve penetrating harsh country of which the colonists knew very little beyond Lake Eyre. Knowledge of the country was limited to that provided by reports of John McDouall Stuart who, eight years earlier, had shown that it was possible to cross the country south to north.
In fact the OTL was built largely along the route of Stuart's arduous but successful crossing of 1861-62.
The enterprise was considered heroic, likened to the exploits of the great explorers, and hence there was no shortage of interest in joining the construction party.
The main drive behind the project was Charles Todd, Postmaster-General, Superintendent of Telegraphs and Government Astronomer of SA.
He was responsible for planning and organising the project through to its completion.
Todd divided the construction into three sections.
The southern and northern sections were to be built by private contractors.
The central section, which was assumed to be the most difficult, was to be done by government teams. The Alice Spings Telegraph Station is located in the central section.
Within weeks of the signing of the contract, a massive movement of men, materials and animals left Adelaide.
Working parties included engineers, surveyors, explorers, adventurers and labourers, a doctor and cooks.
The southern section, from Port Augusta (already linked telegraphically with Adelaide) to the Macumba River, near Oodnadatta, a distance of 816 km, was contracted to Edward M.Bagot.
It was completed without mishap in the specified time.
The central section was planned to extend north as far as Tennant Creek.
The country in this section was virtually unknown to non-Aboriginal people, so explorer John Ross was sent ahead on 8 July 1870 with a team of surveyors to select the best route.
The central section was divided into five parts A, B, C, D and E.
Each party consisted of 20 men.
Party A, led by Richard Knuckey had 1280 km to travel before starting work.
Party E, led by William Harvey, had 2100 km, a journey which took months.
Each party had comprehensive instructions which covered such matters as work organisation, working procedures, rationing, stores accounting, water conservation and care of animals.
Todd himself went up as far as The Peake to confer with Ross and make arrangements with the party leaders before they began the trek north.
As part of the provisions, drover Harley Bacon took 2000 sheep to a base depot on the Finke.
The line was open through to Tennant Creek, 1810 km north of Port Augusta, in December 1871.
Once the exact route of the line was determined a path 10m wide was cleared.
A small group of men would clear the route about 15 km ahead of the main working party. As it was cleared, the overseer would put in pegs to mark the approximate position of each pole.
The poles were about seven metres long, 25 cm in diameter at the base and 15 cm at the top, and perfectly sound throughout.
The bark was removed and the pole charred over the bottom two metres.
The top of each pole was bound with an iron band and a twelve cm hole bored vertically down from the centre of the top of the pole to take the insulator pin, which was then driven in and firmly fixed.
The poles were planted 80m apart, 12 to a kilometre, and this meant they needed a good supply of suitable timber.
A party of men would cut and prepare the poles and take them up the route, dropping one at each peg, while another team would be digging the holes.
These were square with vertical sides 1.2m deep.
Rock had to be cut out by hand.
With the insulator fixed, the pole could now be lifted into position and placed in the hole.
The ground was then well rammed and the pole was self-supporting. Another team would then string the wire across the insulators on the tops of the poles and it would be strained so as to leave a deflection of one metre over every 120 metres of length.
As they came to the end of the coil of wire the next was joined to it with a Britannia joint, made by overlapping the ends of the wire and binding them tightly with a length of thinner wire which was then covered with solder. A length of line wire was stapled to every second pole as a lightning conductor. As the sections joined up, telegraph operators would move up behind the construction parties to test the line.
Construction of the 960km northern section (Darwin to Tennant Creek) did not go as smoothly as the southern and central sections.
The contract was let to two men, Joseph Darwent and William Dalwood.
The first 142km was completed without mishap in 54 days. Then came the wet season.
Dry creeks flooded, tracks became bogs, animals drowned and food went bad.
Work continued however and by the end of January 1871 the party reached Katherine River having erected 323 km of poles in four months.
From there conditions worsened and some of the men refused to work. The government overseer was dissatisfied with progress and cancelled the contract. Work stopped completely at the King River.
When news reached Adelaide there was great consternation and a new government expedition was hastily organised with Robert Patterson, an engineer, in command.
Todd had also instructed the central sections to go further north, and to continue poling until they made contact with Patterson's parties.
Accordingly, more supplies had to be sent 1810 km inland.
Patterson's party didn't arrive at King River until August.
His party also had its share of problems with many animals being sick and unable to make the journey to King River.
A ship carrying supplies for the party, which was to be taken around to the Roper River, was grounded on a reef on the way.
By the time Patterson's party was ready to start it was almost time for the next wet season.
With the onset of the wet season conditions were appalling and work ceased again in the northern section.
Patterson was in a desperate position. His men were sick, many of the animals were lost in the flood and food was in short supply.
On the day the contract expired, there were still 630 km to be completed.
The party waited at the supply depot on the Roper River (RNE 18794). In early January 1872 Todd took fresh horses and supplies to the mouth of the Roper where he asked the captain of the ship 'Omeo' to take her up the river to the supply depot landing.
When the captain objected, Todd pledged the government to full indemnity in case of damage.
Work did not get underway again until April but then made good progress.
The cable company had been pressing for compensation for failure to meet the contract date when on 24 June a lucky break came for the South Australian Government.
The cable between Darwin and Java broke down and no more was heard about compensation.
It was repaired on 21 October.
The two ends met near Frew's Ponds on 22 August 1872.
'In about five minutes I had the joint complete', Patterson said, 'and Adelaide was in communication with Darwin.
It would have been with England had the cable not broken down.
We drank success to the overland telegraph and fired off twenty-one rounds from our revolvers, and immediately adjourned to Frew's Ponds'.
Todd stayed north for two months after work resumed at King River and on 22 June started his overland journey to Adelaide.
He had reached Central Mount Stuart by 22 August when he received news of the two ends meeting as well as messages of congratulation from all over Australia.
There he camped for the night and celebrated with his companions.
'I may with confidence assert that no line passing through a similar extent of uninhabited country, where the materials had to be carted over such long distances, no line of equal length and presenting similar natural obstacles has been constructed in the same short space of time'.
Todd arrived back in Adelaide on 30 October.
With news of the two lines meeting, Adelaide celebrated with peals of bells.
They celebrated again on 15 November with a public holiday and a banquet for members of the construction parties.
With completion of the line South Australia's prestige soared.
Todd received the CMG and Henry Ayers, who happened to be SA Premier at the time, was knighted.
The cost of the line, including eleven repeater stations, was $479,175, double the original estimate.
A total of 36,000 poles were cut, hauled over many kilometres and erected.
Six men died during construction of the OTL, which was few considering the numbers engaged, the demanding physical work, the heat and the storms and floods in the north.
Those who died were C.W.I.Kraegen, a telegraph operator who died of thirst between Charlotte Waters and Alice Springs; C.Palmer, who died of illness near Central Mount Stuart; Jeremy Harcus, who was lost while looking for horses in the north; and three others in the north: Daniel Kavenagh, Thomas Hawkins and Edward Powell, who died from sickness or drowning.
Eleven repeater stations were erected along the line to service faults and boost feeble Morse code signals.
They included, in order south from Darwin, Yam Creek, Katherine, Daly Waters, Powell Creek (RNE 14934), Tennant Creek (RNE 103291 and 13878), Barrow Creek (RNE 151), Alice Springs (this record), Charlotte Waters (RNE 16394), The Peake (RNE 5962), Strangways Springs (RNE 5967) and Beltana (RNE 5992).
They were each staffed by a stationmaster, up to four operators and a linesman to repair line faults.
Moves were made to upgrade the OTL even before it was opened.
The line was to be re-poled with iron because of the damage caused by termites, giving priority to those areas where wooden poles were most vulnerable.
By the end of 1883 most of the timber had been replaced.
Another overseas route through Broome, Western Australia, came in 1889, and another telegraph line was built down Cape York in Queensland.
Eighteen months after the new Commonwealth Government took over the OTL on 1 March 1901, the trans-Pacific cable from Canada reached the eastern states and use of the OTL declined.
The building and operation of the line was of great significance in the development of the Northern Territory, stimulating exploration, gold mining and the coming of pastoralists to the region.
The route of the line followed that of Stuart's crossing of the continent in 1861-62 almost exactly and in many respects earlier Aboriginal routes and tracks.
It became the new road north, inspiring the alignment of the Great Northern Railway (1880s) and the Stuart Highway (1940s).
The location of groundwater, as identified by Stuart and earlier explorers, largely determined the route of the OTL as well as later routes for the railway and highway.
The route went north from Adelaide up the west of the Flinders Ranges and then followed the Mound Springs.
In the Northern Territory it followed the chain of rivers, creeks and waterholes which had taken Stuart to the north coast.
Water was important not only in supporting construction teams along the route but also in the construction work itself.
It is not surprising then that the repeater stations, which were built on permanent water sources, were in close proximity to Aboriginal camps, which were probably also sited because of their proximity to water.
The achievement of the OTL has been recognised by the Institution of Engineers Australia through their 'Historic Engineering Marker' program.
Plaques commemorating the line have been presented to Australia Post in Adelaide, Darwin and Alice Springs.
ALICE SPRINGS TELEGRAPH STATION
HISTORY
The telegraph station at 'Alice Spring' was built on a site discovered by William Whitfield Mills and was in operation by August 1872.
A garden and stockyard containing sheep, and later cattle, sustained the staff of the station and there were additional supplies which came by camel train from the rail head at Oodnadatta.
The need for a plentiful supply of horses for line maintenance necessitated their concentration at the telegraph station.
A significant figure at the station was Frank Gillen (1855-1912).
Gillen had earlier served at Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station for 12 years before coming to Alice Springs Telegraph Station in 1892 as post and telegraph station master. He was also special magistrate and Aboriginal sub-protector and as such charged mounted Constable W.H.Willshire with murder of Aborigines in a significant case. Gillen, an ethnologist of note, assisted the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia in 1894 and met anthropologist (Sir) Baldwin Spencer.
They collaboratively wrote 'The native tribes of Central Australia' (1899) which was an influential work.
They continued with field work and published other material together, and Gillen made other contributions to the science, including donations of ethnographic material to the major museums in SA and Victoria.
He moved from the station to Moonta in 1899.
Upon establishment the station became a focus for subsequent settlement in the region.
The station, located next to vital water supplies, was the local centre and remained so until the nearby town of Stuart finally usurped it in the 1920s.
Post and telegraph functions were transferred to the new post office in Stuart in 1932, and the town became known as Alice Springs.
In 1914, following the death of her husband, an Aboriginal woman, Topsy Smith, arrived in Alice Springs with her seven mixed descent children. The local Protector obtained approval for the erection of an iron shed for her and her family on land adjoining the police station.
This building came to be known as `The Bungalow'. With the introduction of the policy of 'assimilation' Government agents actively sought light-skinned children so they could be placed in institutions where they could be acculturated.
The children removed from Aboriginal camps near Alice Springs were placed at The Bungalow. Their Aboriginal relatives were prohibited from entering the grounds of the Station.
The conditions at The Bungalow reached crisis point in 1928 so 45 children (most under the age of 12) were moved to a temporary 'home' at Jay Creek, 47 kilometres west of Alice Springs. Due to water shortages and poor conditions at Jay Creek the children were moved to Alice Springs Telegraph Station in 1932.
By 1935 there were 130 Aboriginal children at the station and facilities were expanded.
The original Telegraph Station building, Men's Hut and Telegraph Office No.3 were in use as school rooms, and Building 31 (now gone) was added.
The whole school/home took on the name of the previous homes, The Bungalow.
Mr. G. K. and Mrs Daisy Freeman were hired as the superintendent and matron for the Station.
In March 1934, Mr. Freeman was accused and found guilty of sexually assaulting a number of girls at the Bungalow, and he was goaled for 3 months and fined.
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, the children were moved to Adelaide and the former telegraph station was used for wartime purposes.
Evacuees from Darwin were accommodated, as were Aboriginal labourers working for the army. After the war, the place reverted to use by the Department of Native Affairs which continued the pre-war activities. This usage continued until 1963 when the station became an historic reserve. Since that time various repairs and conservation works have been carried out, and today the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve receives 75,000 visitors annually.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The station consists of a number of existing buildings and structures and a number of sites of places which have now gone (not all these places were erected at the same time).
The setting has remained largely undisturbed since the station was established in 1872.
The surviving buildings and structures are as follows.
The Original Telegraph Station has stone walls, a chimney, hipped roof, verandahs, a flagged courtyard and is of several rooms.
A section of telegraph line survives, running to the Telegraph Office No.3 which has stone walls, verandahs, a hipped iron roof and two chimneys.
The Original Store has stone walls, a skillion roof and was rebuilt some time after 1924.
The Blacksmiths Shop has whitewashed stone walls, a part gabled and part hipped roof which is clad with iron, a stone-flagged floor, and a yard.
Telegraph Office No.2 is stone, has a chimney, an iron-clad hipped roof framed with adzed saplings, a verandah with flagged floor, and no eaves.
The Observatory had stone walls but these have been demolished, and there is also a reconstructed evaporation pan.
The Mens Hut, later used as a battery room, has a hipped iron roof, stone walls plastered internally and there is a yard adjacent.
The Stationmaster's Residence has stone walls (plastered internally), a hipped iron roof, and reconstructed verandahs.
There is a circular stone stand and tank, and two stone tankstands on a small hill nearby. Reconstructed stockyards are on the western edge of the complex, and there is a reconstructed sheepyard to the north-west.
About 600 metres to the north-west of the main complex there is a cemetery consisting of two enclosures which contain several marked and unmarked graves.
Buildings and other structures which have now gone include: the Police House, various sheds, various yards, a bathhouse, Allchurch's thatched house, a rectangular stone hut, Building 31, a cellar, and a high tank on a steel stand.
The station is located adjacent to the Todd River.
The undisturbed setting adds to the place's sense of history and its authenticity.
The undisturbed waterhole (the original 'Spring' named after Charles Todd's wife) and riverbanks, together with the view from Trig Hill, are natural features which contribute to these aesthetic values. Also contributing are the vegetation, including trees and shrubs, and the grape vines on the southern verandah of the Stationmaster's Residence.
The place is an important cultural landscape. |
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