Until the appearance of the Overland Telegraph Line, the only and quickest way of sending a message from Australia was via a steamship. Given the colony's isolated position from the rest of the world and Britain, this obviously meant that you weren't in much luck if you had to get a message across to the other side of the world in a hurry.

These things we take for granted today with our telephones, faxes and the telecommunications Superhighway, all of which enable us to get in touch with somebody within a matter of seconds.

It was decided to try and do something to improve communications and in 1870, the British-Australia Telegraph Company started what was a mammoth task in those days. They signed an agreement with South Australia which was to involve the completion of a telegraph line.

The company agreed to undertake the construction of a submarine cable from Port Darwin to Java, and for their end of the bargain, the South Australians were to construct an overland line from Port Augusta in South Australia to Darwin, or as it was then known, Port Darwin.

This would revolutionise communications from the colony to Britain. The South Australian Government would be able to charge a fee to send messages and they hoped that it would be the start of settlement in the Territory and its development into a very worthwhile venture.

It was decided that the route the line would follow was that taken by the explorer, John McDouall Stuart who had set out and travelled northwards in about 1860. It was a very long stretch of untamed and harsh land that had to be dealt with, covering a distance of some 3000 kilometres in total.

A man called Charles Todd was placed in charge of the operation. He was at the time the Postmaster General of South Australia. The tedious task of constructing the line began in 1870. To think of the logistics of such an operation today is mind boggling, so you can imagine exactly how much more mind boggling it was in 1870 Australia.

It took two years to complete the job with the installation of over 36,000 poles and 60,000 insulators to carry the crucial copper wire that was to open up Australia to the rest of the world. In total, eleven repeater stations were constructed. They were necessary because the batteries which were utilised to send the electrical current could only work over a distance of about 300 kilometres. After this distance they were ineffectual and therefore unable to pass the message.

The various stations were then issued with operators and linesmen to operate them and everything was in business. These men and their families lived in the most isolated spots, ensuring that the service was maintained. Morse code was used in the form of short and long electrical pulses which the operators tapped out. A buzzer reproduced these messages to the operator further along the line, who then translated the various buzzes into comprehensible English before passing the message on to the next repeater station.

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