The site was chosen because it was near the top of MacDonnell Ranges. There were fine running permanent springs for nearly one and a half miles in length.

Distance: 1,036 miles from Adelaide of the 1,973 miles of line.

Alice Springs Telegraph Station about 1880.
Part of the Macdonnell Ranges can be seen in the background.

The Telegraph Operator at Alice Springs sending a message in morse code along the line to the next repeater station about 1924-25.

Strips of paper can be seen in the waste bin under the table. These would have recorded messages received like those shown elsewhere on wheatstone forms and overseas delivery forms.

Provenance: Gundersen.

Cover sent from Alice Springs to Southwark, Adelaide on 4 January 1881.

Has two partial strikes of an Alice Springs date stamp on the front - one cancelling a 2d De La Rue sideface with inperforate left margin.

Reverse side of the above cover with a "walk down the line". Date stamps for:

• Peake on 13 January;
• Beltana on 23 January;
• Railway (Port Augusta??) on 25 January;
• Thebarton on 27 January.

An amazing collection from the OTL - probably a unique cover and very rare.

Prestige Philately September 2011 Lot 464.

The Telegraph Office was opened on 24 August 1872. On 18 December 1914, the Office was upgraded to a Post & Telegraph Office.

The building was a substantial stone structure of eight or nine rooms and roofed with galvanized iron. The stone work was estimated to be 700 yards in length - and it was erected by one man!! Todd visited the Station about the middle of 1872.

The site was chosen because it was immediately north of Forster Range. There was surface water there, which could be regarded as permanent, but in the event of it failing, water was obtainable by sinking at a depth of 10 or 12 feet.

A major incident at Barrow Creek was the 1874 attack by aboriginies which killed two station staff.

Distance from Adelaide: 1,207 miles or 1,973 kms.

Barrow Creek Telegraph Office about 1927.

Only one example of the use of this date stamp is recorded during the Telegraph Office period to 1914.

Rated: RRRR.

The South Australian Register of 24 February 1874 describes a bit of history involving Barrow Creek:

Mr. R. C. Watson, the former Telegraph Master at Barrow's Creek, on the Adelaide to London line, has sent to the Melbourne Argus the following clear contradiction to a crucial part of Andrew Hume's apocryphal story:

Some time towards the end of the year 1872, Hume arrived at Barrow's Creek Telegraph Station, on the Overland line. He had come from Tennant's Creek, a station some 145 miles further north (i.e., nearer Port Darwin), and then stated to me that he had seen a large number of horses and cattle straying on and near Powell Creek and Newcastle Waters. As in duty bound, I communicated by wire with the Superintendent in Adelaide, who directed me to engage Hume and send a man with him to endeavour to recover the stock, all of which belonged to the Government. Hume was engaged and after 88 days absence he returned to Barrow's Creek on April 4, 1873, where he remained until June 8, 1873 and positively never left the station for one single day.

In the extract he is made to say that he left the line near Tennant's Creek, and started westward on January 3, 1873. Travelled for 45 days, when he met (Adolf?) Classan. Remained with him nine days. Returned to Tennant's Creek for foolscap, &c., to enable Classan to write certain things. This return journey occupied 14 days. Went back, and the journey from Tennant's Creek to Classan took him 31 days to do. Waited there 35 days — total 134 days — not to speak of the time he remained at Tennant's Creek when he came for the paper. Thus, according to Hume, he was with Classan on the 134th day after the 3rd January, 1873. I can most satisfactorily corroborate my statement by reference to diary written at the time, by official record in the Telegraph Office, Adelaide, and other means. It will be seen that Hume asserts he was with Classan, and was not, consequently, anywhere else, on the 134th day after the 3rd January, 1873, whereas he was in fact at Barrow's Creek Station for 47 days of the latter part of the said 134 days; and I am as sure as of anything I never saw that he was at Tennant's Creek Station some ten days before he came to me, and that he came directly to Barrow's Creek when he left Tennant's Creek".

The Telegraph Office opened on 2 July 1871 as one of the three repeater stations in the southern section. By then, poling was complete and much of the wire had been fixed. In January 1873, Beltana had only a small iron hut as a temporary accommodation but it was planned to build a station.

Distance: 355 miles of 1,973 miles.

Picture taken during the 1880s.
Source: Court Archivist, State Library of SA, Adelaide.

The site was chosen because there was a chain of beautiful lagoons with fresh water in Duffield Creek which was a tributary of the Finke. Knuckey had discovered these lagoons on 10 January 1871 and named them Charlotte Waters in honour of Lady Charlotte Bacon, the mother of Harley Bacon the storekeeper in Knuckey's Section A of the Central part of the line.

Distance: 804 miles of 1,973 miles.

The Telegraph Office was opened on 11 August 1872. It was a large and substantial log house of six rooms, roofed with galvanized iron. Building stone and lime had not been procurable.

See the staffing at Daly Waters in the document for Elsey below.

Distance: 1,605 miles of 1,973 miles.

Daly Waters Repeater Station in 1890.
Source: National Library of Australia.

Daly Waters NT.
1941
Used on a cover from the Daly Waters Radio Station to Melbourne.

Very rare cover.

Elsey.

The Telegraph Office

In 1920, during a discussion about history, a person raised the question as to whether the Elsey Station spoken of in the book "We of the Never Never" could be classed as being in the Never Never. The answer was NO because, if one so desired, he might have a telegram each day from the Elsey Telegraph Station.

Form number: 50 blks. 100 - 19-9-83.

It would be interesting had the document been dated - G. Dewar had left on 8 July ....

About 50 kms south of Maree.

The Telegraph Office opened on 28 September 1878.

In September 1886, Mr. Todd left Adelaide to inspect the Post and Telegraph Office along the Great Northern Line. He was able to get to Farina but could not go further to Hergott Springs. While at Farine, Todd partly established a meteorological station which was placed under the charge of his representative there.

The Telegraph Office was opened on 22 August 1872. On 1 April 1883, the Post Office opened and was amalgamated with the Telegraph Office.

In 1910, the combined office was reclassified into an Official Office.

A building similar to that at Daly Waters was built at the Katherine. It was a large and substantial log house of six rooms, roofed with galvanized iron.

Distance along the line: 1,771 miles of 1,973 miles.

Palmerston.

The Telegraph Office was opened in March 1869 as the northern end of the possible Overland Telegraph Line. In March 1873, the Palmerston Office was relocated as the Port Darwin Telegraph Office.

The station at the Peake was one of the three repeater stations in the southern part of the line.

The Telegraph Office itself was actually built from stone in January 1871, under Todd's instruction, as a store in which to keep the rations.

On 24 June 1871, tenders were let for the supply of building materials for the Peake Telegraph Station itself - for the cost of £75 1s 11d.

Peake Telegraph Office in 1872.
Source: State Library of South Australia B11364.

It was a substantial stone structure of eight or nine rooms and roofed with galvanized iron. On 1 October, 1871 the bricklayers were still busy completing the Station-master's residence and offices. When those were finished and trees planted round about, it was apparently "a very pleasant-looking place".

In January 1872, Mr. A. Baldock, formerly of Goolwa, was appointed as the Station Master at the Peake — a position rendered vacant by the death on the Overland Line of Mr. Kraagen.

Distance: 636 miles of 1,973 miles.

Pine Creek was not listed as being on the line even as late as September 1872. This omission was surprising because of the gold mining operations in the immediate vicinity especially north at Yam Creek.

The Telegraph Office did however open in November 1873, closed soon after only to reopen in December 1873. It closed again on 19 August 1881 - and then re-opened on 1 September 1884. It then closed so as to merge with the Post Office on 30 September 1889.

Distance: 1,825 miles of 1,973 miles.

Pine Creek showing the Telegraph Station (RHS) and the Standard Hotel - 1870s.

The first station built at Powells Creek was only a temporary hut at because the building materials were still being held at the Roper River. It was a repeater station. A more permanent Telegraph Office was opened on 1 March 1874 with Mr. C. H. Johnson as the Station Master.

Distance: 1,467 miles of 1,973 miles.

Powell Creek SA.
Squared Circle postal date stamp.
12 October 1908.

Southport.

On 4 August 1873 the Argus carried the report "The Southport Telegraph Station has long been finished but there is no operator yet stationed there or at Pine Creek".

The Telegraph Office was finally opened on 21 August 1873. It was the first Office on the line south from Palmerston.

The Telegraph Office at Strangways commenced operation as one of the three repeater stations on the southern section of the line.

By January 1873, the operator at the Strangways Springs was lodged at Messrs. Warren & Hogarth's Station but it was planned to build a station.

Todd was also considering that perhaps it might have been desirable to remove the operator from Strangways Springs to Mount Hamilton which would better divide the distance between Beltana and the Peake.

Distance: 545 miles of 1,973 miles.

Strangways Repeater Station about 1880.
Courtesy Archivist, State Library of South Australia.

The first Telegraph Office built at Tennant Creek was only a wooden hut of three rooms. It was opened on 24 August 1872.

At that time, it had not been decided whether the station should be located there or at Attack Creek. The building materials including galvanized iron for roof and were on the spot.

Tennant Creek was the station to which the first telegrams were sent from Adelaide at the end of June 1872 to be carried to Port Darwin by horse express.

Distance: 1,354 miles of 1,973 miles.

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station about 1900.

Wauchope (Well).

Wauchope (pronounced Walk-up) - and referred to by the locals as "The Wauchope" - is situated about 114 km south of Tennant Creek. It was not established during the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line. Indeed it was not inhabited until mining for Wolfram started in 1938.

The Telegraph Office opened on 1 April 1939 - clearly to serve the mines. It was upgraded to a Post Office on 1 Jult 1952 but then reverted to a Telegraph Office on 1 November 1968. The Office closed on 22 July 1981,

No special date stamp was issued to the Office for use with telegrams. Instead the usual postal date stamp served the principal use for telegrams but also was used for postal articles.

Used: unknown but one strike is known on
28 April 1939 from the manufacturer's proof page.

Size: 38 mm diameter.

Rated: RRR.

No. in the Census: 1.

28 April 1939.

Yam Creek was a small gold mining town which took its name from the contiguous gold-field which bordered Yam Creek.

Yam Creek was about 45 kms from Pine Creek which in turn was about 12 kms from Union Reef. Overall, Union Creek was about 170 kms south-east of Darwin. Mail from Union Reef and Pine Creek would be sent to Yam Creek to be forwarded to Palmerston.

A temporary Telegraph Office opened at Yam Creek shortly before 26 August 1872 for the receipt and dispatch of messages. The Telegraph Office was regarded as being the intermediate station along the Overland Telegraph line between Katherine and Port Darwin.

Construction was completed during January 1873. It was a substantial three-roomed hut built of cypress pine and roofed with galvanized iron.

Distance: 1,854 miles of the 1,973 mile line.

For further details on Yam Creek see elsewhere.

Yam Creek Telegraph Office about 1879.
Source: State Library of SA B5788.

21 August 1882.

A telegram to AAP in Adelaide of 30 August 1872 noted that "an auriferous reef has been discovered near the telegraph station at Yam Creek and is traced for a distance of three miles. Gold is visible to the naked eye within a radius of 150 yards of Yam Creek. Ten claims have been taken up and pegged out".

The Northern Australian of 16 April 1887 reported on a petition from the residents of the goldfields districts to the Acting Government Resident in Palmerston:

"We, the undersigned, your humble petitioners, residents of thc goldfields districts, sheweth :

That in December, 1884, the Government offered for sale by public auction certain allotments of the township of Burrundie and, as an extra inducement to intending purchasers, promised to remove from the Shackle to that township the Warden's office and the police and telegraph stations.

That the Warden's office and police station have thereto been removed, but not the telegraph office.

That the telegraph office at the Shackle is six miles from the nearest township and is the only office on the goldfields and that it is not situated on a public thoroughfare. That the mines employing the greatest amount of labour are situated to the south of Burrundie, which is on a public thoroughfare and is the terminus of the weekly mail service.

That to facilitate the police in matter of crime, it is desireable that the central up-country police station at Burrundie should be in direct communication with the chief office, Palmerston, as well as with the Katherine.

That there is no medical practitioner nearer than Palmerston, so that in cases of alarming symptoms, the doctor in Palmerston could be communicated with by telegraph.

That for the present year, the Government need not incur the outlay of building a telegraph station at Burrundie as the doctor's and Warden's quarters being in disuse might be utilized for the present. That the loss of time, great expense and inconvenience suffered by the public is inconceivable.

Your memorialists, therefore, humbly pray that you will be pleased to use your utmost influence with the Government in procuring the removal of the telegraph station at the Shackle to Burrundie".