South Australia - Colonial: 1856-1900.
Transmission form: SC-TO-3.

  
General characteristics:

Heading and notes: Message Form No. 6.
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH SOUTH AUSTRALIA spanning Crest.
Message area: 20 boxes in 5 lines.
Reverse side: 17 lines of 4 boxes taking message to 88 words and numbered at left.
Colours (text & form): Black on cream.
Size of form overall: See below
Size of datestamp box: 32 × 26 mm.
Distinctive characteristics of this form:

South Australian Transmission forms are amongst the rarest of all Australian telegram forms.

The form number has here been set as Type 3 in the expectation that other formats will be revealed.

SC-TO-3A
Printed in January 1890.

SC-TO-3A.

Morgan to Adelaide.
19 February 1894.

Characteristics:

  • size is 218 × 221 mm;
  • heading is 149 mm wide;
  • "ELECTRIC" extends under "FORM" above;
  • heading finishes with a square full stop;
  • lower case "b" in schedule number.

This form was made available in books of 100 as is indicated in the schedule number at the lower left.
SC-TO-3B
Printed in September 1891.

SC-TO-3B.

Morgan to Milang.
23 February 1894.

Characteristics:

  • size is 223 × 221 mm;
  • heading is 162 mm wide and letters are larger;
  • "ELECTRIC" extends under "No." above;
  • heading finishes with a round full stop;
  • upper case "B" in schedule number.

This form was also made available in books of 100 as is indicated in the schedule number at the lower left.

 
SC-TO-3
Printed in February 1892.		 SC-TO-3C.

Morgan to Eudunda
(2 February 1894).

Characteristics:

  • size is 193 × 223 mm.
  • heading is 139 mm wide;
  • "ELECTRIC" just reaches to "FORM" above;
  • heading finishes with a square full stop;
  • upper case "B" in schedule number.
Bundles When these forms were discovered, there were two small bundles of forms still tied together with string. They would have been prepared to send to Adelaide for accounting purposes.

Details of use and rarity.

Form
sub-number		 Schedule number Earliest recorded date Rarity rating
TO-3A 3500b.100 - 27-1-90 19 February 1894 at Morgan. RRR
TO-3B 1000B100 - 7-9-91 3 February 1894 at Morgan. RRR
TO-3C 400000 - 1-2-92 2 February 1894 at Morgan. RRR