A most informative interview was published in the West Australian on 7 November 1890 with Mr. A. B. Wright the construction of the recently finished telegraph line from Hall's Creek to Wyndham, the second half of the line which connects East and West Kimberley with each other and with the southern portion of Western Australia.
"Not only had Mr. Wright to face the trials and difficulties which invariably present themselves to those engaged in the work of opening up and developing new and partly settled districts, where the most ordinary conveniences of life are almost unknown, where privations are as many as comforts, are few, and the dangers to be apprehended from the aboriginal holders of the soil,are not to be despised, but owing to various causes his undertaking has proved a very heavy loss to him, and to those who were associated, to some extent, with him in it. Some idea of the troublous times Mr. Wright has passed through will be gathered from what is given hereunder, but as he purposes taking certain steps with regard to the losses he has sustained, he is naturally somewhat reticent with regard to some of the particulars of his experiences.
Mr. Wright's tender for the work was for £6,900, and was accepted by the Government, who were to supply poles, wires, insulators, etc. He provided himself with the necessary plant for his work, and made arrangements for the conveyance, from Derby to Hall's Creek and onwards, of the material which the Government were to supply to him. The preparations for the conveyance of this material were, necessarily, very costly. A large part of the route marked by the survey party lay across extremely rough country steep ranges of hills, studded with huge boulders and rooks, and presenting no small amount of difficulty in the way of the telegraph party. Both bullocks and horses had to be used to convey the wire, poles, insulators, tools, provisions, etc, and Mr. Wright says that sometimes as many as l8 or 20 horses, or even 30 or 40 bullocks were employed in hauling the loads up the steep places.
He commenced work on the 14th of August, 1888, and worked up to the 17th of December, that year, when he had to go into camp, for the wet season which was then setting in. This and other delays prevented his resuming work till about the following July. When he first made preparations for the work, they involved arrangements with carters for the conveyance of the material. This, however, did not arrive up to time, and when it did reach Kimberley, the teams were no longer available for hire, being engaged after the wet season in the conveyance of machinery to the goldfields. To make up for the detention which, therefore, arose out of insufficient conveyances, Mr. Wright went on with clearing the lines and sinking the poles, leaving the erection of the wire until later on. After the 'clearing and sinking' were finished, there remained some time before the wire would be available for erection, and Mr. Wright and his men having reached Wyndham, employed themselves with odd jobs for a while and, near the end of April of this year, they were able to get on with the telegraph line again, and finished through to Hall's Creek about the middle of July.
Some of the difficulties experienced in the work of erecting the line, have already been referred to, such as the intervention of the wet season, and the delay in the arrival of the material, but one of the worst the party had to contend with, was the interference of the natives. Owing to the frequency with which the wire was broken and carried away by the blackfellows - on one occasion they moved upwards of a mile of it for spear-heads, they were constantly at work repairing the damage done. The men and boys were often seen climbing up the poles and breaking the wire, but those who saw them were unable to capture them, as they were too quick in their movements, and the rocky country and the tall grass which grows in those parts favoured their escape.
From Wyndham to Hall's Creek the distance is about 212 miles and, as already said, much of the route lies through rough country. To a certain extent, it follows along the new road between the two places - a better one in many respects than the old, as in some of the steep parts of the last named track, between the O'Donnell and Carr-Boyd Bangea, it used to be found necessary, at times, to let the carts down the steep places with blocks and tackles, to minimise the danger of a capsize and a roll down to the bottom, a danger which more than one team has experienced. The place where these mishaps occurred is known by the expressive but ugly name of Hell's Gates. The line crosses several rivers, the Ord being the largest, and for the rest of the way it passes through country of the character already described. Whether the best route has been chosen is a matter of opinion, but there are some who consider - we are not here quoting Mr. Wright's opinion - that some of the rougher parts might have been avoided.
It cannot be said at present, that the telegraph will serve many people. The number of the population at Hall's Creek is ridiculously small, being under a score. These consist of some nine or ten Government officials, five storekeepers and publicans, and four or five fossickers. From the Creek on to Wyndham there are the Turkey Creek public house, and about 4½ miles from the line, one or two mines on the Panton. There are also several stations between 100 miles and 150 miles off, such as the Ord River Station, Durack Bros, Guilfoyle's and one or two others. There are outlying places such as Ruby Creek, 15 miles off the route which the line would serve, but taking both the pastoralists and the fields population, the line appears likely to have but few supporters, unless times vastly improve. Of the number of pastoralists whom it will serve, some indication has already been given; the fields population has rapidly decreased since the recent Oakover and Ashburton discoveries were made. Men have been constantly leaving the precarious livelihood they were making, for the sake of the better living which it seemed to them could be made at the later found fields. Sometimes a draft of between 20 and 30 would leave at once, and thus it happens that at the present time, there cannot be" more than a hundred whom the line would serve, and probably the number is considerably less. Of these, a good many are mere fossickers. The amount of traffic to be obtained from those whom the line was erected to serve, is not difficult to arrive at.
Some allusion was recently made in these columns to the kind of wire used on this line. Both from Derby to Hall's Creek and thence to Wyndham, a thin copper wire of the same gauge as that employed for making the telephone connections from the Exchange to its subscribers, is used. It is stretched on poles, four chains apart, the same as in the more settled parts of the colony. Between Derby and Hall's Creek it has not been strained so tightly as along the rest of the way. The consequence is that it "sags," or dips, to a considerable extent, and, struck by the birds and winds, swings to and fro, and the friction at the insulators occasions frequent breaks in the line. To enable this portion of the line to be worked, in such circumstances as these, would necessitate a staff of linemen to be kept continually at repairs. The experience of the past has been that of frequent interruptions and, as was stated in the WEST AUSTRALIAN some time ago by one of its correspondents at the fields, several of the inhabitants of Hall's Creek actually paid a man themselves to repair the Government line, in order that the few who were there to enjoy the advantages of a costly telegraph line, might commence to reap them. Mr. Wright himself has once repaired the line from Hall's Creek to Derby. From the Creek to Wyndham the breakages, as already shown, are due to different causes. There is less dip in the wire, which has been more tightly strained and consequently there does not arise anything like the friction which has such a disastrous effect upon the older half of the line. The trouble is chiefly due to the attacks made upon it by the natives. The wire is utterly unfit for the purpose for which it is used, and was condemned by high authorities from the very first. The material recognised to be the best is iron and not copper, and of a stronger gauge, and we believe a decision was arrived at to use the copper wire without any previous reference to the Telegraph Department. The line has not yet been handed over to the Government by Mr. Wright owing to certain differences between them and even if it had, the arrangements for working it have yet to be completed. The midway station between Hall's Creek and Wyndham, and that at the latter place, have not been erected, consequently the line - or rather what the natives have left of it - lies idle. The only time that any attempt was made to work it was shortly after the wire was run through. Upon that occasion, an operator at Wyndham was to be seen seated beneath an umbrella - the "station" for the time being - with an instrument in front of him, patiently endeavouring to speak to Hall's Creek, but receiving only certain communications in which he believed he detected indications that the natives were still acquiring fresh material for spearheads.
Had everything been favourable, Mr. Wright considers he would have been able to construct the line in a twelve month: as it was, two years were occupied in the work. As already stated, he suffered from various delays, and from the interference of the natives, and it is not surprising that the undertaking has resulted a loss to him as well as to the Government, who have on their hands a line regarded as useless owing to the weakness of the wire, and to there being no receiving stations. The natives would not, however, have been so troublesome, he says, had his proposal that his men should be sworn in as special constables been accepted. Instead of agreeing to it, the Government refused, and only the regular police were available, who were, he says, useless in the work of catching natives in the rough country, where native trackers are mostly wanted. Before he left Wyndham he was entertained by the residents at a banquet, and presented with an address, in which mention was made of the difficulties he had been compelled to meet, and a wish was expressed that it had proved a profitable undertaking.
Besides losing on the construction of the line itself, Mr. Wright found it impossible to dispose of his plant at Wyndham owing to the general depression which existed there. He was obliged to bring it down to Derby, where he sold his bullocks and as much of his plant as possible, but at a perfect sacrifice. The horses he sent on to Roebourne to be disposed of there. Of the country generally he speaks in very good terms. Without professing to give an expert's opinion on the goldfields, he appears to believe in them, or rather that Kimberley will yet prove a thoroughly payable gold field. He also seems to have come across some excellent pasturage during his travels, such places as the Denham, where the police camp is situated, and also the Fletcher being specially marked on account of their excellent feed and permanent water".