See also the "telegraph romance" novels.
After its opening in 1870, the Industrial and Technological Museum in Melbourne (later the Science Museum and now part of Museum Victoria) ran a telegraphy course that became so popular with women that a separate class for ʻGentlemenʼ was introduced.
In 1874 the Ballarat School of Mines (now the University of Ballarat) began to admit women students to its telegraphy course.[17]
"The experiment of employing ladies in the Post and Telegraph Department has been attended with very significant results. Not only have the Government been able to afford many deserving women the opportunity of earning a respectable maintenance for themselves and the families dependent upon them, but a considerable saving has been effected. In every case where a Post and Telegraph mistress has been appointed to take charge of a station, she receives a much smaller salary than would have been given to a male official. Telegraph Offices have been opened at several places such as Birregurra, Winchelsea and Brighton where the amount of business would not have justified the appointment of a telegraph master. No reduction has taken place in the remuneration of operators since 1860 and the Government have recently issued a departmental order authorising the payment of a bonus in some cases amounting to 50% upon the salaries paid to officers of either sex who have shown ability and energy".
The South Australian Chronicle of 27 June 1874 referenced the note in the Perth Inquirer which had stated that "on the line of telegraph between the Western Australian metropolis and Champion Bay, all the operators are females and that one of them is a half-caste native, trained and educated at the New Noroia Mission. She mastered the code with the greatest ease and is one of the smartest telegraphists of the department".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_telegraphy#Women_telegraphers_in_Australia
Not bad workers but not as good as men 1880 Vic Report p.22.
The Post and Telegraph Department began banning the appointment of married women to offices that had residences attached to them in 1892. Married women employed in the Department were dismissed in 1896.
The Brisbane Courier on 7 November 1889 reported on an exchange in the House on the Estimates, Mr. Donaldson presented the considerations of the Postmaster-General. In part they discussed the reply by Mr. Donaldson as to the employment of women:
"Mr. Donaldson's reply as to the employment of women in the Telegraph Department was not satisfactory. Surely there ia some mistake as to women not being a success in the Southern colonies. In America, in Great Britain, in Prance, women have approved themselves the most expert and trustworthy of operators and even of counter clerks, and we are quite certain that there would be far less of "leakage" of confidential news than now unhappily prevails, and which threatens to become a public scandal. Moreover, why should not our Post and Telegraph Office offer a career to the young women of Queensland as the corresponding departments do in other countries?"
Margaret, Susan (2001) Passions of the First Wave of Feminists, books.google.com.au/books?isbn=0868407801
***** See also Louisa Dunkley http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dunkley-louisa-margaret-6047
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