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Historic Engineering Marker - Overland TelegraphPrint Page Print this page

12-September-2014
12-September-2014

Photographs supplied by Graeme Saunders
An Historic Engineering Marker commemorates the Overland Telegraph Line which was constructed from Adelaide to Darwin between 1870 and 1872.  

The Institution of Engineers Australia, through its Heritage Committees, established the Australian Historic Engineering Plaquing Program to acknowledge past engineering achievements and to draw public attention to the significant contributions they have made to society.The Plaquing Program is a means of bringing public recognition to significant historic engineering works and the engineers who created them. The Program is intended to contribute to the conservation of Australian engineering heritage.

Location

Address:Herbert Heritage Drive, Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, Alice Springs, 0870
State:NT
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -23.671057
Long: 133.886239
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:Technology
Sub-Theme:Industry

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:1999
Front Inscription

Historic Engineering Marker

The Overland Telegraph, Adelaide to Darwin, 1872

The 3178 kilometre line was built in less that two years and joined on 22 August 1872.

It linked Australia to an undersea cable from Indonesia that came ashore at Port Darwin and made communication between Australia and the rest of the world possible in hours rather than weeks.  The project was under the direction of Sir Charles Todd, KCMG, MA, FRS, FRAS, FRMS, FSTE, Superintendent of Posts and Telegraphs. The first telegraph messages from overseas were relayed through this station which was first linked to Adelaide on 3 January 1872.

Dedicated by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1999

 

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au