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East-West Telegraph LinePrint Page Print this page

East West Telegraph Inscription 2
East West Telegraph Inscription 2

Photographs supplied by Diane Watson

Memorial erected as a tribute to the staff who manned the East-West Telegraph service between 1877 and 1927. The memorial also contains a plaque commemorating the construction of the South Australian portion of the East-West Telegraph Line between 1875 and 1877.

To build the East-West telegraph Line supplies were dropped off at the nearby Eucla Jetty. Then the Post and Telegraph crews began the job of scaling the nearby sand-hills before following the route taken by explorer Edward John Eyre along the tops of the Bunda Cliffs and across the Nullarbor Plain. In South Australia, workers unloaded supplies at Fowlers Bay and began constructing their own telegraph station before branching out West. The West Australians used jarrah while the South Australians opted for tubular metal telegraph poles and at 4pm on the 8th of December 1877, the first telegraphic message flashed across the Nullarbor. Eucla Telegraph Station was the largest station on the 1877 East-West Telegraph line, and acted as a transfer point of telegraphic messages between South Australia and Western Australia from 1896 to 1905, when the operations were amalgamated under the Western Australian Post and Telegraph Department.

Location

Address:Eyre Highway, Eucla Roadhouse, Eucla, 6443
State:WA
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -31.676944
Long: 128.883333
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

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

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:July -1950
Front Inscription

(Plaque 1)
      Erected
As A Tribute
          To
The Staff Who
Manned And Maintained
          The

East - West
Telegraph Service
Between December 1877 & March 1927.

(Plaque 2)
The Establishment Of The
East - West Telegraph Service
   In December 1877
Linked Western Australia
And The Eastern States
     And Through The
North-South Telegraph Line
Between Adelaide & Darwin
    With Great Britain
And The Rest Of The World.

Left Side Inscription

To Commemorate The Construction Of
The South Australian Portion Of The
East-West Telegraph Line 1875 - 1877.
Commenced At Port Augusta On 25 August 1875.
              Completed Via :
Port Lincoln - Telegraph Station Opened 1. 3. 1876
Streaky Bay - Telegraph Station Opened 24.11.1876
Fowlers Bay - Telegraph Station Opened 1.5.1877
Telegraphic Communication Was Effected Between
Adelaide And Perth At 4.00pm On 6 December 1877.

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