The East-West Telegraph - National Engineering Landmark - Mt Laura Homestead Whyalla Norrie, South Australia, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 31-Oct-15. Waypoint GA7755

The East-West Telegraph - National Engineering Landmark - Mt Laura Homestead

The telegraph and the steam engine were the two inventions which had the most profound effects on nineteenth century communications. Of the two it was the telegraph, now overshadowed by the later more powerful technologies of telephone and radio, which had the greater impact on Australian society, business and government, constrained as they were by the "tyranny of distance" in a manner experienced by few other contemporary societies. It was the telegraph which reduced communication times between the Australian colonies from weeks to minutes and between London and the colonies from months to hours. It was this /evolution in communications which paved the way for British investment in the Australian mineral boom of the 1880s and 1890s (which surpassed the mining boom of the 18500) and for the increased commercial and political ties between the Australian colonies which led to Federation. .. The East-West Telegraph joined almost one-third of the continent to a vital communications network with the other Australian Colonies and, through the Overland Telegraph, to the rest of the world. For Charles Todd, it was an essential PA. of his vision " . in the present one of wonders ..." to unite the commercial, administrative, and strategic interests 01 Colonies separated by the (to a European) unimaginable distances of the wide brown laud. By 1900, the statistician T A Coghlan could write: "In no other country in the world has the development of telegraphic communication been so rapid as in Australasia."

Telecommunications Museum

The Telecommunications Museum was opened in November 1997, and contains an historic collection of artefacts covering Australian telecommunications history. The items range from the overland telegraph era (1870) to modern satellite communications. An extensive collection of morse code, telephone, telegraph, radio and associated equipment can be viewed, along with pictorial and three dimensional displays. Also on display are several items from the original overland telegraph line.

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For more information, please see the nomination PDF at the Heritage Register at the Engineers Australia website: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/heritage/east-west-telegraph-perth-adelaide-1877