Talk:Australian Overland Telegraph Line

earlier comments

Several things about this article aren't right.

For example

1. Why AustralianOverland Telegraph line? Are there others elsewhere? I'm not aware of any. I recommend deleting "Australian" from the title

I support this recommendation - would make a search more likely to hit Geez-oz (talk) 11:41, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

2. The Overland Telegraph (OT) did not include the line from Western Australia to South Australia which was completed in 1877. That line was an important part of the Australian telegraph system which developed in the C19, but it was never widely considered to be part of the OT. This part of the article needs to be tidied up so that the errors are removed and ambiguities clarified.

Agreed, the SA to WA was a seperate project and operation, suggest a reference to the EW Telegraph, a separate article would be appropriate Geez-oz (talk) 11:41, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

3. The caption on the illustration at the top of the article is misleading: where is "Carpentaria" and was the Queensland line ever officially or unofficially known as the Overland Telegraph?

Shortshadow 14:36, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Film

There's also a 1951 film by the same title as this article. -Mardus 02:48, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

When did it end?

The article doesn't appear clear about when operations ceased on the telegraph line. The first sentence states that it "was". It would improve the article if the end of the line was detailed.--TGC55 (talk) 20:57, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Change of Map image

I have sourced two historical maps of the Central Australia Telegraph [File:Map - South Aust. Communications to Europe.jpg] and [File:Map NT - Line of Telegraph 1919.jpg], i suggest that they provide good historical context and could replace the map on the article page, Comments please. Geez-oz (talk) 11:41, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

See Govt Site.

See this site for some good info. http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/overland-telegraph

• International line was cut in 1942, and never used again. Some stretches of the OLT were used until 1970s.
• OLT was the greatest comms achievement. Telstra T2 and T3 stock issues were the greatest comms disasters!
• PMG took over all postal services in 1901. I cannot find the date when OLT passed from SA government to Commonwealth control.
• All capitols were joined by wire by 1860. The OLT was a late comer and joined the British wire from Singapore. The hard bit was crossing an open desert with no towns. Inland towns started as repeater stations.220.244.86.70 (talk) 00:39, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Barrow Creek massacre

The previous version of this article included the following claim:

The extreme remoteness of many of the repeater stations also proved a hazard: on Sunday 22 February 1874 Aborigines attacked the station at Barrow Creek, and killed two operators. A policeman stationed there, Samuel Gason, later led a reprisal attack, killing '50 or 60'.

The references provided offer are a page from a "digital learning" timeline ("many" Aborigines were killed in the police manhunt that followed the attack) and a tourist information page that quotes a local publican ("50 or 60"). Contemporaneous reports do not support this and I can find no other reference to it online. It is possible that there is confusion with the later Coniston massacre, a reprisal raid in which between 30 and 70 Aborigines died, which occurred in the same district in 1928. Mqst north (talk) 10:34, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

I have updated the article with additional sources, and placed the "50 or 60" claim in its proper context. Mqst north (talk) 12:02, 16 December 2017 (UTC)